Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Listen to the Voice...
So my little brother, Ryan, had to do a project for his English high school class based upon a quote of his choosing. I don't know what the point of the assignment was or anything, but he came to me to help him put together a neat composite in photoshop for him. Always looking for an excuse to play around with graphics, I agreed to help. Below is what I put together in a few minutes as Ryan told me what he wanted to do. He gave the orders and I clicked the mouse to make it happen! Anyhow, here's his project (click on the image for a slightly larger version).
Rudolph vs. Rude Dog
Beth: good thing I have Rudulph
Beth: dolph
Rick: ....yes.... uhh... lucky you
Beth: or.. Rudolf
Rick: or Roodolph
Beth: ROO Dog
Rick: Rude Dog
Rick: remember him?
Beth: yeah
Beth: those t-shirts
Beth: never had one
Rick: I wonder who would win in a fight between rude dog and rudolph.....
Beth: ?
Rick: I think Rude Dog would win because he had those bitchin' shades. With them he'd be able to counteract rudolph's blinding nose.
Beth: BUT.. rudolph could do dive bombs
Beth: because he can FLY
Rick: good point....
Beth: like Crouching Dragon
Rick: Hidden Rudolph
Beth: dolph
Rick: ....yes.... uhh... lucky you
Beth: or.. Rudolf
Rick: or Roodolph
Beth: ROO Dog
Rick: Rude Dog
Rick: remember him?
Beth: yeah
Beth: those t-shirts
Beth: never had one
Rick: I wonder who would win in a fight between rude dog and rudolph.....
Beth: ?
Rick: I think Rude Dog would win because he had those bitchin' shades. With them he'd be able to counteract rudolph's blinding nose.
Beth: BUT.. rudolph could do dive bombs
Beth: because he can FLY
Rick: good point....
Beth: like Crouching Dragon
Rick: Hidden Rudolph
Now, On a Positive Note
Since yesterday I focused on one of the assholes in my life, I thought today I would focus on one of the special people of my life--Kristin. While I was up visiting her and her family this last weekend, I had the pleasure of getting to decorate her house with Christmas ornaments. In the past I've done Christmas decorating with my family at my house on and off, but finally getting to do some decorating with Kristin on our third Christmas together was really fun for me.
Sorting though her family's ornaments and seeing the neat things that her family had to put up reminded me of all of my family's Christmas ornaments that we weren't going to be putting up this year. After the holidays last year my mom went out and bought a gigantic 9 or 10 foot tall pre-lighted Christmas tree to put in our addition. When she bought this tree she also bought a bunch of specific ornaments that were to go with the tree. Since our old tree was then being retired, all of the Christmas ornaments we usually put up had nowhere to go, which is sad for me.
Thankfully, I had Kristin's tree to help decorate, and decorate we did! To remember the experience, Kristin's mom happily snapped the photo below. It will always help me to remember the first Christmas where Kristin and I decorated for the holidays together. Being able to remember this positive memory will hopefully help me to forget the hate that my uncle showed for us over the same holiday period. Thanks for a fun day of decorating, Kristin! I loved it.
Sorting though her family's ornaments and seeing the neat things that her family had to put up reminded me of all of my family's Christmas ornaments that we weren't going to be putting up this year. After the holidays last year my mom went out and bought a gigantic 9 or 10 foot tall pre-lighted Christmas tree to put in our addition. When she bought this tree she also bought a bunch of specific ornaments that were to go with the tree. Since our old tree was then being retired, all of the Christmas ornaments we usually put up had nowhere to go, which is sad for me.
Thankfully, I had Kristin's tree to help decorate, and decorate we did! To remember the experience, Kristin's mom happily snapped the photo below. It will always help me to remember the first Christmas where Kristin and I decorated for the holidays together. Being able to remember this positive memory will hopefully help me to forget the hate that my uncle showed for us over the same holiday period. Thanks for a fun day of decorating, Kristin! I loved it.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Thanksgiving = Hate?
I would have never imagined that a holiday such as Thanksgiving, a holiday focused on being thankful, could be turned into a day of pain, hurt, sadness, and uncaring. This year, thanks to the assclown that I have for an uncle, our Thanksgiving evening was turned into a nightmare after it started out as a wonderful, peaceful time for my family to spend with one another.
