Blog of Jeffrey Stuart Martin

Hockey

2010-03-11T21:51:00.003-05:00

Yes, I grew up in Canada, and in a change from my usual anti-stereotype mind-set, I'm willing to admit that this is probably why I have always liked hockey.

It started with my long-time best friend Danny Stoltzfus, who was obsessed with hockey. Visiting his family was where I was first introduced to "Hockey Night in Canada" around the age of 8. I never watched a whole lot of hockey, mostly because I didn't have a TV in my house until I was 24. But it was always cool to watch a game, as long as there wasn't too much fighting.

I don't remember when I started playing "boot hockey", but by the time I was in 7th grade, me and 10-20 other boys at my tiny school played every recess (that's about an hour a day, 5 days a week), through-out the hockey season. This was where I really fell in love with the game. I think it was the low pressure, casualness of the games, combined with the inherent fun of chasing a ball with a stick, and feeling included as one of the guys... Whatever the reason, I LIVED for those recess games.

Skating is a big part of hockey, but I remember many times as a kid wishing I had more opportunities to practice the skill. Many winters I would say to my self, and/or my parents, THIS is the winter I want to go to the arena every week! But I never did. Occasionally, there would be a frozen pond nearby to skate on too, but even so, I never did get to skate as much as I would have liked.

I took a long sabbatical from sports during high school and college. During these 10 years I focused on music. The exception was the year after college, when I moved back to Canada for a year, and lived mostly by myself, without very many friends around. I watched a LOT of TV during that time, and when the Stanley Cup playoffs came around in May, I got really into it. I was especially impressed with 5'9" NHL player Martin St. Louis. Not that I ever had any remote dreams of making it as a professional hockey player, but if someone my size could play pro, there was no reason I should be afraid to brush up on my skills and play again someday. It being the middle of summer then, I went out and bought some roller blades and started cruising up and down the street.

I got distracted again when I moved back to Goshen and got married. I also started singing in a professional choir, and got into filmmaking, both as a hobby with my own camera, and working as crew on other people's films. But the Winter Olympics in Vancouver CANADA, with the promise of exciting hockey to watch, and my entire native country rooting for hockey gold, piqued my interest again. Around the same time, my pastor Karl Shelly got his backyard ice rink up again, and invited people to come play hockey.

Oddly enough, in spite of my lifelong interest in hockey, this winter, at the age of 30, was the first time in my life I actually played hockey ON SKATES! I was a little nervous, but I found it surprisingly easy to combine the two skills. I played 4 or 5 sessions of 3 on 3 hockey on Karl's half-sized rink before spring weather hit. About a week later I realized I wasn't done with this ice-hockey thing, and I started hunting around for an organized league. I found one in South Bend, and was hesitant at first to drive so far, and to invest so much money in equipment and ice fees. But with encouragement from friends and family, I felt myself moving steadily in that direction, and last Saturday finally took the plunge and ordered a full set of hockey equipment.

Practice starts next Sunday, and a few weeks after that, I will be playing my first ever game of REAL, ORGANIZED ICE-HOCKEY!

Four days as a soldier

2009-06-16T07:30:00.003-04:00

Joining the Tamarac Forces just sort of happened. I was on the island working construction on a bridge while the war was brewing. We finished a bridge on Friday, and I was going home Sunday. On Saturday the Tamaracs moved in, and I literally got swept up in the supply chain. Here were brave men, precise and disciplined, marching to put their lives on the line to defend us. I started walking with one of the wagons, and asked if I could help. "Sure," a guy said, and handed me the bag he'd been carrying. "Weird", I thought, and random, but suddenly, I was part of it!

Over the next few days, I helped fill sandbags, dig trenches, and fill more sandbags. At one point a sergeant asked me sharply why I wasn't in uniform. I said I had just joined, and hadn't been issued one. He asked me my name, and an hour later, a PFC marched up and handed me the brown and blue. No rank, but there was my name on the breast pocket, along with Tamarac, H. Co. I hoped it would fit, since my chest was swelling with pride.

I performed the randommest assortment of jobs I'd ever done in my life; I guess no rank made me lowest man, and everyone gave me orders. I was only too happy to comply, and got to see bits of all sorts of operations. "Good thing I'm not a spy," I thought.

By Tuesday, things were really kicking into high gear. Word had come in that the Ren-Paj were on their way, and we weren't quite as ready as we'd hoped we'd be by that point. But the army is good at stepping up the pace, and "on-the-double!" became "on-the-triple!" before you could salute. I got a good assignment that day; delivering a message to Captain Chase on the Western front. That was, of course where the Ren-Paj were supposed to be coming from, so I was excited and nervous about getting closer to the real action. They'd even given me a side arm to carry. I was a good woodsman, (or marshman, as the case was, here), and got to the camp by mid afternoon. I saluted, showed the message, and then I was done. I debated hanging around, but I'd made some friends in Hotel Company, so I started back.

I was about a mile out when I started to hear shooting. I started really booking it, and soon heard shouting too. One more grove of trees, and I could see. But what was I seeing? I could see where our trenches were, and I could see lots of people in brown and blue shooting at each other, but I had no clue who was who, or where the battle lines were. It looked like a backyard water-gun fight, except people were really dying. I started to shake, and began to understand why training was so important for a soldier. Even if I could have figured out who to shoot at, I don't think I could have hit the broad side of a barn. But I was here now, and I'd be damned if I was going to run, or hide.

I started to crawl forward. My eyes aren't the best, and I hoped once I got in closer I might be able to figure out who was who. I got to an old bridge, all overgrown with vines, enough that I could crawl along it without being exposed. Just as I started across, still on my belly, and soldier came pounding pell-mell up the bridge from the other side. He was wearing a Tamarac uniform, but he was weilding an unfamiliar gun. I use the term weilding loosely, since he was firing apparently indescriminantly in all directions, while running. If he'd hit anyone, it was pure lucky chance. Apparently it was an automatic weapon, because when he reached the peak of the bridge he held down the trigger and started a traversing arc. "Shit!" I thought, "it's coming this way!" I pulled my gun out, but I still wasn't sure which side he was on. I debated just putting my head down and hoping his shots would go over me, or that someone else would shoot him, which had to happen soon, since he was standing, completely exposed in the middle of the bridge. I tried this, but then I really couldn't see what was happening, and started shaking even more. I peeked, and saw that his arc was getting closer to me. "Fuck it," I thought, "it's going to be him or me." I lined up my shot, but as I lifted my head to get a better view, his arc finally came around.

Time slowed down. I used to think that was just a figure of speech, but I honestly think it did slow down--either that, or I have a more vivid imagination than I thought, because suddenly I could see his bullet coming towards me. It was just a tiny, bright speck, but surrounded by a balloon of warped air, like heat waves over a campfire. Too bad my body couldn't move as fast as my brain or I could literally have ducked out of the way. As it was, I must have somehow pulled my trigger, because I saw a second bullet, travelling the other way, toward his head.

His one-in-hundreds lucky shot was better than mine though. The bullet went in my neck, taking out my left jugular and windpipe, and exiting between my shoulder blades. (I know, because I could feel it. It didn't hurt though.) The last thing I saw was my bullet ruffling his hair as it missed.

New Moon: Dakota Fanning as Jane (Spoilers)

2009-04-02T18:38:00.002-04:00

I am very much looking forward to the upcoming Twilight film sequel New Moon, scheduled for release Nov. 20, 2009. But I'm not entirely sure I agree with casting Dakota Fanning in the role of Jane*.

Here is a description of Jane from when Bella first sees her in New Moon: "At first I thought it was a young boy.... The body...was slim and adrogynous. But the face was too pretty for a boy. The wide-eyed, full-lipped face would make a Botticelli angel look like a gargoyle." (pg. 456). On the next page, it refers to "the little one called Jane", and later, when Jane smiles, the narration notes that "the expression [makes] her look like an angelic child." (pg. 467).

I will give that Dakota is very sweet and angelic looking, and even happens to have wide eyes and full lips. But I'm less convinced that this budding young woman can be made to look "androgynous", nor that doing so will get any easier the older she gets, nor that the film makers will even try, given that beautiful women tend to be a selling point for Hollywood films.

There is also the issue of her voice**. In New Moon, Bella notices Jane's "childish voice" (pg. 456), and when Jane laughs, "the sound sparkle[s] with delight like a baby's cooing." (pg. 464) In the climax of Breaking Dawn we see another side of her: "Jane let out a high-pitched scream of a snarl."

I just watched a bunch of videos of Dakota Fanning, (including this one) and her voice is not child-like any more (it used to be). It's deep and rich, definitely teenage, and even in the trailer for Push, where her character is more bad-ass, I can't imagine her doing Jane's high-pitched witch-girl scream. Granted, she's an actress, and can probably do a lot to sound more girlish, or more evil, but again, I highly doubt that the director is going to ask her to do that.

I'm not just arguing against this casting choice because I don't like films changing stuff from books. Normally I don't care, or I even side with the filmmakers. I don't care intrinsically if the actress playing Jane is older than she is in the book. What I'm worried about is that she's too old to play the character. Jane's character is defined largely by the fact that she looks and sounds like an innocent child, yet she is the most sadistic of all the vampires. Casting a young woman instead of a girl diminishes the repulsive contrast between Jane's angelic appearance and girlish voice, and her demonic personality.

Is there really that much difference between the innocence of a 10-year-old and that of a 15-year-old? Yes there is; it's called puberty. The obvious signs of womanhood make it impossible to ignore a young woman's sexuality, and in Western culture (the setting for Twilight), sexuality is the opposite of innocence.

I'm sure Dakota Fanning will do a fine job in New Moon. She might even rock Jane's character, instilling fear in our hearts, and putting Jane on a future edition of Entertainment Weekly's Best Villians list. But I will always wonder: could Jane have been even better if they had cast a younger girl?

*In case you missed it, there was a big toodoo about Taylor Lautner continuing in the role of Jacob. Apparently not everyone was convinced that this cute 17-year-old boy could play a 25-year-old, 6' 5" werewolf. I think he'll do just fine, with a little time to bulk up, (which he is doing), and with some help from camera tricks and make-up. He definitely has Jacob's sunny smile, as well as great chemistry with Kristen Stewart (Bella).

**I can think of some pretty innappropriate voices cast in recent films. Even some in which only the actor's voice was cast! Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in LOTR (way too nasally for a great king, let alone a kick-butt ranger), Eddie Izzard as Reepicheep in Prince Caspian (um, he's a mouse, he should have a high, squeaky voice), and Rachel Weisz as Saphira in Eragon (she's a gigantic dragon, but her voice is soft and light).

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Obama's Inauguration Speech

2009-01-21T17:30:00.000-05:00

I think the strongest aspect of Obama's inauguration speech was the positive, unifying things he said. I can't imagine that any American, whether conservative or liberal, would have been turned off by any of the issues he mentioned or implied. He talked about revamping health-care and improving transportation and communication lines across the country. He affirmed the greatness of American democracy (that "all are created equal"), and called for mutual respect between the USA and the Muslim world. Even in referring to the universally unpopular war in Iraq, he spoke not of "winning the war" but of turning power over the the Iraqi people as soon as possible.

