| Working |
[09 Jul 2009|09:52pm] |
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http://www.abettermanbloomed.com/?p=750#comments I have been working my ass off lately.
I’ve been painting for about 7 1/2 years and this is our busiest summer ever. Considering what many people are dealing with right now I consider myself blessed.
Tired, so tired, but blessed.
God has gazelle intensity (that’s a joke for Dave Ramsey-ites)
- sean
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| Gattaca - Review |
[09 Jul 2009|07:52pm] |
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http://www.abettermanbloomed.com/?p=744#comments I’m still only watching movies that are on video because I can’t afford to go see Transformers or whatever is out in those theatres these days.
Ok this movie was on some “Top Dystopian Future Movies of All Time” list. So I watched it recently.
If you can have a film that is full of such glaring holes as this movie on your top ten list … well I just don’t trust you anymore.
1) The movie was made in 1997 and is set “some time in the near future” yet, in spite of incredible strides in genetics they don’t have SURVEILLANCE CAMERA’S … the “murder mystery” subplot/plot that was fairly important to the whole story would have been solved in about 5 minutes if they had a surveillance camera ANYWHERE.
2) The ID photos used are apparently never updated and are shown only on monochromatic screens.
3) The candidates for space travel are apparently shot into space wearing a suit and tie.
They manage to take a compelling premise and forget to write a story that holds any water. Welcome to Hollywood I guess.
- sean
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| Why is this funny? |
[28 Jun 2009|07:49pm] |
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http://www.abettermanbloomed.com/?p=736#comments
YouTube - We Like Sportz.
I know Justin already posted this but I had to give my e-vote for this video. There is no huge reason this is funny. It’s no “I’m on a Boat.” But there are a million little moments of awkward genious that have kept me quoting this for the past few days (probably annoyingly so).
If you don’t believe me, smell my car.
- sean
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| Rescue Dawn - Review |
[12 Jun 2009|11:28pm] |
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http://www.abettermanbloomed.com/?p=728#comments I finally got around to watching this movie. Before watching it all I knew was that it was a Vietnam POW true story with Christian Bale and Steve Zahn.
Sounds good!
The movie is excellently shot, acted, and is uplifting. I found the story and main character so compelling I got online to find out more. Unfortunately, according to the last living survivor Pisidhi Indradat: “The failure to research and get accurate information resulted in this film being 90% bullshit (mostly untrue).”
I love the parenthetical clarification.
You can go to http://www.rescuedawnthetruth.com/ to check out a list of inaccuracies with various letters and video of people who were portrayed in the film contradicting what was shown.
The thing about it is, they didn’t just take out certain things to streamline the run time, or rearrange certain events to help the narrative, which they do all the time when movies are “based on” or “inspired by” true events.
They actually took out things that would have made the story better. They made one of the men, Gene DeBruin. into an unstable coward, who is against the escape plan formed by Dieter Dengler when in actuality he (and the other prisoners) formulated the plan and made the tools to pull it off before Dieter even got to the camp. Not to mention after the escape Gene decided not to go into the jungle but to return to the camp to care for another prisoner who was too sick to escape.
In the DVD special features the director Werner Herzog (who directed Grizzly Man incidentally) says that DeBruin represents the opposing force in the film. Hey, Werner, here’s an idea. They’re in POW camp in Laos with armed guards. How about you just let them be the opposing force instead of screwing with the reputation of a POW?
Anyway, I’m torn. Because in and of itself the movie is good. Again, the actors are awesome. But in context (the context of “what actually happened”) it’s pretty offensive. So I guess I’m not that torn.
- sean
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| Write this down; I forgot to say this in the Bible. |
[09 Jun 2009|06:10pm] |
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http://www.abettermanbloomed.com/?p=723#comments Good ol’ Don Miller has posted an uncorrected proof of the first 3 chapters of his new book here. These are my two favorite paragraphs:
As a writer of nonfiction I’m supposed to know what life is about, but to be
honest, I don’t. I write books about faith, which only makes the job harder. When you
write books about faith, people read them and expect to hear from God, as though God
calls me on the phone in the morning and says, Write this down; I forgot to say this in the
Bible. I know writers who actually approach their books this way, but none of them has
given God my phone number.
…..
I’m sounding fatalistic.
This isn’t the sort of thing you wanted to read about, I would imagine. Fatalism
and the fact we might just be animals. And I hate saying all this in writing because being
a fatalist and a writer rarely works out. Nietzsche did it with some success, but he is one
of the few. He didn’t have personal success, mind you, because he was a puny loser. But
he is huge with twenty-something intellectuals. He’s the Justin Timberlake of depressed
Germans. And there are a lot of depressed Germans.
It’s been a while since I’ve read Don Miller’s books so I’m still readjusting to the way he writes. Seems pretty good so far though.
- sean
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| Oh lateness. |
[30 May 2009|11:51pm] |
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http://www.abettermanbloomed.com/?p=695#comments So I was going to post about my one year anniversary and I started to write the post about 3 days before. But then I decided just to click “save” and wait until the 24th, finish it, and publish it.