Before we started eating a spectacular meal of macaroni & cheese, crescent rolls, pickles, and strawberry pretzel desert, my uncle Dave on my mom's side thought he should call us. Before he called, my brothers, my parents, and myself were all having a great time snacking, talking, and simply enjoying each other's company and the calm of the holiday. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it gets hard to find time to simply just sit and be in someone's company for an extended amount of time, and because of this we were all treasuring the moment.
As we were enjoying the evening, my uncle Dave on my mom's side thought he should call. No, wait, actually he informed us he was told to call my mother by my grandmother. When my grandma actually arrived at our place we found out that, no, actually my grandma had requested that they come down to visit with my family sometime because there have been some extended family troubles as of late. Instead of doing that, he twisted her words into a freshly formed lie and claimed that my grandma told him to call.
Now I don't really know much about what was said between my mother and my uncle on the phone, but I had to deal with the aftermath--a mother in tears wondering how her brother could be such a hateful, uncaring person. It took all of my self-restraint not to get on the phone and tell my uncle what a rotten piece of shit he was for doing something so spiteful and malicious on a holiday supposedly based upon caring and giving thanks. Apparently to him thanksgiving translates into "I'll Make My Relatives Day Really Shitty"-giving.
From what my mother and father told me, my uncle also singled me out as being a terrible person who has done nothing but cause strife for our family. By causing strife, I'm assuming he means "pointing out the truth about his character, which he doesn't like so he'll throw a hissy fit about it". I know there's a lot of details being left out here, but the main thing is, I was completely appalled at what my uncle did. If he really had the urge to be a complete jerkface to my mother, couldn't he have at least maybe waited until the holiday was over? No, of course not, because that might actually be considerate.
What also gets me is that he feels the need to slam me and put me down to other members of my family, but he lacks the cahones to actually speak to me. Am I really that intimidating? Possibly, but I doubt it. What I think it is, is that he just wants someone to talk smack about without actually having to talk to him.
To complicate matters, my uncle is my Godparent... well, at least he used to be. I've stopped thinking of him in that light. You don't talk shit about your Godson and tell your relatives that you never want to see him again. No, my uncle in no longer a Godparent to me. He's simply a judgmental ass who makes his judgments based only on assumptions, half-truths, and his own biases without taking into account how it affects anyone outside of himself.
I really hate knowing that I'm related to someone who is like this, and who is setting a horrible example for his own children, but it's one of the cards I've been dealt. Seeing how this card really has no place in my hand, I choose to discard it. Maybe I'll pick up something better the next time it's my turn to draw.
Before we started eating a spectacular meal of macaroni & cheese, crescent rolls, pickles, and strawberry pretzel desert, my uncle Dave on my mom's side thought he should call us. Before he called, my brothers, my parents, and myself were all having a great time snacking, talking, and simply enjoying each other's company and the calm of the holiday. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it gets hard to find time to simply just sit and be in someone's company for an extended amount of time, and because of this we were all treasuring the moment.
As we were enjoying the evening, my uncle Dave on my mom's side thought he should call. No, wait, actually he informed us he was told to call my mother by my grandmother. When my grandma actually arrived at our place we found out that, no, actually my grandma had requested that they come down to visit with my family sometime because there have been some extended family troubles as of late. Instead of doing that, he twisted her words into a freshly formed lie and claimed that my grandma told him to call.
Now I don't really know much about what was said between my mother and my uncle on the phone, but I had to deal with the aftermath--a mother in tears wondering how her brother could be such a hateful, uncaring person. It took all of my self-restraint not to get on the phone and tell my uncle what a rotten piece of shit he was for doing something so spiteful and malicious on a holiday supposedly based upon caring and giving thanks. Apparently to him thanksgiving translates into "I'll Make My Relatives Day Really Shitty"-giving.
From what my mother and father told me, my uncle also singled me out as being a terrible person who has done nothing but cause strife for our family. By causing strife, I'm assuming he means "pointing out the truth about his character, which he doesn't like so he'll throw a hissy fit about it". I know there's a lot of details being left out here, but the main thing is, I was completely appalled at what my uncle did. If he really had the urge to be a complete jerkface to my mother, couldn't he have at least maybe waited until the holiday was over? No, of course not, because that might actually be considerate.
What also gets me is that he feels the need to slam me and put me down to other members of my family, but he lacks the cahones to actually speak to me. Am I really that intimidating? Possibly, but I doubt it. What I think it is, is that he just wants someone to talk smack about without actually having to talk to him.