At the end of his speech, I wanted a job working for this guy! I hope that even some of his detractors were open-minded enough to see that he is not some crazy, idealistic liberal, but that he is going to work hard to find realistic solutions to the problems facing America today.

The Host

2008-12-28T19:55:00.005-05:00

One of my friends said, "I don't know why I continued reading The Host, because it was so bad!" Now that I've read it, I understand why she disliked it, but also why she kept reading.

The Host is frighteningly similar to Twilight. The main characters are almost identical, the writing style is identical, and even the confusing is-it-well-written-or-not is similar.

While I fell in love with the characters of Twilight, especially Bella, the characters in The Host felt creepy and wrong. The main character drove me crazy, and because her decisions drove most of the plot, that also drove me crazy. Can I say the book is badly written if it can make me crazy, and make me want to continue reading it?

I think history will be the best judge of whether Stephenie Meyer is a good writer, or whether she just wrote in a way that appealed to young people in the early part of this century. For now, I will just say: read Twilight because it rocks, and if you like it, and you love to read, try The Host at your own risk!

PS: My cat liked the book.

I might be an MTV woman

2008-12-19T20:00:00.001-05:00

After my last post, I can't help noting the irony of this article, which suggest that I may in fact be part of the MTV generation, and that I may in fact be a woman.

Generation Y by choice

2008-12-17T22:17:00.001-05:00

I've read a lot of articles lately about "Generation Y", and I've been a little bit surprised to find that I actually fit into this generation. As I write this in the middle of 2008*, Generation Y is often referred to as people "under 30". I will turn 29 in a month, so numerically, I fit, barely, but for a long time I assumed that since I grew up without internet, and cell-phones, as Generation Yers are supposed to have, that I didn't really fit the generation. But what I've realized lately is that over the last 10 or 15 years, as Generation Y has been growing up, I have, along with them, been inducting myself into their generation by defining myself in many of the same terms as they do.

Cell phones: Yers all have cell phones. When I was in college, the only reason I didn't have a cell phone was because I couldn't afford it. But my social life was diverse and fragmented, and it would have been an invaluable asset. (Translation: I wanted one really badly!) I bought my first cell phone in 2003, about the same time many highschoolers were receiving one from their parents, and was immediately obsessed with all its functions. Now, phone two models later, I am on a family plan with my parents (okay, technically, my in-laws, but close enough), I use my camera phone as much as my regular digital camera, and I would be absolutely screwed if I lost the calendar information stored in my phone.

Music: In terms of when I was born, (1979) and the music that was popular when I was growing up, I would technically fit better in the MTV Generation than in Generation Y. When I was in high school, the popular bands were the Spice Girls, and Nirvana. In a way, I still consider this the "music of my youth", but in another way, it totally wasn't. I heard this music from time to time, but it was far from ubiquitous. I didn't go to parties much, I didn't listen to the radio, I didn't buy CDs, and I'm not aware that I ever actually watched MTV. Other than "Wannabe" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit", my familiarity with music of the 90s comes more from a historical perspective. It's only in the last year that I actually sat down and listened to the rest of the albums these songs are from. In other words, the supposed "music of my youth" is actually something I'm just getting to know more than something I grew up listening to.

Films: I like to brag that the first film I ever saw in the theater was The Lion King, in 1996. I was 16. In the next few years, I watched movies every chance I got, which wasn't all that much, because I lived far from the theater (didn't have a car), and didn't have a TV, let alone a VCR. Whenever I did get a chance to watch something, I usually chose a "classic" like E.T., or Star Wars (for the 8 thousandth time). I hit some of the big ones, like Jurassic Park, and later, The Matrix, and my high school English class went to see Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet, but I was still in the dark most of the time, whenever one of my peers referenced...well, pretty much anything from pop culture. It wasn't until after college, when I lived with people who had DVD players, and had a bit of money to buy or rent films that I began to feel caught up on movie culture. So, in a way, I didn't start watching "the latest films" until about 1999, about the same time as then 10-year-olds, from the middle of Generation Y.

Media: As I've been researching modern American generations, I've discovered that all the later ones seem to be defined in large part by pop culture. Obviously there is the name MTV Generation, but even with Generation Y, one of the biggest definers is our comfort with the internet and other electronic media, which, to be honest, we use far more for entertainment than for any other purpose. In 2003 I started reading Entertainment Weekly regularly, and I have read it ever since, both to keep current with popular culture, and to help narrow down my ever-expanding mental list of films to see. One could argue that this falls under the category of studying film because I want to be a filmmaker, but you could say that everyone in Generation Y is a filmmaker. We are the generation that video blogs, and that creates commercials and videos of our science labs in high school. We are also the generation that runs circles around our parents and teachers when it comes to hooking up electronic media devices, and that can figure out how to use any device without reading the manual.

Facebook: Facebook started as a students-only networking site 2 years after I ceased to be a student. I joined MySpace in 2005, but was not able to join Facebook until they opened it to the public a year later. I have never been a 3-hours-a-day user, but I get on almost every day, I use the site to plan social events, and I socialize with more people on Facebook than I do through email and phone combined. The fact that I maintain a MySpace account even though I rarely log in is itself evidence that I consider online networking an important part of my life.

"Liberal": Much of Generation Y has liberal political and social views, including racial "blindness", acceptance of homosexuality, and supporting Obama for President. Goshen College taught me that homosexuality is acceptable (although apparently I am not PC in my terminology), and I support equal marriage rights for people of all sexual identities. I'm not sure that I am racially blind, but I do have strong convictions that racial prejudice is evil and destructive, and I try very hard to ignore race. The thing that makes me feel hypocritical about saying that I am liberal when it comes to race is that I don't actually have very many non-white friends. But I think it's mostly about attitude. I support Obama for President because of his policies. I couldn't care less if he was a hispanic woman, or a white man.

Most members of Generation Y grew up in households wired with high-speed internet, and were handed cell-phones along with the keys to their first car. They go to the movies regularly, keep up with current music trends (then download the best songs to their MP3 players), and organize their social lives around facebook. They have an instinct for technology, and integrate it into their lives. They don't think about equal-opportunity, because acceptance of diversity is deeply integrated into their social consciousness.

My identification with most of these traits has progressed in a somewhat artificial manner, often by choice more than social circumstance. But my age is close, and compared to any other defined generation, I fit best with Generation Y.

*I wrote this article in June 2008, and then forgot to publish it. Better late then never!

Breaking Dawn: Two worlds not colliding

2008-10-09T11:58:00.002-04:00

Critics have theorized that one of the reasons Harry Potter connects to readers so well is that we see the fantastical world of the wizards through the eyes of an outsider. Harry did not grow up in the wizarding world, so he is constantly encountering new and amazing things, which Ron and Hermione explain to him, and incidentally, to us, the readers.

The first book in the Twilight series is similar: we see Edward through Bella's eyes, and with her, we are awed by his mysteriousness, and his exotic beauty. The wonder continues as she delves deeper and deeper into his world.

But things begin to change as the series progresses. The further Bella goes into the world of vampires, the less time the books spend looking at this world through human eyes. And slowly, inevitably, sadly, by the time we get to Breaking Dawn, the vampire world has become almost mundane.

I think this is why the chapters about J Jenks are some of my favorites in Breaking Dawn. In a sea of vampire mythology, they reconnect us with the human world, and allow me to once again marvel at how strange it would be to meet a vampire.

Presidential candidates: who they are vs. what they'll do

2008-09-14T12:57:00.006-04:00

I've been trying to figure out what the big deal is about McCain having been a POW. Why does he think that telling his story over and over again will get him elected?

My theory is that while Democrats are concerned about what a candidate will do if they are elected, Republicans are more concerned with who a candidate is.

Republicans believe that McCain having survived being a POW means his character is strong and resilient. Logically, he will be strong and resilient when facing America's "enemies." As far as who Obama is, Republicans have slammed him for being young and hopeful, character traits that logically will make him susceptible to being duped by America's enemies. Republicans have even gone so far as to lie that Obama is a Muslim, and therefore logically in league with America's enemies.

Democrats believe that Obama will do things to change what is currently bad about America. They believe he will stop the war in Iraq. They believe he will support universal health care, and help ordinary Americans live environmentally friendly lives. Since McCain doesn't talk about what he's planning to do differently, Democrats logically assume it will be 4 more years of Bush. Democrats were slow, at first, to defend Obama against McCain's attacks on his character (ie: that he wasn't Christian enough, or patriotic enough), because they were more concerned with all the good things Obama was talking about doing, if he were elected. It took them a while to realize that not everyone cared about Obama's policies, and to start trumpeting Obama's good character.

I am truly sorry that McCain suffered the things he did. But if this had any effect on his character, I think it has only made him more embittered, and more likely to continue America's current trend of seeing everyone else as enemies. Obama, on the other hand, is already loved worldwide, and I believe he has the potential to truly "reach across the aisle" and restore relationships with so many of the countries that America has antagonized and estranged. And if he manages to provide me with universal healthcare, and an electric car, so much the better!

Twilight

2008-09-06T11:56:00.011-04:00

This is a review of the first book in the Twilight series. It does not contain any spoilers unless you've been living in a hole in the ground for the last 4 years.

I loved the Twilight series. It's original, the characters are interesting, the story is incredibly fascinating, and more than anything else, I greatly enjoyed spending time with Bella, the first person narrator.

Saying that any book or film is "original" in our culture is probably untrue, but for me, reading a book that juxtaposed vampire characters, romance and a coming-of-age story in a modern setting was definitely a first.

I have always been fascinated by stories beyond the mundane realm of normal human life. I grew up reading The Chronicles of Narnia, and since I was a teenager, 80% of the books I've read for pleasure have been sci-fi or fantasy. To me, reading is about escaping reality. I've never cared much one way or the other about vampires: they're just one of many mythical creatures. I'm still not a "vampire person" by any stretch, but the fact that many of the characters in Twilight are vampires opens the door to supernatural, and therefore potentially unique and original characters, settings and events.

The closest I've ever come to reading a romance novel is probably Anne of Green Gables. I enjoyed it, but have never felt any motivation to read Jane Austen or Danielle Steel. So it was a new experience, and a pleasant one, to get away from my usual sword-fighting, spaceship-flying, and spell-casting and delve into feelings and relationships and love.

In the last few years I've been experiencing a sort of high school nostalgia. Not that I would want to go back and actually relive that awkward social nightmare, but how much better it could be if I could go back now, as a wiser, bolder, more mature person and actually have a clue about relationships, romantic and otherwise, and have the courage to reach out and make connections to people I was too scared to go near when I was actually in high school. Since actually going back is impossible without a time machine, (and increasingly, some cosmetic surgery), the next best thing is experiencing it vicariously through fictional books and tv shows. Joan of Arcadia was great, as was Roswell, Mean Girls, and The Breakfast Club. A good portion of Twilight takes place at Bella's new high school, from her point of view. Reading it, I could laugh and cry with her, but also safely step back any time I wanted to. The best of both worlds :-)

You might think that I would find the modern setting of Twilight mundane, but it's actually not, for two important reasons. One, it takes place on the west coast of the US, a beautiful, exotic place where I've only been for a few days in my entire life. Two, many of the characters have very different lifestyles than I've ever had. I won't say any more.

