Cuz We Said So

Summer '07 - Blockbuster 8 - The Simpsons Movie

Not a big fan of "The Simpsons" am I. I have watched many episodes, but almost entirely by chance. I have consistently laughed at them, but not enough to make me want to chisel out a part of my schedule - or put discs on my Netflix queue - to really be a part of the Simpsons frenzy.

So, I went to the movie with a single hope. That I would laugh. And laugh I did. At the pig. At President Schwartzenegger. At Homer and Marge's romantic sequence. At Bart's naked skateboarding. At just about everything. It's really funny.

But I didn't expect to find a touching story in there, too. About Bart losing faith in his Dad, about Marge finally calling Homer on his inability to be a good husband and father, about Lisa finding love. It's a little sappy, but not sappy enough to take the sting out of the jokes. And it gives the collosally weird storyline -- yeah, the EPA are the dome-wielding bad guys -- an emotional grounding that I didn't see coming.

Also, Maggie's first word is pretty funny.

L'Homme Avec le Chapeau à Côté du Cheval

David in Kamloops, BC with Mandy the horse.

"Things I wish I’d known when I was younger"

Adrian Savage at Lifehack.org:

Most people learn over time, but often learning comes too late to be fully useful. There are certainly many things that I know now that would have been extremely useful to me earlier in my life; things that could have saved me from many of the mistakes and hurts I suffered over the years—and most of those that I inflicted on others too.

I don’t buy the romantic notion that my life has been somehow richer or more interesting because of all the times I screwed up; nor that the mistakes were “put” there to help me learn. I made them myself—through ignorance, fear, and a dumb wish to have everyone like me—and life and work would have been less stressful and more enjoyable (and certainly more successful) without them. So here are some of the things I wish I had learned long ago. I hope they may help a few of you avoid the mistakes that I made back then.

His list strikes me as wise.

Why Can't You Have Batteries in Vegas?

Spears' bodyguard cited for battery in Las Vegas

Top 10 "How To" Searches in the United States...

…for the 4 weeks ending 7/21/07, according to TIME.com:

1. How to tie a tie
2. How to have sex
3. How to kiss
4. How to lose weight
5. How to write a resume
6. How to levitate
7. How to draw
8. How to get pregnant
9. How to make out
10. How to make a video

You've really arrived when you can kiss, make out, have sex, and get pregnant while levitating, tying a tie, and making a video.  And what a video it is likely to be!  You’re bound to lose weight making it.

How Many People Here Took a Private Jet?

Asked of the candidates during tonight's Democratic debate.  Video below.

Summer '07 - Blockbuster 7 - HPATDH

Not all blockbusters are movies. And since the first weekend sales of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" pretty much blew away the opening weekend of the movie version of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", it's clear that blocks have been busted.

This will be a short, spoiler-free review to begin, with more detail just a click away.

Rowling decided, with this final book, to do two very specific things with the narrative. The first was to return Harry's pals, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, to prominence in the story. With dozens of characters and plots around every corner, the triumverate of these three school chums became less and less central to the books. For great swaths of this book, it's just those three, working -- and arguing -- together. That was a nice choice.

The second thing she did was to keep Hogwarts in the background for most of the book. That was a daring choice, considering it was so dominant a presence in the six previous volumes. Once we finally do return to the school, it's like coming home again, even if under dire circumstances.

The problems with the Harry Potter books remain problems in this one. The clunky methods for passing on exposition to the reader in particular continue to annoy. Overheard conversations continue to advance the plot of this final book, even as they did the others. Convenience bothers me in fiction, and while there is loss in the story, there are also a number of lucky coincidences that just set my teeth on edge.

But, all in all, a good book. Probably one of the best of the series. (Though I still have a fondness for "Prisoner of Azkaban" and the wonderful lessons of Remus Lupin, pretty much the only professor we ever saw actually teach something useful to the students.)

For more thoughts, and spoilers, read on...

Nick Sagan Remembers His Dad

...in a blog post from June that I only just ran across.  It's an insight into a side of Dr. Sagan most fans and admirers never got to see.

"The Drummer, the Private Eye, and Me"

One man’s tale of how he wrote a story, inspired a song, and 35 years later, went riding with the world’s greatest drummer.

Driving into History

Drive, a series which Fox canceled at high speed earlier this year, made Emmy history last Thursday by becoming the first-ever Primetime Emmy broadband nominee.