To complicate matters, my uncle is my Godparent... well, at least he used to be. I've stopped thinking of him in that light. You don't talk shit about your Godson and tell your relatives that you never want to see him again. No, my uncle in no longer a Godparent to me. He's simply a judgmental ass who makes his judgments based only on assumptions, half-truths, and his own biases without taking into account how it affects anyone outside of himself.
I really hate knowing that I'm related to someone who is like this, and who is setting a horrible example for his own children, but it's one of the cards I've been dealt. Seeing how this card really has no place in my hand, I choose to discard it. Maybe I'll pick up something better the next time it's my turn to draw.
Monday, November 29, 2004
Xbox Games that Suck
As I've been going through the vast quantities of junk that I have in order to weed out what I don't need so I can sell it, I found a few Xbox games that I'll be tossing up on ebay because they pretty much sucked.
Gunmetal: This is a really crappy wannabe mech style game. The graphics are pretty subpar for the Xbox and the missions that I played were all quite boring. Many of them simply consisted of "Go to point A, kill something, go to point B, kill something, you win." The missions weren't that fun either, partly because all the enemies were pretty similar (and dumb) and the mech you controlled wasn't all that cool. You only had a few different weapons at your disposal and a couple were only useful against certain targets so it mostly came down to using your default weapons to shoot at things. Boring.
Spawn: I'm a Spawn fan so I was hoping the game would be at least passably fun, but I didn't have my hopes set too high since most licensed games tend to suck a lot, with this being one of those games. The fighting is very repetitive and there isn't too much in the way of different enemies to fight. There's also a good chunk of jumping puzzles which I absolutely hate. Any game that has jumping puzzles in it is bound to get a thumbs down from me. The graphics were only ok and the sound was pretty average as well.
Genma Onimusha: From all of the good reviews that this game got, I was expecting it to be a lot better than it was. First of all, the controls for this game are atrocious! I was consistently frustrated by them and it took me right out of the game. As for the gameplay itself, it's basically Resident Evil except with swords and demons instead of guns and zombies. The save system is also terrible because the length between save points is large and at times you confront a boss right before a save point so if you die you have to start way back before the boss. It would make more sense to have the save point right before the boss so that way you can just restart at the boss instead of way back before it.
Maximum Chase: The driving portions of this game are decently fun, but it's the rail shooter levels that are boring and lame. I actually had a good time on the driving levels, but every time I hit a rail shooter level I wanted to shut the game off or just go do the previous driving level over. The flow of the game is totally killed every time a rail mission comes up. The reason the rail shooter levels suck so much is that some are inordinately hard and some are just annoying because the field of view is constantly shifting making it a real chore to shoot at anything.
Gunmetal: This is a really crappy wannabe mech style game. The graphics are pretty subpar for the Xbox and the missions that I played were all quite boring. Many of them simply consisted of "Go to point A, kill something, go to point B, kill something, you win." The missions weren't that fun either, partly because all the enemies were pretty similar (and dumb) and the mech you controlled wasn't all that cool. You only had a few different weapons at your disposal and a couple were only useful against certain targets so it mostly came down to using your default weapons to shoot at things. Boring.
Spawn: I'm a Spawn fan so I was hoping the game would be at least passably fun, but I didn't have my hopes set too high since most licensed games tend to suck a lot, with this being one of those games. The fighting is very repetitive and there isn't too much in the way of different enemies to fight. There's also a good chunk of jumping puzzles which I absolutely hate. Any game that has jumping puzzles in it is bound to get a thumbs down from me. The graphics were only ok and the sound was pretty average as well.
Genma Onimusha: From all of the good reviews that this game got, I was expecting it to be a lot better than it was. First of all, the controls for this game are atrocious! I was consistently frustrated by them and it took me right out of the game. As for the gameplay itself, it's basically Resident Evil except with swords and demons instead of guns and zombies. The save system is also terrible because the length between save points is large and at times you confront a boss right before a save point so if you die you have to start way back before the boss. It would make more sense to have the save point right before the boss so that way you can just restart at the boss instead of way back before it.