Bella is obviously my favorite character. I like her because she is brave, passionate, self-aware, and dedicated. As a first person narrator, we see almost everything through her eyes. We know what she thinks, and feel what she feels, and her delicious personality flavors everything that happens. I was only half joking when I told my wife that reading Twilight made me feel like a teenage girl; my identification with Bella was that strong as I lived her life vicariously. At the same time, she is different enough from me that I can still be surprised by the way she reacts to things, and learn new ways of experiencing the world.

Other characters are significantly less developed, and serve mostly as a social setting for Bella's life. But they are extremely diverse, and each of their relationships with Bella is unique. After reading the series, you might want to explore the author's website: stepheniemeyer.com. There are some "outtakes" (ie: additional scenes) as well as other information that furthur develops some characters.

Obviously I can't tell you the story. That would ruin your experience of discovering it for yourself. Just trust me: it's cool. The first thing I did after finishing the series was write a private blog entry outlining the whole plot--just to cement it in my mind. Many of the plot twists are easily guessable, but taken as a whole, it blows my mind how Stephenie Meyer came up with this particular combination of stuff.

My wife says I'm totally obsessed. I don't really deny that, except to point out that it's not my fault I'm obsessed. I didn't choose to love the books, and I'm not choosing to keep thinking about them. It may be my fault that I keep writing about them, but for the most part, all I did was choose to see what all the fuss was about this series. The obsession happened as a logical result of reading it.

Edit: I forgot that I was also going to comment on some common critiques of Twilight. 1) That it is badly written, and 2) That it is poorly edited.

I agree that it isn't Charles Dickens by any stretch. But to most readers, that's a good thing. The important thing is that it clearly paints the characters, and makes you fall in love with them. How bad can it be if it accomplishes this so spectacularly?

As the series progresses, it seem that each book was rushed to press more quickly than the last. The most common error editorial error is repeated words, like in this sentence. I read slowly and carefully, and I remember noticing this about 3 or 4 times per book. The only other thing I found was that occasionally I had to double take to figure out who was saying a piece of dialogue.

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Prince Caspian

2008-05-19T12:02:00.000-04:00

A few years ago, in my LWW review, I wrote that the Narnia filmmakers (led by director Andrew Adamson) appeared to have a lot of talent, but they weren't all working together perfectly to create a comprehensively great film. I also wrote that I anticipated that Prince Caspian would be better, and I was happy to find that it is!

The film starts with a bang, extending a scene from the middle of the book in which Caspian's cousin is born, and he must run for his life from his uncle's castle. If you haven't read the book, you might be confused, but if you have, it's great to see how dramatic this scene can be, (and how much you maybe missed if you last read it as a child).

As with LWW, the time-frame is shortened on the story, but the important thing is that the arc of the film is fluid. I never felt like the filmmakers were contorting the story either to follow the book, or to make it a better screenplay. For example, they added a failed assault on Miraz's castle, but this merely replaces one of the outdoor battles in the book.

All the characters from the book are easily recognizable, but some of their relationships are emphasized more or less. There is more animosity between Peter and Caspian about who is the rightful king, and Susan and Caspian go so far as to kiss goodbye at the end. I don't remember either of those dynamics from the book, but when you look at the story from an adult point of view, it's impossible not to expect that both of these things should occur. I never cared much either way about the character Trumpkin, but in the film he comes across as more wry and sarcastic, providing some good laughs without detracting from his qualities as a great warrior and friend. Now I like him, and it's too bad he doesn't have a major role in any of the other books.

It's kind of weird that all the Telmarines, including Caspian, have a thick Spanish accent. I think C.S. Lewis wrote them as a different culture, but to me their strong accent is distracting, and over-emphasizes the stereotype that anyone who doesn't speak "normal" English is a bad guy. I'm curious to see what they'll do with the evil dark-skinned Calormans in The Last Battle.

The animation of the animal characters is good, but I've seen better (most notably in The Golden Compass). Reepicheep, especially looks more like a cute hamster than a noble mouse, but his character shines through so strongly that I forgave the animators by the end. I was also initially skeptical about Reepicheep's voice because it was far too deep and manly for a mouse. But again, I got used to it.

The story of Prince Caspian, how he turned from his dark family history and helped reestablish the happiness and magic of Narnia, was always one of my favorites in the series. This strong story has provided a good framework on which to build the film, and the talented filmmakers have made the most of it.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

2008-05-19T11:11:00.003-04:00

(I wrote this when the film was released in theaters, but then I couldn't find it on my blog. Here it is.)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrode, is a decent start to the Chronicles of Narnia movie franchise. I was sufficiently entertained that I will watch it again when it comes out on DVD, and I am looking forward to the next Narnia movie! This movie falls short of excellent because it tries too hard, and the strain shows. The film-makers were in the unfortunate position of having to convince the studio execs at Disney and Walden Media that they could do a good job making The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrode. The problem is, I am not a studio exec. I want an excellent movie, regardless of how much money it might make.

There are only a few changes made from the book. They shortened up the timeframe a little, showed things that are only hinted at in the book, and increased the tension and drama in a few scenes. None of these changes were bad decisions, but many of them weren't integrated into the plot very well. Rather than feeling the added tension and drama, all I was thinking about was that the screenwriters had made these changes purely to try to make the story better. On a micro level, the movie delivered excellent individual scenes and characters, but the elements didn't quite connect together to make a great movie.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrode hits one of it's most emotional notes before it even gets to Narnia. The movie opens with warplanes bombing the city of London, England, terrorizing its inhabitants. Fearing for the safety of the children, the citizens of England have implemented a program whereby children are sent out of the city to live where they will be safer. This dramatic scene introduces us to the four Pevensie children, played by four superb young actors.

In spite of great source material and a very handsome budget, the quality of the acting is the main strength of this movie. The children's performances are so very sincere and whole-hearted that I didn't even think about what an excellent job they were doing until after the movie was over. Peter is the perfect older brother left in charge: not quite sure of himself as a leader because of his youth and inexperience, but absolutely determined to follow in his father's footsteps and do his best to keep his younger brother and sisters safe. Edmund is the surly younger brother, chafing under Peter's authority and trying desperately to validate his own worth. Susan is the older sister, mothering the two younger ones the best a 15-year-old can, and cute Lucy, so adorable, yet brave and adventurous, is the youngest, for whom any one of her brothers and sisters (except perhaps Edmund) would lay down their life in an instant.

Another excellent performance is put on by the actress playing the White Witch/Queen of Narnia. When I saw previews for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrode, I wasn't sure if I would like the way the White Witch was played. I thought she looked too much like an actress in glamorous make-up. But the full realization of her character, in the context of the movie, was completely satisfied convincing.

The Witch's general, a minotaur, and her captain of police, a wolf, were developed into more complete and satisfying characters than in the book. There is an added scene between Peter and the wolf captain that makes their second, climactic meeting more meaningful because of the relationship the two enemies have developed.

There was a lot of talk on internet discussion boards to the effect of "they'd better do a good job with Aslan's character." As with the rest of the movie, Aslan is good, but not excellent. He looks like a real lion, he is majestic and interacts with live actors well, but he doesn't feel quite as alive as he should. If he were a human actor, I would say that his make-up and costume are excellent, and his voice is good, but he's just not that great an actor. I applaud the film-maker's efforts though, and with this experience, I am sure they will do a better job with Prince Caspian.

Andrew Adamson and his fellow film-makers have showcased an impressive array of talent in making The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrode; now if they can learn to work together a little more fluidly, and the studios give them the opportunity, the big screen future is very bright for The Chronicles of Narnia.

The Bourne Barrage

2008-02-29T17:38:00.001-05:00

I'm trying to develop a system of watching DVDs and TV shows that minimizes the time I have to spend waiting for the next episode, and the amount of money I have to spend getting a copy to watch. I draw on a number of different resources to acquire programming, including:

Netflix (rent by mail for ~$1.50/DVD)
Hulu (watch TV shows for free on the internet)
SwapaDVD* (trade DVDs with people all across the country for $1.81 per disc)
Amazon.com (buy any film for $20, or TV series for $35, but the price comes down the older the show is, or if you buy it used)
Borrow or request items from the library (free)
(And more. Wow, no wonder I have such a long list of stuff to watch.)

I realized this past week that I have a few kinks to work out in coordinating the various systems when I ended up with 3 copies of The Bourne Ultimatum almost simultaneously. One I ordered through Netflix, one my wife picked up at the library, and one is on its way to me from another SwapaDVD user.

So that's the Bourne barrage. But better that way than pining for programming.

Edit: My third copy of Bourne, the one that was supposed to be mine to keep, and that I started watching last night, is defective. There are no visible scratches, but it freezes at the same point in the disc every time, even on different players. So now I'm gunning for a "fourth" copy. I hope it's the last.

(By the way, the writer's strike was kind of a curse, not because it deprived me of my usual Heroes, Bionic Woman, Chuck, and 30 Rock, but because it lulled me into thinking that I could start watching other shows, which I did, including Roswell, Battlestar Galactica, and The Sarah Connor Chronicles, none of which I've finished yet. Doot do doo....)

*If you have lots of DVDs you'd be willing to trade, you really should join SwapaDVD.com. Be sure to put my email address at the bottom of your application as your referral, because then I get a free credit!

Chronicles of Narnia films: Random trivia

2008-02-13T16:44:00.000-05:00

William Moseley ... Peter Pevensie
Anna Popplewell ... Susan Pevensie
Skandar Keynes ... Edmund Pevensie
Georgie Henley ... Lucy Pevensie

The actress who plays the older Lucy near the end of LWW is the older sister of Georgia.

The two older children are played by actors who are the oldest children in their family. The two younger are played by youngest children.

In the trailer for Prince Caspian, Skandar is always shot to look a few inches shorter than William. In reality, they are the same height (6'1").

Not the best week ever

2008-01-09T08:13:00.000-05:00

My car's in the garage, I'm not sleeping very well, and I wiped out all the data on my home computer while installing a new operating system. Surprisingly, I'm not feeling as stressed out as I would have thought, but still, it's not the best week ever.

*Sigh*

Homosexuality and Intimacy

2008-01-03T09:40:00.000-05:00

First of all, I am not against homosexuality*^. I believe in personal freedoms, and I think it's ridiculous to tell someone what (or whom) they should or shouldn't love, emotionally, or physically.

What I am against is that in modern Western culture (my culture), people are losing track of the differences between homosexuality and intimacy (or "closeness"), and even friendship. In many cultures past and present, a man holding another man's hand, or hugging him, has been a gesture of friendship or love. In our culture, most people assume that two men holding hands are homosexuals. We don't seem to understand that there can be non-sexual intimacy between heterosexual men.

A football locker room is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Men are naked together, they slap each others' butts, or snap each other with towels. It would seem that this is a perfect example of non-sexual male bonding (or "intimacy"), thus proving me wrong. But having been in locker-room situations myself, I know that it takes about 10 seconds of butt-slapping before the homosexual jokes start flying. Comfortable and a-sexual as naked men might be in each other's presence, the idea of homosexual attraction always looms, prompting them to joke about it, and assert their aggressive (ie: heterosexual) masculinity in order to reassure themselves and others that they themselves are not, in fact, homosexual.