Suffice it to say it is now the 31st and I did not post anything.
Luckily my wife is not the kind of person to be offended or even a little bit upset about it.
Also, we didn’t really “celebrate” our anniversary last Sunday because we’re taking a trip in June.
Anyway, Mikenna is just the best. Spending my days with her has been amazing and I’m so glad she’s around.
We did have a picnic and some ice cream on our anniversary (hooray for being strapped for cash!) and Kenna took a couple of pictures.
This is my favorite:
People always say that this particular shirt is sad or depressing. I don’t really think so, because it’s true. But also, it says not all dreams can come true. Sometimes they do, case in point:
- sean
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| Slumdog Millionaire - Review |
[30 May 2009|12:28am] |
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http://www.abettermanbloomed.com/?p=693#comments I’m going to be one of the few people that didn’t find this movie to be that great.
1) The main plot device, while original, got pretty tired about 2/3rds of the way through the movie.
2) The characters were not compelling. The poverty was compelling and India itself is compelling, but the characters were one dimensional and I found myself emotionally unattached to all of them.
3) The dance scene at the end. I mean, I think it’s some kind of Bollywood reference, but it sure ruined the end of the movie for me.
The best thing about the entire move was how they did the subtitles.
Overall I would say the movie was ok, just not 9 million awards amazing.
If you’re looking for a gut wrenching story of a young boy growing up in the slums, check out City of God. That movie is absolutely incredible.
- sean
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| Dear 88.9 The Impact |
[29 May 2009|05:21pm] |
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http://www.abettermanbloomed.com/?p=690#comments Please stop playing the following songs
1) “Hey You” by 311
This song sounds like something I would have written when I was 16. The musicianship is better than that, but the lyrics … and the big “suprise” that you aren’t singing to a person, you’re singing to music! OMG. So clever.
Stop playing crappy songs like this just because some people still like 311 (why, what have they done this decade?) when you could be playing good songs by lesser known bands.
2) “Shimmer and Shine” by Ben Harper
This song also sounds like something a group of high school kids would record in their basement. The production values are so low I couldn’t even believe it. The only thing that doesn’t sound terrible are the vocals … but they still don’t sound good and the lyrics are so saccharine I want to vomit.
“It takes a thousand miles of love to cure a mile of pain” … blech.
If you stopped playing these songs twice a day you might have more room for songs that are not completely annoying.
Thank you,
- sean
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| Both sides |
[22 May 2009|11:28pm] |
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http://www.abettermanbloomed.com/?p=676#comments There have been a couple of hilarious critiques of Michael Steele on The Daily Show recently. But lest we forget that he is a person, here is a great clip of him encouraging some students to persevere.
Convicting.
- sean
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| no more texting |
[22 May 2009|10:52am] |
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http://www.abettermanbloomed.com/?p=673#comments We blocked texting. I couldn’t take it anymore. We didn’t have it on our plan for a long time, but we’d get the occasional text. It didn’t really matter that much. An extra $.20 here and there is no big deal.
Recently we’ve been getting texts all the time. From people who I didn’t even think like to text. So rather than shell out the extra money every month to join the club, we blocked it.
“Hi, yeah I’d like to block texting.”
“Ok, which number would you like to block?”
“All of them. I don’t want to get a text from anyone. Ever.”
“You don’t ever want to receive a text?” (she said, incredulous)
“Nope.”
Texting is something I just can’t get my head around. To me, the only time texting is actually superior to calling the person you want to talk to, is when you are sending a mass text to a bunch of people for an event or something.
90% of the conversations I have are 2 min or less. If you add up all the time 2 people spend typing out what they want to say and waiting to recieve messages I bet the average text conversation takes more like 5-7 min.
Anyway, I have a bit of an old man attitude about texting and tweeting. I mean, I’m on Twitter, but only because it’s free. If the cell companies ever stop gouging us for sending text then maybe I’ll jump on the bandwagon.
So yeah, if you are trying to communicate with either myself or my wife use voice or internet. We don’t care for you and your fancy texts.
- sean
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| Say what you will NPR is informative |
[15 May 2009|11:18pm] |
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http://www.abettermanbloomed.com/?p=671#comments I’ve been listening to a lot of NPR this week. Here is a list of things you should be aware of:
1) I heard an interview of a woman who had a stroke, but is also a neuroscientist. She described her experience in great detail. I can only describe it as absolutely astonishing and horrifying and fascinating all at the same time. I didn’t at the italics and boldface lightly. If there is a link you click on my blog, let it be this one. This story is just incredible on so many levels. It’s time well spent.
2) Guess what? Kids who grow up with a dog are better at empathizing and relating to other people. Take that haters.
3) A lot of people are realizing that it is, in fact, the Illuminati that are in control because the very second Obama got all that power he started singing the same tune as Bush about a lot of things. Things he railed against during his campaign. Even NPR and the Daily Show are going to town on the guy.
- sean?
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