Maximum Chase: The driving portions of this game are decently fun, but it's the rail shooter levels that are boring and lame. I actually had a good time on the driving levels, but every time I hit a rail shooter level I wanted to shut the game off or just go do the previous driving level over. The flow of the game is totally killed every time a rail mission comes up. The reason the rail shooter levels suck so much is that some are inordinately hard and some are just annoying because the field of view is constantly shifting making it a real chore to shoot at anything.
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Thankfulness
I hope that you are all enjoying a wonderful thanksgiving. We had lunch with my extended family on the Gebhardt side and now for the rest of the day it's just my brothers and parents hanging out before my grandma from the Meyer side comes over to visit for supper. Thanksgiving for the last few years has just been my direct family staying at home and being together, but this year we decided to go to the Gebhardt thanksgiving lunch. I always look forward to just being with my family for an entire day, but whatever.
Thanksgiving is always an odd time. During this day I am constantly thinking about how much better I have it than so many other people. It puts a lot of the problems I have into perspective and helps me to realize some of my selfish habits that I would like to change. In the past many of my selfish habits revolved around my want for material things. With the day after thanksgiving being one of the largest shopping days of the year, if not the largest I'm often overcome with my consumeristic nature. For the last four or five years my brothers and I have went to Best Buy at like 4 in the morning on the day after thanksgiving to load up on good deals. This year, I really have no desire to do that. In fact, I have no real desires for material things at all this year. I find I feel almost anti-consumerism.
I've realized that material things don't mean as much as I used to think they did. Sure it was nice to be going out to buy new technological gadgets, video games, movies, and whatever else was appealing, but this year I just don't want any of that stuff. I have a good enough life. I have more than so many people. I have more than I need in most cases, so why do I need more stuff?
This anti-"stuff" sentiment has been ingrained into my heart for a few months now, probably since our basement was flooded. Knowing that we could have lost everything that we had in our basement made me rethink my views on all of the stuff I own. Frankly, I don't need all the junk I have to live a good life and since then I've actually gone through a lot of my crap and have been selling many of the things I don't use on ebay and getting together a pile of clothes and things to give to charity. Why should I hoarde so much for myself when there's so many people just scraping to get by? What makes me so special that I should have so many things that I don't even use and other people don't even have the things they need? Nothing. I'm no better than the next guy, so why not spread the wealth of what I have to those that need it?
Oddly enough, even though I feel I have overcome my consumeristic nature, I still feel a longing for something. I was hoping that once I overcame my longing for "things" that I wouldn't have that aching need anymore, but somehow it's still with me. What is it that I want now? If you know, please tell me because I'm having a hard time figuring out what it is myself.
Even though I am filled with a new sense of longing, I am still thankful for so many things. I have a job, a roof over my head, food on my plate, a great family to live with, and an extrordinary girlfriend. What more could anyone ask for? I have it so unbelievably good that I should have no right to complain about anything. I'm not scraping by just trying to find enough money to eat. I'm not without a home. I'm healthy and not fighting to stay alive. I have it good.
If I have it so good, though, then why do I feel like I want something more?
Thanksgiving is always an odd time. During this day I am constantly thinking about how much better I have it than so many other people. It puts a lot of the problems I have into perspective and helps me to realize some of my selfish habits that I would like to change. In the past many of my selfish habits revolved around my want for material things. With the day after thanksgiving being one of the largest shopping days of the year, if not the largest I'm often overcome with my consumeristic nature. For the last four or five years my brothers and I have went to Best Buy at like 4 in the morning on the day after thanksgiving to load up on good deals. This year, I really have no desire to do that. In fact, I have no real desires for material things at all this year. I find I feel almost anti-consumerism.
I've realized that material things don't mean as much as I used to think they did. Sure it was nice to be going out to buy new technological gadgets, video games, movies, and whatever else was appealing, but this year I just don't want any of that stuff. I have a good enough life. I have more than so many people. I have more than I need in most cases, so why do I need more stuff?
This anti-"stuff" sentiment has been ingrained into my heart for a few months now, probably since our basement was flooded. Knowing that we could have lost everything that we had in our basement made me rethink my views on all of the stuff I own. Frankly, I don't need all the junk I have to live a good life and since then I've actually gone through a lot of my crap and have been selling many of the things I don't use on ebay and getting together a pile of clothes and things to give to charity. Why should I hoarde so much for myself when there's so many people just scraping to get by? What makes me so special that I should have so many things that I don't even use and other people don't even have the things they need? Nothing. I'm no better than the next guy, so why not spread the wealth of what I have to those that need it?