One thing that prompted me to write on this topic was the discovery that some fans of the original Star Trek series have theorized (and written fan fiction) about Kirk and Spock being romantically involved with each other. I find this idea far-fetched, if not ludicrous. Yes, the two are friends, yes, they live on the same ship (albeit, in seperate quarters), yes they "love" each other in that each would lay down his life for the other in a heartbeat, but it's a stretch to think that therefore they would have sex with each other. I recently watched the entire original Star Trek series and it never once occurred to me that Kirk and Spock could be homosexual lovers.

Similar confusion comes up in the Star Trek series Voyager, in which the surrogate mother-daughter relationship between Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine is mistaken, by some fans, for a lesbian relationship.

Heterosexual people in our society are not the only ones who are confused. Homosexuals also blur the lines. This is perhaps more understandable. As an oppressed minority*, it makes sense that they would want to claim something as powerful and pervasive as intimacy as a characteristic trait of homosexuality. I have no problem with this, in theory, but it's gone too far when people begin to think that intimacy between men is a trait exhibited solely by homosexuals.

In one of the commentary tracks to the film The Fellowship of the Ring, Ian McKellan, a gay actor, talks about how he encouraged actor Sean Astin to take Elijah Wood's hand in one scene. McKellan explains that as a gay man, he had a greater awareness of the power of this intimate gesture than the heterosexual actors playing the roles. I agree that it was a good acting choice, and I accept that Ian McKellan is a wise and experienced actor, but it disturbs me that he would choose to credit his sexual preference for awareness of the power of intimacy.

Finally, there is the case of Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series. Dumbledore is a kind and caring man who clearly loves his students, particularly Harry. The book actually doesn't say that he is homosexual, but the author recently said that she "always thought of Dumbledore as gay,"** The fact that Rowling would think of a man exhibiting these traits as being homosexual degrades the notion that a man can be a loving and caring father figure and be heterosexual.

While our culture has gained understanding, in the last 30 years, about the variety of human sexuality, it has also lost understanding about the differences between intimacy and sexuality. Intimacy is not the same as sexual attraction, nor is physical or emotional affection between members of the same sex a marker of homosexuality.

*^A friend of mine pointed out that some people find the term "homosexual" to be disrespectful. I mean no disrespect; when I use this term, I use it in the scientific sense, and am referring soley to a person's sexual preference, or orientation, not their actions.
*The percentage of homosexuals in the United States is commonly thought to be between 5 and 10%.
**http://www.mahalo.com/Dumbledore_Gay_Quotes

Pattern recognition

2007-11-29T08:08:00.000-05:00

Do you know the significance of this number sequence?

8 5 4 9 1 7 6 3 2 0

Hint: It's not mathematical.

See comments for solution.

Avril music video contest--The complete story

2007-08-10T17:15:00.000-04:00

Here's the whole story of entering my Avril music video, in the "Aftermix" contest on Brightcove.com

http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=1119221735

I posted the video on July 22, and emailed the link to about 400 people. I was proud of my work and wanted people to see it, but I was also trying to get lots of views because the first round of semi-finalists is based on the number of views the video gets.

I kept checking the site to see how many views it was getting, and it kept showing 0 views. I knew this couldn't be right, because I'd been getting responses from people who had watched it, and even comments on the website.

I emailed Brightcove about it, and they said, "Oh, the number of views is just a daily snap-shot--not a dynamic number." Fine, I thought, that's stupid, but I can deal. A few days later, it still showed 0, so I wrote them again. I also wrote to the person in Avril's camp who had invited me to the contest (through my membership on her website, I think). I never heard back from her, but a week later, Brightcove finally replied, saying that they were aware of the problem, and that the contest organizers were also aware, and were extending the contest another month.

A few more days went by, and it was still showing 0 views (I'd been watching it every day or so, from different computers, to make sure that there were views to count). Then finally today, it showed 2 views. Great, except that I estimate the number should be about 200. So, I emailed all of you again, explaining briefly about the contest and asking you to watch it again.

I'm still not happy with the situation, so I think I'll keep bugging them--maybe argue that I should be automatically included in the first semi-final round because it's not my fault they screwed up.

My December

2007-08-08T16:30:00.000-04:00

There's been a lot of controversy around Kelly Clarkson's latest album, My December. The story goes that she dumped her producer and went off and did her own album, the way she wanted to do it, and ended up making a weird, depressing album that no one was supposed to like. I read the reviews and thought to myself that I would probably like the album anyways, and today I finally got to listen to it.

There were two specific elements that set it apart from her previous two albums.
1) A higher majority of the songs have the theme "You ruined my life" (which got a little annoying after five songs).
2) Two or three use weird sound effects that make it sound like your CD or web connection is screwing up.

Other than this, My December is similar to Thankful and Breakaway; loud power songs, and mellow ballads, with rock music accompaniment. If you like Kelly Clarkson, you will like this album.

Pivot Questionnaire

2007-08-04T10:52:00.000-04:00

What is your favorite word? Yes.
What is your least favorite word? Fine.
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Natural beauty.
What turns you off? Blood.
What is your favorite curse word? Cursing is a sign of weakness. I hate them all.
What sound or noise do you love? Silence.
What sound or noise do you hate? Trains.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Duh, film making.
What profession would you not like to do? Selling stuff people don't need.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Hi Jeff, sorry about all the strife I caused you.

My film directorial debut

2007-07-23T13:54:00.000-04:00

I am proud to present my directorial debut as a filmmaker: a music video of the song "When You're Gone", by Avril Lavigne. I, along with the excellent cast and crew, have worked long and hard to create this, so I wanted to show it to everyone.

Please click on this link to watch the video:
http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=1119221735

Sicko

2007-06-29T17:55:00.000-04:00

Michael Moore is still the same person, but in Sicko, he seems more mature than when he embarrassed the heck out of Charlton Hesston in Bowling for Columbine. Apparently having taken to heart the criticism he recieved for Farenheit 9/11, he tries to put less spin on the facts, and he lets other people do most of the talking.

Their message is clear: the American health care system is ridiculous, if not evil, and corporate greed is plunging millions of Americans into debt and ill health. At the same time, other countries, including Canada, France, Great Britain, Cuba, enjoy excellent, free, universal health care.

Like all Moore's films, Sicko has a comedic element. As a filmmaker, I admire his talent in presenting a thoroughly depressing subject without making us feel overwhelmed, and making us feel outraged rather than blind with rage at the greed and injustice of the American health care system.

Countering criticism that Sicko paints too rosy a picture of health care in Canada, I will say that I have lived in both countries, and would much rather have the Canadian system.

I didn't realize until recently that Moore is still trying to impeach the president, presumably for his sins regarding Iraq. Where he failed there, he just might get his way in nudging America towards universal health care. The difference is that Iraq is over there, but an expensive, innefficient health care is just an accident or infection away for all of us living in the US.

The new email?

2007-06-06T11:23:00.000-04:00

My poor Gmail account is a little lonely these days. Why? Because of Facebook. I hadn't really thought about it until last night when I heard some friends talking and one said, "Call me; don't use Facebook." In the past, a comment like this would have gone, "Call me; don't email."

In contrast to my email account, my Facebook account has been seeing a lot of activity lately. Not necessarily in messages, but because of the flexibility of Facebook, I've shared and viewed a lot more photos, movie reviews, and short comments with friends than I ever did using email.

Three of the most important things for an online tool are: ease of use, flexibility, and ubiquity (at least among your friends). Facebook has always been easy to use, and is growing rapidly in flexibility and in membership. MySpace started this process, and they were lucky enough to get a generation named after them, but at this moment, in my opinion, Facebook is the superior online community.

That's why, in spite of my empty Gmail inbox, I'm not worried about my popularity standing just yet.

Spider-Man 3

2007-05-27T22:38:00.000-04:00

Spider-man 3 has three villains, or 4 if you count Spider-man's own dark side. I thought this would be confusing, and doubted that a 2-hour movie could give any of the villains enough time to be more than cookie-cutter bad guys. I was wrong. The script cleverly draws on important themes from the previous two films to flesh out the 3 villains and give them arcs that span not only the whole film, but even connect with the first two Spider-man films, creating a sort of trilogy.

I read a quote from Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane) saying that it would be hard to have a Spider-man movie without her and Tobey MacGuire (Spider-man/Peter Parker). Whether or not this is true, both actors turned in excellent performances in this film. Aided by strong supporting players, including James DeFranco, and Rosemary Thomas, this summer blockbuster, comic-book action film actually had a number of strong emotional moments!

Spider-man is a fun action hero who we enjoy watching because he kicks bad-guy butt. He has also been very morally upright from the very beginning, a characteristic that is of unprecedented significance in this third film. As I said, one of Spider-man's enemies is himself, skewed towards evil by an alien substance he encounters. This film takes the time to thoroughly explore "dark Spider-man", but it never celebrates the depths to which he has fallen, (in spite of some funny moments). At his lowest point, Spider-man's behavior is almost sickening. It is therefore a huge relief when the film turns around and thoroughly redeems our fallen hero. We not only admire Spider-man for doing good, but hope that we too can have the strength of character to reject evil in our lives.

Packaged around the emotional moments and redemptive themes, Spider-man is still a piece of mass-market entertainment. I was a little frustrated that they had to spell out ev-er-y plot con-nec-tion in 4th-grade level detail. The film made excellent use of flashbacks, incorporating footage from the first two films, as well as new scenes of back-story, but it was too heavy-handed, as though the filmmakers didn't believe we were capable of remembering the first two films or understanding a complex plot.

Spider-man 3 is a strong film that takes everything (good and bad) from the first two films and does it bigger, better and more meaningfully.

Needed: paradigm adjustments, Part 2

2007-05-23T07:40:00.000-04:00

I've been a fan of space ships my entire life. When I was younger, my family had back issues of National Geographic from the '60s through the '80s. I used to browse through the table of contents and read every article I could find on space exploration. More recently, I've been watching lots of Star Trek, in which people live on largely self-sustaining spaceships for months or years at a time.

With the knowledge looming over me that we humans are in the process of destroying the earth's self-sustaining ecosystem, I realized that as huge and stable as the Earth seems when we are living on it, it is really nothing more than a large spaceship, and as such is not any more inherently stable than any other well-designed ecosystem. If a space-ship relies on a certain kind of plant to produce oxygen, and that plant dies, the ship is rendered unlivable. The Earth has a lot of redundancies built in, but tip it far enough off balance, and we too could lose a vital system.

I realize that this is not original thinking by any means. But if we're going to undue the damage we've done to the Earth already, a good place to start would be for the general public (and governments in particular) to adopt more of this spaceship mind-set. We need to maintain our environmental systems or we're going to be nothing but a dead hunk of rock floating in space.

Needed: paradigm adjustments, Part 1

2007-05-18T07:28:00.000-04:00

I have been eagerly following the hybrid/electric car economy ever since watching the excellent film "Who killed the electric car." I firmly believe that global climate change is a real threat, and that getting gasoline cars off the road is one of the best ways to fight it.

I am disgusted, therefore, at the prevalence of car makers, both garage tinkerers and major manufacturers, who are focusing on expensive luxury hybrid/electrics instead of on basic, affordable, non-polluting transportation. Creating hybrid/electric cars isn't going to have much effect on global climate change if only a few rich people can afford them. We need to get zero-emissions cars into the garages of everyday, working-class people--the people that make up the majority of the country's population.

In order for zero-emissions vehicles to make a difference, auto makers need to shift their thinking from making expensive luxury cars to making cars that people like me can afford!

Silk Trees Pictures

2007-05-03T20:06:00.000-04:00

Silk Trees

Also check out the link to the Silk Trees blog.

If we're going to fight....

2007-04-18T07:33:00.000-04:00

I am against the war in Iraq. I don't know much about war or politics, but I grew up surrounded by pacifist viewpoints, so I still tend to lean that way. It seems like a bad idea to spend so much money on an operation whose goals are dubious at best, and a worse idea to kill so many people.

This article from TIME magazine raises the issue that American troops in Iraq are under-trained and ill-equipped to fight the kind of war they are having to fight. Bringing the troops home would solve the problem, but what I gathered from this article was that we would at least waste less money and fewer lives if we gave our troops proper training and equipment.

If we're going to fight, we should do it right.

An Inconvenient Film?

2007-04-11T08:22:00.000-04:00

When I saw the film An Inconvenient Truth, I had a double reaction. On one hand I thought it was a good film and was glad that people in positions of (some) power were speaking up about how humans are ruining the planet. On the other hand, I wished they hadn't made the film, because if you have to argue that global warming is real, that means that maybe it's not, because otherwise why do you need to argue it?

I thought of this again when I was looking on Facebook the other day for a group to join to show my support for solving the global climate change crisis. What I found, instead, was a plethora of groups arguing that global warming is a hoax. The biggest argument is "how can there be global warming if it's -10 F in the midwest, or snowing in the middle of April?!" I did a bit of research and discovered two things. 1) In spite of occasional cold snaps at odd times, average temperatures are still warmer. 2) This heat increases evaporation of water, which means more water in the atmosphere, which means more violent precipitation. (The article below explains it more). To counter the misconception that cold weather disproves global warming, I prefer to use the phrase "global climate change."

I doubt this film is the main reason people are moved to argue against global climate change. A more plausible reason is denial. People don't want global climate change to be real because it's frightening to think of deadly tropical storms, and cities swamped by rising sea levels. It's also possible that many people are using sarcasm as a way to broach the topic. One of the biggest Facebook groups I saw is called "Accelerate Global Warming!" and has a list of things we can do to increase global warming, but many of the responses written are actually about stopping global climate change.

Personally, I've never doubted global warming. It's been scientific fact my entire life, and I've seen it for myself as winters have gotten shorter and warmer, and summers more unbearably hot.

300 (That movie about warrior Spartans!)

2007-03-16T07:48:00.000-04:00

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie 300. Yes, it was very bloody, and yes it looks rather like a comic book come to life, but I was warned about these possible short-comings, and took them in stride.

I loved the fearless spirit and incredible discipline of the 300 Spartan warriors who staunchly held their ground against all manner of attack by the massive invading Persian army, numbering in the tens of thousands. I didn't necessarily love the numerous decapatations and impalations, but it is a film about war, and I appreciated the artistry of the scenes ("a ballet of death" according to producer Deborah Snyder).

My only problem related to this film is the way it has been unjustly criticized by people reading too much into it. To me, it's just a film about fierce and noble warriors standing up to tyranny to defend their homes and families, but I have heard viewers and reviewers describe it as an allegory to the Iraq war, and as being rife with homoerotic themes--none of which even remotely occurred to me the entire time I was watching the film.

I could maybe understand the Iraq war allegory if the invading Persian army was identified with the Americans, but the people I have talked to, and the reviews I have read see the Spartan warriors as analagous to the Americans.

I am truly surprised that anyone would think this. In 300, the invaders are the Persians. They are tyrannical, they want to take over the world, and they are confident in their ability to do so. In the Iraq war, the invaders are the Americans. They want to control the world's economics (including oil), and they are confident that their way of life ("freedom", democracy) is the best. In 300, the Spartans are defending their homeland. In the Iraq war, it is the Iraqis who are trying to survive and protect their community from the tyranny of American control.

As far as homoeroticism, the primary source of this perception is the powerful Persian king's repeated attempts to have the Spartan king kneel before him. I understand how kneeling in front of someone can have sexual connatations, but anyone who's ever been an adolescent (or hung around with some of my college friends) knows that anything can have sexual connatations. In this film, kneeling is about submitting one's country; ("Earth and Water", as the Persian king's messenger says near the beginning of the film.)

Faulty interpretations aside, I have great respect for 300 as a film; as a dazzling piece of art about great people.

Commercial dentistry?

2007-02-26T16:48:00.000-05:00

The other day, I went to the dentist for the first time in about 8 years. What struck me (other than relief that all my teeth were still in excellent condition) was the commercialization of the industry.

First of all, there were the obvious signs, such as the free Crest brand samples of floss and toothpaste I was given, and the prominent Oral B electric toothbrush display on the shelf in front of the chair. But even the fact that the dentist says you should come in every year for a check-up smacks of commercialism.

No doctor has ever said that I should come in every year just to make sure everything is okay. Are my teeth more important than the rest of my body? Obviously I don't need a dental check-up every year, because I've had two in the last ten years, and everything's been fine. My wife hadn't been to the dentist in a few years either, and her teeth were also fine. I can't imagine that dentists actually care enough about everyone's teeth to spend the time and resources making absolutely sure that everyone's teeth are in great condition every year.

The only logical conclusion, therefore, is that these yearly check-ups are a good way for dentists to make money.

The aggressive "excuse me"

2007-02-22T08:09:00.000-05:00

I was a little surprised this morning when a coworker, who I met in a narrow hallway, said "Excuse me" and I responded "Okay." Wouldn't it have made more sense for me to say "Oh no problem", or "No, excuse me!"?

When I thought about it more, I realized that I've always used the phrase "Excuse me" in an agressive way. I use it to politely say "Get out of my way", as in, "Excuse me! Pardon me! Coming through!"

I presume that my coworker was using the phrase in the more common sense of "I'm sorry that I'm in your way. Please don't think badly of me." Interesting that my personality chooses the more agressive interpretation.

I could do better than that!

2007-02-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, when I'm watching a movie/listening to a song/reading an article I think to myself, "I could do better than that!" Then I stumble across something I've created in the past and realize that it's okay, but not great. So I developed a theory that while I'm not the most promising artist out there, I'm at least reasonably talented.

As I get more life experience, my level of talent may increase slightly, but even if it doesn't, the question I ask myself is, "Am I talented enough to be a professional filmmaker (or singer, or writer, etc.)?" The last time I thought "I could do better than that" was while watching the TV show Star Trek: Voyager. Voyager isn't destined to become a classic, but it's decently well made, and it ran for seven seasons!

If I could make a TV show as good as Voyager, could I make it in the television industry?

My snowy house

2007-01-29T16:48:00.000-05:00

I admit, the amount of snow is kind of pathetic, but I have to celebrate what I have!

Snow in Goshen, Jan 2007

Streaming video and audio (or not)

2007-01-25T08:15:00.000-05:00

The other day my friend Ryan, who works in the IT dept. at Goshen College, was complaining about the phenomenal amount of bandwidth people at the college were using to watch free streaming videos on YouTube.

Today at work, I was looking for some new songs to listen to and decided to see if I could find free streaming audio. As far as I can tell, there's no such thing. Yahoo has an extensive internet "radio station", but I can't choose a specific song to listen to. Ironically, I can find just about any song I want in video form, (and then just listen to it).

I can't help but marvel at the irony that the video, which takes more money to produce and uses more internet bandwidth, is easier to find than the audio.

Winter/Spring Art, 2007

2007-01-17T08:08:00.000-05:00

I'm looking forward to a number of artistic endeavors over the next few months:

mennosong has started rehearsing again, and we're planning to record another CD at the end of March (as well as perform a few concerts here and there).
With New World Arts, I'm acting in the play Lysistrata, performing the weekends of March 9 and 16.
Also with New World Arts, I'm participating in the 24/5 Film Festival this Saturday; I'm a camera operator for one of the five groups.
Starting in April, I'm going to be working as an art assistant on the film Silk Trees, shooting in Goshen for 36 days.

In between all this, I'm still spending time with my wife, and learning to juggle :-)

Planting doubt

2007-01-08T15:33:00.000-05:00

In the last few months I've encountered first a documentary film, then a question that made me double-take. On the surface they seemed innocent, or even positive, but both had an underlying implication of doubt that disturbed me.

The documentary film was An Inconvenient Truth. At face value, it seemed like a good and necessary documentary in the struggle to convince a brainwashed America that global warming is indeed real. But if Al Gore was arguing so vehemently, didn't that mean that it was possible that global warming wasn't real?

The Jan. 1, 2007 cover of Newsweek magazine asked (and I paraphrase) "Is America ready for a non-Caucasian or a female president?" I was horrified; asking the question seemed to imply that we weren't ready. How could a news magazine be so blatantly biased?

When Newsweek asks us if we're ready for a female president, or a documentary tries so hard to convince us of something, what impression are we ultimately left with? As our brains ponder the data, do they carefully separate the bias from the issue, or does everything meld into a smoky haze of indistinct memory....something about global warming being real or not....and something about America being racist and sexist....

Simon the Cat's latest film

2006-12-21T22:30:00.000-05:00

Climbing for Kitty Treats

Guilty about warm weather

2006-12-21T13:24:00.000-05:00

Although I like snow, and cold weather doesn't usually bother me, I am enjoying the spring-like weather these days.

Except I'm not, because I recently watched An Inconvenient Truth, and I know that the reason it's so warm is because of global warming. And I'm contributing to the destruction of the Earth's atmosphere by driving a gasoline-powered car to work, and burning natural gas to heat my house, and getting most of my electricity from coal-fired plants in Indiana.

I want snow!

(Angi, don't say a word!)

Who killed the electric car?

2006-12-18T09:15:00.000-05:00

Electric cars have been around as long as gasoline powered cars. One hundred years ago, there were more electric cars on the road than there were gasoline powered cars.

Electric cars make less pollution than gasoline powered cars, even if coal is burned to produce the electricity.

GM produced and leased fast, well-built electric cars (the EV1) over 5 years ago. Consumers loved them, and there was a waiting list of over 4000 people.

Through pressure from the car companies, the oil industry and the federal government, California repealed the clean air mandate that had led to these cars being made.

GM recalled and destroyed every one of their perfectly good EV1s, over the protests of the car owners, who would have loved to buy the cars. Other companies followed suit, recalling and destroying their electric vehicles.

The Bush administration is now pushing the hydrogen fuel cell, an expensive and dubious technology, while ignoring the fact that we already have the technology available to mass-market clean, safe, efficient electric cars.

Find out more

Read GM's rebuttal

Eragon

2006-12-17T18:31:00.000-05:00

Eragon is a knock-off amalgamation of Star Wars, LOTR and other sci-fi/fantasy epics; it's mildly interesting because it's chock full of classic story ideas and characters, but the writing is second-rate. I was hoping the movie would be better than the book; that it would have been re-molded by the screenwriter and director into a more engaging package. It wasn't.