Oddly enough, even though I feel I have overcome my consumeristic nature, I still feel a longing for something. I was hoping that once I overcame my longing for "things" that I wouldn't have that aching need anymore, but somehow it's still with me. What is it that I want now? If you know, please tell me because I'm having a hard time figuring out what it is myself.
Even though I am filled with a new sense of longing, I am still thankful for so many things. I have a job, a roof over my head, food on my plate, a great family to live with, and an extrordinary girlfriend. What more could anyone ask for? I have it so unbelievably good that I should have no right to complain about anything. I'm not scraping by just trying to find enough money to eat. I'm not without a home. I'm healthy and not fighting to stay alive. I have it good.
If I have it so good, though, then why do I feel like I want something more?
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Artest, I Sympathize
No doubt anyone who follows the NBA (or news in general) has heard about or seen the fight that went down between Ron Artest & company and the Piston fans. If you haven't seen it, here's a torrent of the video for your downloading pleasure.
Of course what Artest, O'Neal, and Jackson did was wrong, dumb, childish, and unsportsmanlike, but I can't help not sympathizing with them at least a little bit. Today's sports fans are getting worse and worse in terms of civility towards the players on the court. Wait, I should clarify, when I say "today's sports fans" I mean the subset of fans that think it is their duty to harass, heckle, and annoy the players they came to watch.
It's amazing that a fan would do something so ridiculous. What made him think it was a good idea to throw a beer on a player from the opposing team? What was the rationale that he used to justify doing something like that? When you go to see a movie, you don't throw your drink on the screen if you don't like the movie. When you go to an art exibit, you don't toss your slurpee on the tapestries on display. When you go to a high school volleyball game, you don't toss a hotdog at the girl who's serving. Why should it be any different for watching a basketball game? They're all forms of entertainment that someone pays to watch.
What paying to watch a basketball game doesn't give you is the right to treat who you're watching like crap. They're out there performing their job (a highly overpaid job, yes, but a job nonetheless). Their job is to entertain you. Now how would that fan like it if someone who he was working for didn't like his work so they verbally berrated him or threw a drink on him? I'm betting he'd be thinking, "What the hell? Why did I just get crap thrown on me? That isn't right or acceptable." That same person, however, has no trouble going to a game and lobbing beer on someone they must have thought wasn't doing their job as best they could.
The more and more I think about it, I sympathize more with Artest & company than I do the crappy ass fans who think they can do whatever the hell they want to simply because they paid for a ticket. People don't verbally degrade you and throw shit at you when you're doing your job Mr. Beer Thrower, so grow up and show the same respect to athletes you came to watch for your entertainment. If you dislike them so much, then don't buy tickets to their games. Stupid ass fans.......
Of course what Artest, O'Neal, and Jackson did was wrong, dumb, childish, and unsportsmanlike, but I can't help not sympathizing with them at least a little bit. Today's sports fans are getting worse and worse in terms of civility towards the players on the court. Wait, I should clarify, when I say "today's sports fans" I mean the subset of fans that think it is their duty to harass, heckle, and annoy the players they came to watch.
It's amazing that a fan would do something so ridiculous. What made him think it was a good idea to throw a beer on a player from the opposing team? What was the rationale that he used to justify doing something like that? When you go to see a movie, you don't throw your drink on the screen if you don't like the movie. When you go to an art exibit, you don't toss your slurpee on the tapestries on display. When you go to a high school volleyball game, you don't toss a hotdog at the girl who's serving. Why should it be any different for watching a basketball game? They're all forms of entertainment that someone pays to watch.
What paying to watch a basketball game doesn't give you is the right to treat who you're watching like crap. They're out there performing their job (a highly overpaid job, yes, but a job nonetheless). Their job is to entertain you. Now how would that fan like it if someone who he was working for didn't like his work so they verbally berrated him or threw a drink on him? I'm betting he'd be thinking, "What the hell? Why did I just get crap thrown on me? That isn't right or acceptable." That same person, however, has no trouble going to a game and lobbing beer on someone they must have thought wasn't doing their job as best they could.
The more and more I think about it, I sympathize more with Artest & company than I do the crappy ass fans who think they can do whatever the hell they want to simply because they paid for a ticket. People don't verbally degrade you and throw shit at you when you're doing your job Mr. Beer Thrower, so grow up and show the same respect to athletes you came to watch for your entertainment. If you dislike them so much, then don't buy tickets to their games. Stupid ass fans.......
Bunnies are so Cute
On my way home from work yesterday I did something terrible, but I couldn't avoid it. I did something gross that I wish wouldn't have happened. I did everything in my power to try to make the best of the situation, but the fates were aligned against me. Last night as I was driving home I killed a bunny.
I know, I know, I'm a totally horrible person and I was saddened the entire rest of the ride home, but that darn little rabbit came shooting out of nowhere. It's about six o'clock so it's dark out, and I'm driving home on my usual route when out of the corner of my eye I see a little, white animal darting out of the ditch. Trying to swere around to miss what I then noticed was a bunny rabbit, I almost avoided him but then I heard and felt the "thunk" from my rear passenger side tire. I had just mushed up a rabbit onto the road.
A lot of people I know would probably say "so what?" but for me I felt really bad for the little guy. Who knows what he was doing running out across the road. What if he was being chased by a fox, running for his life. The only thing on his mind at the time was how he was going to get away from the fox so that he didn't get eaten when all of the sudden BAM! his life is over. He was so busy avoiding that fox that in the process of trying to save his life, he lost it.
Or maybe he was actually dared by his little bunny friends to jump out in front of my car. "Hey, Brad, I bet you could totally run across the road in front of this car, dude. In fact, I'll bet you two carrots and half a head of cabbage that you can do it," said Brad the bunny's troublemaking friend. Not wanting to turn down a dare and look like a wimp, Brad runs out in front of my car only to be splattered on the pavement.
Or what if it was a mother out trying to find one of her lost children? Frightened, wondering where her little baby is she saw the car coming down the road and maybe glanced over to see her son in the opposite ditch. Knowing that he wouldn't know to not run across the road, she bounds over towards him, hoping to get there in time to keep him out of danger. Unfortunately, she doesn't make it and now her children are left to fend for themselves here at the beginning of a cold Minnesota winter.
I felt really, really bad for that hypothetical little baby bunny and his siblings. How would they survive without their mommy? They had depended upon her for guidance, protection, and food. With her gone, those little baby bunnies were more than likely condemned to a slow, cold death or a very hard and trying life over the winter.
Also imagine the trauma they must have faced as they found their mother in pieces at the side of the road, especially for the little bunny she was trying to save. He saw her body decimated by my car's tire. Seeing the cornerstone of your life so suddenly destroyed in front of you... I feel terrible just thinking about it.
For the last 20 minutes of my drive home, these thoughts haunted me. Now that I think about it, I must either really love animals or else I get really, really bored during my commuting. I think it's more than likely a healthy combination of the two.
That poor bunny............
I know, I know, I'm a totally horrible person and I was saddened the entire rest of the ride home, but that darn little rabbit came shooting out of nowhere. It's about six o'clock so it's dark out, and I'm driving home on my usual route when out of the corner of my eye I see a little, white animal darting out of the ditch. Trying to swere around to miss what I then noticed was a bunny rabbit, I almost avoided him but then I heard and felt the "thunk" from my rear passenger side tire. I had just mushed up a rabbit onto the road.
A lot of people I know would probably say "so what?" but for me I felt really bad for the little guy. Who knows what he was doing running out across the road. What if he was being chased by a fox, running for his life. The only thing on his mind at the time was how he was going to get away from the fox so that he didn't get eaten when all of the sudden BAM! his life is over. He was so busy avoiding that fox that in the process of trying to save his life, he lost it.
Or maybe he was actually dared by his little bunny friends to jump out in front of my car. "Hey, Brad, I bet you could totally run across the road in front of this car, dude. In fact, I'll bet you two carrots and half a head of cabbage that you can do it," said Brad the bunny's troublemaking friend. Not wanting to turn down a dare and look like a wimp, Brad runs out in front of my car only to be splattered on the pavement.
Or what if it was a mother out trying to find one of her lost children? Frightened, wondering where her little baby is she saw the car coming down the road and maybe glanced over to see her son in the opposite ditch. Knowing that he wouldn't know to not run across the road, she bounds over towards him, hoping to get there in time to keep him out of danger. Unfortunately, she doesn't make it and now her children are left to fend for themselves here at the beginning of a cold Minnesota winter.