The film looks good: the costumes and armor are beautiful, and the make-up is stellar. The digital dragon works well enough not to be distracting, and the rest of the visual effects are fine. The filmmakers assembled an amazing group of actors; veterans (Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich) and newer faces alike, they all turn in amazing performances. (I would love to see Eragon and Arya in a different story.) But a film is a whole, and individual great performances don't count for much when they're not well-directed in a strong screenplay.

If you liked the novel, you will like the movie. I enjoyed the movie because I like the fantasy genre, and because I am a student of filmmaking and appreciated the numerous positive elements. If you're new to the world of Eragon, and are looking for great fantasy entertainment, watch Lord of the Rings.

Heroes: a model of efficiency

2006-12-14T11:42:00.000-05:00

I was late getting into the tv show Heroes, but better late than never! This is my favorite show since Joan of Arcadia. It combines the supernatural with everyday people, giving them lots of action, but lots of real-life stuff too. It could be described as a mash-up of Lost and X-Men, but without the endless mysteries and without the tight suits.

How does this excellent show manage to pack so much interesting stuff into just one hour a week when it has to follow over 10 main characters, all with seperate storylines? My original theory is that it does it by recognizing that the average TV viewer has watched thousands of hours of modern television. Therefore, when we get to a familiar sort of scene, for example, one in which a police officer interrogates a suspect, we don't have to spend a lot of time cutting back and forth between the two characters, question answer, question answer, yawn! Everyone's watched an interrogation scene before, we know the drill, so Heroes skips ahead to the important part. Often the show doesn't even bother to finish scenes. It sets up scene A, then cuts to scene B, never to return, leaving the rest of scene A to be filled in by our experience, and our imagination.

This trick is brilliantly efficient, and let's us busy viewers get more story and action out of each viewing minute!

Photos Nov-Dec 2006

2006-12-07T09:57:00.001-05:00

A few pics from around the Martin household:

The Martins: Nov-Dec 2006

Unknown White Male

2006-11-30T08:19:00.000-05:00

Unknown White Male is a stylish documentary, based on the real life story of a young man who wakes up on a subway car in New York City with no memory of who he is, but otherwise completely functional.

This sort of total amnesia is rare, but not unheard of, and is the basis for such stories as The Bourne Identity. Unknown White Male was the first time I had read of (or watched) a real life account, so I was mildly enthralled. If you've already read detailed accounts of real people who have experienced total amnesia, you might not find this film as novel as I did, unless you happen to like edgy, indy British films.

The film starts with a narrated reenactment of "Unknown White Male"'s first few hours after "waking up." It then begins cutting in interviews with experts on memory and witnesses to his first few days. Not surprisingly, in our interconnected society, it doesn't take long for someone to recognize him, which launches the film into its most interesting phase: interviews with his family and former friends.

In this second half, the film becomes more than merely an interesting account, and begins to delve into philosophical questions of identity and socialization, which I enjoyed thinking about.

Watching the film, I found it interesting to theorize about possible causes of his amnesia, and even whether he could have faked it; both are issues that the filmmaker doesn't touch. I will leave it to you to discover whether the unknown white male ever remembered his past life.

Simon goes to sleep in the sink, but is awakened by a phone call

2006-11-08T16:09:00.000-05:00

Obi-Jeff (Halloween 2006)

2006-11-01T08:34:00.000-05:00

Click to open the album and view more pictures.

Obi-Jeff

Excited (and geeky)

2006-10-27T08:26:00.000-04:00

To movie fans, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is the #1 site for all movie info. If you want to know who was in such and such a movie, and what their role was, there is really no other place to look. IMDb.com has pictures (screen shots, behind-the-scenes, and publicity), trivia, links to reviews, and more.

To those of us who dream of "being in Hollywood", surfing IMDb is about as close as we get. And being listed on the site? Distant fantasy!

Until now.

I'M LISTED ON IMDB.COM!!!!

Someone added me as Jeff Martin (XIII), (that is, the 13th unique person credited in a movie or television show as "Jeff Martin"). In the Elsewhere credits I will actually be credited as "Jeffrey Stuart Martin", so when the movie comes out I might try to change my listing. I chose to use my full name to increase my originality (and therefore name recognition), but I haven't decided definitively what name I want to use in my film career.

Interestingly enough, if my experience working on Elsewhere is any indication, people who actually work on movies, (as opposed to merely being geekily obsessed with them) couldn't care less about IMDb. Sure, maybe they use it once in a while to look something up, but they don't pore over the credits of their favorite movies, or link to it from their blogs.

I have long been firmly in the category of IMDb movie geek, but learning that it might not be cool for a filmmaker to be an IMDb movie geek has put a dent in my enthusiasm. Oh well. For now, I will celebrate!

Why Goshen is the next Hollywood

2006-10-19T11:32:00.000-04:00

A few times over the course of my film internship with Elsewhere, when I mentioned that I was interested in working on more films, people implied that this sort of work would be much easier to find in LA (or, I presume, in New York). I'm sure this is true, but having just bought a house in the merry little town of Goshen, I have no intention of moving any time soon. In any case, I'm not particularly worried about my film career, because I think that Goshen is the next Hollywood.

According to an article on independent film by David Bordwell, companies like Fox and MGM started out as "independents" who moved to the west coast to get away from "the studio" (at the time, the Motion Picture Patents Company). More and more people starting making independent films, and at some point the town of Hollywood, CA became synonomous with filmmaking. New York, and more recently, Chicago, have also become big places for filmmaking, simply because people started making films there.

In the last few years, people have started making films in Goshen. New World Arts has not one, but two short film festivals every year. A few years ago, a Goshen College grad that I went to school with made the award-winning Pearl Diver. Other Goshen residents and GC grads worked on and starred in Corduroy. Actor Steve Buscemi and LOTR star Liv Tyler directed and starred (respectively) in Lonesome Jim, filmed in Goshen and nearby Cromwell. And finally, Elsewhere, the film I worked on, was not only filmed in Goshen, but is set in Goshen, Indiana, and features actors from cult favorite films Office Space and Napoleon Dynamite.

Clearly, Goshen is not only producing film talent, but also attracting it. This is why I fully intend to continue my career in film, not by flying to California (although I do hope to do that some time), but by involving myself in the myriad of film projects that are going to keep coming to Goshen, Indiana.

Thank you for smoking

2006-10-13T17:04:00.000-04:00

This is not one of my usual movie reviews. I'm writing this review from the perspective of my job at a public library (although this is not an official library document, nor does it necesarily reflect the values of the library). The head of the AV deparment asked me to preview it, to see if it might be appropriate for our collection in spite of it's R rating (for language and some sexual content).

Thank you for smoking is a very sarcastic film. Being, as I am, not always great at understanding sarcasm, I'm not entirely sure what the point of the film is. But I think it is a commentary on the ridiculous lengths to which tobacco companies go to keep people smoking, even though everyone knows that smoking is bad for you.

A movie with this goal is admirable, but I'm not sure that it would find much audience at this library. It seems to be aimed at overly-educated, politically liberal people; the same people who drive hybrid cars and eat vegetarian food. I haven't done any studies, but I think that a large percentage of our patrons are Amish (who quit school at age 16), or otherwise reasonably conservative Christian people, and I have never seen a Prius in the parking lot. If they watch films at all, they are likely to choose Little House of the Prairie, or VeggieTales. Some patrons do check out popular documentaries like Supersize Me and Bowling for Columbine, but, come to think of it, I requested both of those for the library.

One thing I was supposed to pay close attention to was the language in the film. Is it really so bad? Yes and no. On one hand, there aren't people cursing up a violent storm. Instead, there are a number of characters who casually pepper their everyday speech with the f-word. Not as shocking, but perhaps a surer sign of a lost soul, and definitely not a great role-model for good Christian children (or adults).

Returning to the theme of sarcasm, if the movie is intended as a tongue-in-cheek story, then it is appropriate that the characters show their moral degradation through foul language. The question is, will our patrons see it that way, or will they just be offended? Considering the care we generally take to avoid offending our patrons, I think this is one film our collection can do without.

Yay snow!

2006-10-12T16:12:00.000-04:00

I think I probably post this every fall, but here it is again, perhaps in more mature words, now that I'm a year older:

Yay, it's snowing!!!!!!!!!!

At work we have one of those big tins with three kinds of popcorn. Between that and the wind-driven snow, it's starting to feel like Christmas!

The irony of leaf blowers

2006-10-06T17:36:00.000-04:00

Having recently had an otherwise pleasant autumn stroll ruined by a noisy, smelly leaf blower, I am struck by the irony of such a machine. Dry leaves scuttling across the pavement is one of autumn's signature sounds. It brings back happy memories of walking in refreshing Autumn air, jumping in leaf piles, or trick-or-treating at Halloween. It's a great stress reliever.

So why would anyone invent a machine that is God-awfully loud, stinks like Hades, and whose sole purpose is to get rid of the beautiful leaves??? Please chastise me severely if I ever purchase one of these horrific devices.

In a movie vs. working on a movie

2006-09-29T09:11:00.000-04:00

A few times since I started this internship, people have made comments along the lines of "wouldn't you rather be in the movie?" (ie: as an extra). I was surprised to hear them ask this, because it had never occured to me. Ultimately, I think it will be more rewarding to be on set during the whole shoot, instead of just coming in for a day; to have my name in the credits as a production assistant, rather than to be a nameless face in the background.

I suppose it's a sign of how serious I am about being in the movie business. It's not just some far-out fantasy, it's an actual career prospect, and careers are built on hard work, not on being in a movie for a day.

Life as a film production assistant

2006-09-26T16:37:00.000-04:00

Five days ago, I didn't know exactly what a production assistant did. Here's a brief synopsis:
-carry stuff between set and basecamp (eg: bottled water, batteries for the walkies).
-"lock up" the set during filming (make sure no one gets into frame or makes too much noise).
-set up chairs and tents for the actors.
-hang out and be useful and responsible for anything that needs doing.

Biggest surprise:
-so many lights--and this is only a small production!

Best part of working on a movie set:
-not sitting at a computer.

Worst part:
-sore legs from standing 12 hours a day.

Fun things to do:
-chat with crew members.
-hand people bottles of water (you always get a big thank-you).
-enjoy the awed looks of the public when they wander by and find out you're making a movie.

Biggest misgiving:
-all the energy used, mostly for lights, and driving people around, but also for all the pop cans and water bottles that don't get recycled.

Oddest film lingo:
-the second-last shot of the day is called the "Abbie", after a 1950s director who apparently used to promise the crew that it was the second-last shot, then do 5 more.

Phrases buzzing around in my head:
-Picture's up!
-Uh, hey Jeff....
-Let's invite 1st team in.
-Go for Strum.

So anyways, I'm having a blast with this whole film thing. It's a lot of work, but so worth it!

Trivia and me

2006-09-22T09:04:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading Brainiac, the new book by Ken Jennings. I enjoyed the parts about Ken's experience on Jeopardy!. The other half of the book, about the history of trivia in Western culture, was less interesting (I skipped most of it), but it did make me think about how much I have taken trivia for granted in my own life.