I felt really, really bad for that hypothetical little baby bunny and his siblings. How would they survive without their mommy? They had depended upon her for guidance, protection, and food. With her gone, those little baby bunnies were more than likely condemned to a slow, cold death or a very hard and trying life over the winter.
Also imagine the trauma they must have faced as they found their mother in pieces at the side of the road, especially for the little bunny she was trying to save. He saw her body decimated by my car's tire. Seeing the cornerstone of your life so suddenly destroyed in front of you... I feel terrible just thinking about it.
For the last 20 minutes of my drive home, these thoughts haunted me. Now that I think about it, I must either really love animals or else I get really, really bored during my commuting. I think it's more than likely a healthy combination of the two.
That poor bunny............
Monday, November 22, 2004
Caught a Couple of Movies
Over the weekend I went up to visit Kristin and try to make her feel a little better since she's been fighting bronchitis. I think I succeeded, but you'd have to ask her to make sure :-) Anyhow, while I was up there we managed to catch a few movies. I really hadn't seen too many movies in a while so it was good to catch a couple.
We saw The Bourne Supremacy on Friday night at the cheap seats. I really liked Bourne Identity so I had high hopes for this one... which were kind of met. The story was a lot like the original, but with a couple of added twists. There was some super-spy action, some double-crossing, some mystery, and a big ass car chase at the end.
Then there was also the horrible camera work. Every fight, chunks of the car chase, and even some shots that weren't even action oriented seemed to be shot by some random guy who just figured out how to use his home video camera. It felt almost like they took the movie and ran it through a "Blair Witch" filter in order to make it so that the camera never stood still. Part of me wanted to get up during the middle of the movie and tell whoever was shaking the camera to knock it the heck off!
Sigh... beyond that frustrating aspect, I thought the movie was pretty good and it kept my attention for the full two hours it ran.
On Sunday we finally went to see the Incredibles. I'd been wanting to see this movie for a long time simply because the combination of superheroes, Pixar, and comedy seemed like it couldn't fail and it didn't... for the most part. The opening short was cute, so it started on a very positive note. The first half of the actual movie, however, was pretty slow and even a little boring. I thought for sure that I was in for a gigantic letdown, but fortunately the second half of the movie was much, MUCH better than the first. The best moments in the movie came when the Incredible family was working as a superhero team. Many of the family moments and Mr. Incredible's longing for superhero life moments and superheroes as everyday Joes moments and any other moments not involving the superhero team, I guess, just fell flat.
Lastly, we watched The Other Sister on TBS Saturday night. I was somewhat torn with this movie. It was obviously manipulating its viewers emotions by the way it was plotted and the interaction of the characters, yet I still enjoyed it despite knowing I was being manipulated. The Other Sister is a story of two mentally handicapped young adults falling in love with each other and the struggles that would be confronted in such a situation.
I was actually intrigued throughout the movie to see how the writers scripted the reactions of the two mentally handicapped characters to every day types of relationship problems that we face. It was interesting to see the difference (and similarity) of how situations were handled. Anyhow, I thought it was a pretty decent movie.
[UPDATE: I forgot that we also watched Matilda while we were cooking on Saturday (Kristin made some awesome homemade spaghetti). For being a little kids movie, I found it very charming and quite enjoyable. The main reason it was so fun was that the characters were all interesting. Matilda herself was a little cutie and you couldn't help but like her. The evil headmistress of the school was so over-the-top evil that it was a perfect mirror for Matilda's sweet character. Danny de Vito played a hilarious crook come father of Matilda and many of the scenes involving him were my favorites of the movie. Basically if it wasn't for the extremely interesting characters, this movie would have been pretty lackluster.]
We saw The Bourne Supremacy on Friday night at the cheap seats. I really liked Bourne Identity so I had high hopes for this one... which were kind of met. The story was a lot like the original, but with a couple of added twists. There was some super-spy action, some double-crossing, some mystery, and a big ass car chase at the end.
Then there was also the horrible camera work. Every fight, chunks of the car chase, and even some shots that weren't even action oriented seemed to be shot by some random guy who just figured out how to use his home video camera. It felt almost like they took the movie and ran it through a "Blair Witch" filter in order to make it so that the camera never stood still. Part of me wanted to get up during the middle of the movie and tell whoever was shaking the camera to knock it the heck off!
Sigh... beyond that frustrating aspect, I thought the movie was pretty good and it kept my attention for the full two hours it ran.