Besides enjoying to watch Jeopardy!, my favorite board game is Taboo, which relies heavily on trivia knowledge as you try to explain obscure words to your team. (For example, if your team knows that "Jolly Red Elf" is another name for Santa Claus, it's a snap to get them to guess "Santa Claus" without having to say "St. Nick" or "Christmas" or "chimney" or "reindeer.") I never thought about it before, but the friends I play Taboo with most often are also fellow Jeopardy! fans.

Something else I do a lot is quote from movies, or refer to lines or scenes. Gollum/Smeagol is a particular favorite, so that "we often refer to ourselves in the plural", even when I'm only talking about myself. And whenever Ryan, Jamie, my wife and I say "Buh-bye" to each other, it's always followed by, "Have fun storming the castle!" etc., from The Princess Bride.

Finally, I hadn't thought it strange until this book made me think about it, but really, how many people get an Internet connection in their house not so they can check their email, but so that they can research obscure questions that occur to them while eating dinner? I guess I am a trivia freak. Cool :-)

Danny and the Deep Blue Sea

2006-09-18T09:03:00.000-04:00

On Friday night, I enjoyed a production of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, currently showing at New World Arts Theater in Goshen. The play is about a man and a woman, both tough and world-wise, but also very world-weary, who meet one night. Each is just what the other needs, and they begin to dream about what their life could be like together. Reality intrudes, and they fight, as people are wont to do, but the kernel of peace they have found doesn't die.

Although I come from a completely different background than the characters, I found I could identify with the play's themes of violence, romantic relationships, and family. The play uses the f-word a lot, which I found distracting, but I got over it and afterwards was glad to have attended.

There are still shows next weekend (Friday Sept. 22, and Saturday Sept. 23 at 8pm and Sunday. Sept. 24 at 3pm). The show is 75 minutes long, (no intermission).

Production Internship

2006-09-12T09:20:00.000-04:00

I got an internship as a Production Assistant for an independent film shooting in Goshen! The movie is called Elsewhere. It's a "teen thriller" about a girl in Goshen who falls victim to an internet predator.

They say that when you're looking for a job, you should tell all your friends so they can keep an eye out for openings. I did, and it worked! We were at the Brew Friday night, and Jamie saw an advertisement for internships in this production. I called them up and got an interview on Monday, which went very well. Carlos has to formally confirm it with his boss, but he pretty much said I was in. [edit: I'm in!]

I'll be working 12-14 hour days Saturday-Monday from Sept 23-Oct 18, but this is exactly the sort of opportunity I've been dreaming of!

How are you?

2006-09-08T09:12:00.000-04:00

"How are you?" is a difficult question to answer. If I'm feeling good, there's no problem. "Great!" is a great response. But "Fine" is too shallow (and invites mocking from anyone who's seen the remake of The Italian Job), and "Terrible" is not what most people want to hear.

At face value "How are you?" means "How is your health/emotional well-being/mood," but face value is a quality sadly lacking in polite conversation. What it often means is "I choose to make rhetorical inquiries into your well-being so as to appear polite, although I really don't care how you are." What's the point of responding to that??

Some people consider it rude to say that you are "having a bad day" or "feel miserable." On the other hand, some people might actually care how you feel, in which case you could tell the truth, but how do you know who does and who doesn't care when they ask the same question?

One idea I had was to answer the rhetorical question as if they had actually asked what they meant. They say, "How are you?" (meaning, "I am making polite conversation, and expect no depth in your response.") You say:

"Okay...."
"Very nice weather we're having...."
"Um."
"I acknowledge your politeness, but recognize your desire not to actually converse with me."
"Really?"
"Really!"
"Oh, you know..."
"Yes."
"Not particularly."
"Right."
"How are you?"

I'll have to try some of these.

Free lunch!

2006-09-01T19:30:00.000-04:00

One summer in college, unsatisfied with my minimum wage job income, I started seeing how many free lunches I could get. People were always surprised when I told them I got free food from such and such a place, which only encouraged me to try more.

Well, free lunch is back, thanks to Froggy Radio Free Lunch Friday! I signed up on their website (www.ilovemyfroggy.com) and today got a call that I had won a pizza lunch for me and all my coworkers at the Middlebury Library.

If you're listening to Froggy Radio 102.7 FM in the next week, you might hear my name as the guy who won last week, and if you're really lucky, they might even play a voice clip from when Beau Kennedy called me with the good news. ("Are you kidding!??")

She's the Man

2006-08-25T18:40:00.000-04:00

She's the Man can come across as a typical teen popcorn flick, but bubbling just below the surface is an uncanny depth of insight into human relationships and sexuality.

The film is based on a Shakespearean play (Twelfth Night). It has the characteristic tongue-in-cheek flair of a Shakespearean comedy as well as the depth that makes Shakespeare classic, but She's the Man doesn't use any Shakespearean dialogue, and is set in a modern college setting. The movie uses the strong plot and characters of a Shakespearean play and produces an equally complex and entertaining modern Hollywood film. I laughed out loud many times, not just in a "this is funny" way, but also because, as Shakespeare could do so well, the filmmakers nailed the complexity of human interaction and sexual identity.

(BTW, in case you don't know the story, it involves a girl (Viola) pretending to be her twin brother, and then numerous people falling in love with others, most of whom are actually someone else, or a different gender.)

One of the strongest aspects of the the movie is the way Viola thoroughly adopts the mannerisms of a man, without letting us forget that she is, in fact, a woman. I watched this movie over the course of two days, and when I couldn't sleep for a while at night, I kept running scenes over in my head, trying to decide if I believed Viola both as an attractive woman, and a desirable man. I kept waffling back and forth between thinking "she's more a woman" and "she's more like a man" before I realized that I'd just answered my question!

I usually watch dramas and action movies because modern comedy films are silly and vulgar fluff. She's the Man combines a classic story with the best of Hollywood filmmaking to produce an intelligent, insightful comedy that adults and teens can not only enjoy, but also appreciate.

"Second Life"

2006-08-23T16:24:00.000-04:00

I've found again and again, in the last few years, that the skills I develop on the Internet, when I think I'm just playing, (or even wasting time) are actually valuable in real life. Armed with this knowledge, I've been making a conscious effort lately to remain reasonably knowledgeable about the latest internet trend.

So far I have:

~a blog (you're reading it)
~a gmail address
~a myspace page
~a youtube account
~a flickr account (see sidebar slideshow)
~accounts with Amazon, Imdb.com, and probably others I can't think of at the moment
~and now, a Second Life...life? (My name is Jayma Shen.)

Along similar lines, I've been devoloping my peripheral internet skills, such as digital photography and html programming.

Here's to staying young and savvy!

Cat-in-the-box video

2006-08-22T09:07:00.000-04:00

Make sure you listen to this movie--Ryan's commentary is one of the best parts!

Movie director personality

2006-08-16T09:06:00.000-04:00

I was talking with my psychiatrist yesterday morning, and she said my personality is perfect for being a movie director. I got similar results from a career personality test I took a while ago. This, combined with my growing restlessness with my current job, is making me think even more seriously than ever about getting started on my real career.

Right now I'm taking the step of signing up to stage manage a show with New World Arts. This will help me make more connections with some people who are or have been involved in filmmaking in Goshen. It will also help build my stamina and stress-tolerance in a similar-to-film "show" focused work environment.

Simon caught a mouse!

2006-08-12T09:19:00.000-04:00

This morning our cat caught a mouse. He is a mighty hunter!

Now, if he would only stop playing with it and eat it....

Simon points out his favorite TV series (and runners up)

2006-08-10T17:22:00.000-04:00

New windows

2006-08-08T09:14:00.000-04:00

On Monday we got new windows in our house. They are the best windows money can buy, and priced accordingly, but they will pay for themselves in 5-10 years through money saved on heating. I am mostly happy with them; they can open at the top as well as the bottom, and I can open 6 more windows than I could before, so I can get more air flowing through the house. They also look nice. The only thing mildly annoying things are that I didn't spend another $100 so I could open both windows in the back room, and that one bedroom window doesn't open all the way because of the eavestrough.

Resume (Updated October 2006)

2006-08-08T00:28:00.000-04:00

Career goal:
Professional filmmaking.

Employment experience:
-On Set Production Assistant for the film Elsewhere, directed by Nathan Hope, (Sept-Oct 2006, internship).
-Catalog new materials, manage the library circulation desk, train staff and patrons in computer use (Middlebury Community Library: Jan-Aug 2003, Nov 2004-present).
-Created a computerized catalog, managed library circulation, organized library resources in consultation with principals and teachers. (St. John de Brebeuf and Holy Cross Catholic Elementary Schools: Aug 2003-Jun 2004).
-Facilitated customers’ shopping experience, organized merchandise. (Menards, Inc.: March-August 2003).
-Programmed and announced music for 91.1 FM WGCS. (Goshen College: Sept 2001-May 2002).

Education:
-BA in Interdisciplinary Studies (Communication/Theater, Music, Bible/Religion/Philosophy) from Goshen College, 2002.

Theatre Experience:
Directing:
-The Dreaming of the Bones (Yeats) Goshen College, March 2000.
-A Bird in the Bush (Kliewer) Goshen College, April 2001.
Stage Managing:
-All’s Well That Ends Well, Back Porch Theater Company, Summer 2001.
-Two Gentlemen of Verona, Back Porch Theater Company, Summer 2002.
Acting:
-El Remendado: Carmen (Bizet), Goshen College, March 2002.
-Dr. Emmett: The Curious Savage (Patrick), Goshen College, November 2001.
-Dumaine: Loves Labor’s Lost (Shakespeare), Goshen College, March 2001.
-Lane: The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde), Goshen College, November 2000.
-Various roles in One-Act plays, Goshen College.

Technical and computer skills:
-Operating a multi-channel soundboard.
-Connecting and operating digital cameras, DVD players, stereo equipment, etc.
-Trouble-shooting computers.
-Creating for the Web (Programming HTML, MySpace, Blogger, etc.)
-Working with Word, TLC Library Solution Circulation and Cataloging, Print Shop, Media Player, Digital Camera software, PhotoShop, and QuickTime.

Music Experience:
-St. Joseph Valley Camerata (professional choir) (2005-present)
-Founding member of mennosong male vocal quartet (2005-present)
-Sang in a musical theatre revue at New World Arts, August 2006.
-Private Voice lessons (1995-2002)
-Goshen College Chamber Choir (1998-2002)
-Goshen College Orchestra (1998-2000)
-Goshen College Wind Ensemble (1998)
-Private violin lessons (1987-1995)

Hobbies:
-Film and television studies and filmmaking.
-Theatre and musical theatre.
-Writing movie reviews and blogging.
-Digital photography.
-Classical singing.
-Reading books and magazines.

Domino

2006-08-04T09:16:00.000-04:00

Domino is a so-so action movie, something like a cross between The Italian Job and The Fast and the Furious, but without the humor, or the cars. It stars Keira Knightley, who spends a lot of time posing and pouting sexily. This doesn't make me like her character, but it does seem like an accurate way to play someone who is a violent tomboy and who used to be a fashion model.