On Sunday we finally went to see the Incredibles. I'd been wanting to see this movie for a long time simply because the combination of superheroes, Pixar, and comedy seemed like it couldn't fail and it didn't... for the most part. The opening short was cute, so it started on a very positive note. The first half of the actual movie, however, was pretty slow and even a little boring. I thought for sure that I was in for a gigantic letdown, but fortunately the second half of the movie was much, MUCH better than the first. The best moments in the movie came when the Incredible family was working as a superhero team. Many of the family moments and Mr. Incredible's longing for superhero life moments and superheroes as everyday Joes moments and any other moments not involving the superhero team, I guess, just fell flat.
Lastly, we watched The Other Sister on TBS Saturday night. I was somewhat torn with this movie. It was obviously manipulating its viewers emotions by the way it was plotted and the interaction of the characters, yet I still enjoyed it despite knowing I was being manipulated. The Other Sister is a story of two mentally handicapped young adults falling in love with each other and the struggles that would be confronted in such a situation.
I was actually intrigued throughout the movie to see how the writers scripted the reactions of the two mentally handicapped characters to every day types of relationship problems that we face. It was interesting to see the difference (and similarity) of how situations were handled. Anyhow, I thought it was a pretty decent movie.
[UPDATE: I forgot that we also watched Matilda while we were cooking on Saturday (Kristin made some awesome homemade spaghetti). For being a little kids movie, I found it very charming and quite enjoyable. The main reason it was so fun was that the characters were all interesting. Matilda herself was a little cutie and you couldn't help but like her. The evil headmistress of the school was so over-the-top evil that it was a perfect mirror for Matilda's sweet character. Danny de Vito played a hilarious crook come father of Matilda and many of the scenes involving him were my favorites of the movie. Basically if it wasn't for the extremely interesting characters, this movie would have been pretty lackluster.]
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Stick Me Back in a Tractor
Oddly enough as I've been driving to and from work I've been longing to be back out in the fields doing some of the farm work I've done in the past. From the driver's seat of my car I see so many of my neighbors (I live in a farming community) out in the fields harvesting, plowing, ripping, applying fertilizer, or whatever needs to be done in a particular field. I used to dread doing farm work, but now that I'm no longer forced to do it, I feel a little bit of longing in the back of my heart for the job of my father.
I'm not going to complain too much about my job. It provides me with a steady paycheck, good benefits, nice co-workers, and a job I can handle. Still, though, I sometimes wish it were possible to just take a month or so off and go work as a farmer again.
Now I never really had the chance to do many of the interesting jobs during harvest, and I don't know if I'd really enjoy them a ton more than the tasks I did have, but I miss them. Before I'd be bored out of my mind spending 8 hours chopping stalks or plowing a field, but now there are times during the day that I would kill to have that amount of time to just sit and think.
There's also a special feeling I get while working in the fields. Instead of working with a cold, impersonal computer, I get the chance to be surrounded by plants, animals, and life. The connection you get with nature by being in the middle of it, even if it is only a gigantic field of corn, is something that cannot be matched inside of an office.
Maybe someday I can retire and live the farming life again. I've always thought about it and it's always seemed like an interesting path to take. I have a while before I reach that point in my life, so there's no real reason to attempt to figure out my retirement plans now, but it still seems like it might be fun.
I'm not going to complain too much about my job. It provides me with a steady paycheck, good benefits, nice co-workers, and a job I can handle. Still, though, I sometimes wish it were possible to just take a month or so off and go work as a farmer again.
Now I never really had the chance to do many of the interesting jobs during harvest, and I don't know if I'd really enjoy them a ton more than the tasks I did have, but I miss them. Before I'd be bored out of my mind spending 8 hours chopping stalks or plowing a field, but now there are times during the day that I would kill to have that amount of time to just sit and think.
There's also a special feeling I get while working in the fields. Instead of working with a cold, impersonal computer, I get the chance to be surrounded by plants, animals, and life. The connection you get with nature by being in the middle of it, even if it is only a gigantic field of corn, is something that cannot be matched inside of an office.
Maybe someday I can retire and live the farming life again. I've always thought about it and it's always seemed like an interesting path to take. I have a while before I reach that point in my life, so there's no real reason to attempt to figure out my retirement plans now, but it still seems like it might be fun.
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