Domino Harvey is a sulky, impetuous, and parentally neglected girl who eventually discovers her destiny as a bounty hunter (which, I was surprised to discover, is an actual profession). The writers made a great decision in choosing a major turning point in Domino's life as the focus of the movie, but that is the end of the good screenwriting. The movie starts near the end, not in a clever way, but simply as a ploy to try to make a more engaging movie. The only reason it works is because you have to think to figure out what is happening in a movie that otherwise doesn't require any thinking.

Domino tries to be existentialist and philosphical with the repeated phrase "Heads you live, tails you die," and ends with moderately poignant discussion of destiny, and a shot of the real Domino Harvey, whose life the movie is based on...Sort of.

My main complaint about this film is the sensational, achronological beginning. The movie starts with a violent and gory raid on a dingy trailer, leading the viewers to believe that the characters are violent criminals. In fact, the three main characters are well-rounded and, one might say, even professional. They do things a little on the gray side of the law, but not exactly the black side, and they are certainly not sadistic.

I was looking for a relatively mindless movie to watch last night, and this movie delivered. I would have been happier watching something else, but it was at least entertaining enough for me to stick with it till the end.

Pushing thirty, and still clueless

2006-07-26T17:15:00.000-04:00

In the grand scheme of things I'm not very old, but for the first time in my life, I don't particularly like the fact that I'm turning a year older. Twenty-seven is a lot closer to thirty than twenty-six was, and I have this (possibly erroneous) idea that by the time one is thirty, one should have an idea where one's life is headed. I'm not sure if I know where my life is headed, but here's what I've been thinking of in the last year:

I'm feeling a strong urge to start my "real career" in something arts related. (I always felt that working at the library was only temporary, and they know that.) At the same time, buying a hou$e, and talking about having child$ren has made me re-consider the advantage$ of a $teady job. I want to make a decision about how to balance these two factors, regardless of the fact that I'm pushing thirty. I've also learned that keeping issues in limbo is a very adult thing to do, so I'll try not to panic on July 25, 2009, when I still don't know where my life is headed....

Tristan & Isolde (2006)

2006-07-20T21:51:00.000-04:00

The legend of Tristan and Isolde is apparently even older than the legend of King Arthur. With all this time to work the kinks out of the story, and all the variations to read when one is adapting the story for the screen, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that the story is the strongest part of the movie Tristan & Isolde. The rest of the film is solid, but has some distracing technical elements. Nevertheless, I eagerly looked forward to see how the story would end.

The story and screenplay are definitely the strongest elements of this movie. The plot is historically viable, and has no gaping holes. The characters are well-rounded and realistically motivated. There are no "good guys" and "bad guys"; everyone acts in a way consistent with their life circumstances, motivated by their fears and loves, and aided (or hindered) by their talents (or lack thereof).

I never thought twice about the costume design of the film, which means it was doing its job. The lighting, while taking the usual liberties during night scenes, was equally transparent. More obtrusive was the editing; there were some rough transitions back and forth between takes, and some slightly goofy stuff in which people and elements faded in and out of a static shot to show the passage of time. The movie does a good job of explaining who is who and where the action is taking place. I appreciated that near the beginning the filmmakers weren't afraid to put lots of text, and even maps, on screen to explain the history of the conflict and the locations.

I may have already attributed the "best casting of a character played by two different actors" in one of my earliest movie reviews, but the casting of the young and older Tristan is also among the best I've seen. What impressed me as much as the similarity between them was the sheer talent of the child actor. I've never seen children engage in fight sequences; the young Tristan did, and I knew instantly that his character was going to be an amazing warrior (which, indeed, he turns out to be). His ability to convey fear, anger, and confusion was equally impressive.

Before watching the film, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to take James DeFranco (Tristan) seriously in a medieval setting (he plays Peter's friend Harry in Spider-Man). I almost couldn't, but he did an excellent job none-the-less. Sophia Myles as Isolde was sublime (in beauty and acting), but the real acting award would go to Rufus Sewell, as Tristan's lord and adopted father. What could have been a generic "king" role has more depth of personality than the main characters in some movies I can think of.

Tristan & Isolde is an excellent love story, and a strong medieval-setting film. It should appeal to anyone who likes films in either of these genres.

Eight days a week

2006-07-19T09:20:00.000-04:00

I realized this morning that starting last Monday, I'm going to be working 12 days in a row at the Library (or, for the Library: Sunday I'm at the Library Fair Booth from 12-2pm). I didn't mean to work every day, but I did mean to pick up extra hours where I could, because my wife is working 11 or 12 hour days at the moment (she is tutoring seasonal workers, so she has to do what she can before they all move away in a few weeks).

At the moment we're doing fine; we were a little stressed a few weeks ago. The hours, combined with LR's new job in the fall, mean that we'll really be able to afford the new windows we're getting for our house! Between these and attic insulation, I'm expecting big energy savings in the winter, and hopefully a cooler house for the rest of the summer.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

2006-07-10T09:57:00.000-04:00

Dead Man's Chest may be the movie Disney was intending to make when they made the first Pirates. You know, the movie that everyone thought would be a flop because it was based on a cheesy theme park ride, of all things!

The thing that annoyed me most about the movie was that it seemed to pander to 6-year-olds with cheesy thrills (Wow look, a big sea monster! Cool!!!!) and detailed exposition on any plot points that might not be completely obvious.

There are some interesting characters, old and new, many of whom we will likely meet in installment three next summer, but the movie was too busy trying to thrill us to spend time on anything with much depth (ha ha--no pun intended). The upshot of this was two-fold. On one hand I didn't buy that all the characters were praising Captain Jack at the end of the movie. I hadn't seen him do anything for anyone but himself during the entire story. On the other hand, I'm really curious to see what happens to a certain former Commodore, who may or may not be making a come-back....

Punks and Police

2006-07-06T16:16:00.000-04:00

Someone rifled through my car again last night, presumably looking for valuables. Since I haven't put another stereo in my car yet, they couldn't steal it, and there was nothing else of value in the car. Also, I don't lock my doors anymore, so there was no damage done, but it's annoying.

Ironically, while this was happening, I was calling the police to complain about kids setting off firecrackers in the street (it's illegal for kids to set them off unsupervised, and it's illegal after 11pm, so even though I was really calling because it was annoying, the law was doubly on my side!)

Darth Simon

2006-07-05T16:48:00.000-04:00

Hmm....a fine looking candidate for the Sith.....

Darth Sidious moves in for the recruit while Simon is distracted by the Dark Side of icecream.

Reasons you might not respond to an email

2006-06-30T09:07:00.000-04:00

I started this list as a way of working out my frustration over people not responding to emails I sent. Writing out these reasons has helped me to better understand where people are coming from, and I've realized that *gasp* I have even been guilty of some of these!

Reasons you might not respond to an email:

you skim and ignore anything not life and death, because....
you have too many emails
you consider email to be a lower-priority form of communication
you think emails are like bulletins: info only.
you are too lazy to develop an opinion.
you are too lazy to type their opinion.
you don't care about the topic or event.
you forget to go back and reply to an email you read the day before.
you assume that no reply means "No"
you enjoy the power-trip of holding the sender in suspense
your computer doesn't work
you don't have access to email
you don't check email often enough, so....
you don't see the email way down in their inbox.
the event under discussion is past.
you share an email account, and someone else has already opened the message, so you don't notice it.

Do you have any additions to the list?
Which ones are you guilty of?

Defining My Genre: Alternate View

2006-06-28T17:11:00.000-04:00

You may be wondering why I'm defining My Genre at all, instead of merely saying that I like adventure stories, and listing some of my favorites. Here's why:

I have in my mind a sort of "ultimate story." Every book I read, and every movie I see adds something to that story. The narratives that define My Genre are the ones whose elements most concisely tell my ultimate story.

Now that I've written this series (in a mostly linear fashion, without knowing where I was going) I realize that "genre" isn't really the best word to use. It would be more accurate to say that what I am defining here is "The stories that are most representative of everything I've ever read or watched."

Car stereo theft

2006-06-27T12:40:00.000-04:00

Sometime between Friday night and Monday morning, some idiot broke my car window and stole my stereo. I have to laugh at them because the stereo doesn't work, but $108 to fix the window doesn't make me laugh. They also stole a case with some of LR's and my old tapes. Again, not a great loss, but the annoying thing is that they'll probably end up in a dumpster; if only I knew which one! Ryan pointed out that if I hadn't locked my door, it would have saved me a lot of money. I may have to try that....

Defining My Genre: Conclusion

2006-06-26T15:48:00.000-04:00

When I was young, my preferred type of book was set in the Far North. Man against Nature, or Animal against Animal, Man and Nature. For most of my teenage and adult life I've read almost exclusively science fiction books. But every once in a while, as with the LEGO sets, I take a totally different track. The last three books I read were The Mists of Avalon (classic science fiction), The Dragon Queen (new science fiction), and The Voice In My Heart (an autobiography of a Burundian genocide survivor). I am currently reading The Raven Warrior (sequel to The Dragon Queen).

I've realized there is a common theme: adventure. Surviving in a harsh environment, traveling through space, riding with King Arthur and his knights, surviving a brutal attack: they are all about feats of strength and daring; about brave people doing amazing things.

That is My Genre.

Defining My Genre: Part 3

2006-06-23T18:16:00.000-04:00

For most of my life, when I've built stuff with LEGO bricks, I've built space ships. When I was growing up "Space Lego" was popular, and there were a lot of sets to drool over in the LEGO catalog. I couldn't afford much, but I bought a few small ones and combined it with my brother's old LEGO to build what I could.

I built a thousand and one variations on a number of basic space ship designs, dictated partly by my imagination, and partly by the limitations of the pieces I had. Nowadays, when I build with LEGO, I still often built spaceships. They're fun, and the mechanical nature of LEGO is conducive to making machines, even if they only function in my imagination.

Given my 20-year fascination with building spaceships, I'm still not entirely sure why the one time in my life I spent big bucks on a LEGO set, I bought a pirate ship instead of a spaceship. I've analyzed this decision many times over the years, and the one conclusion I can come to was that the spirit of the pirate ship appealed to me. Swashbuckling, climbing ropes, sailing the high seas in myriad adventures.... I'm not sure why I didn't imagine similar fun things about space travel; maybe I was just needed a break from space. Ironically, my fascination with piracy soon faded, and I used the pieces from my new set to build.....more spaceships!

What does this have to do with My Genre? You will see......

Defining My Genre Part 2

2006-06-21T17:09:00.000-04:00

These days, I watch many more movies than I read books, but there are similar standards against which I consciously or unconsciously compare other films. These include:

Star Wars (original trilogy, of course)
The Bourne Identity
Pulp Fiction

There are other amazing films that I enjoy, and that, in my opinion, are the ultimate pinnacle of their respective genre, as if all other works in that genre were just rough drafts of these culminary works. These include:

The Lion King (Disney film)
Serenity (Science fiction/Western)
The Matrix (Science fiction/Action)

Defining My Genre Part 1

2006-06-16T17:22:00.000-04:00

While trying to come up with a list of my favorite books for my profile, I realized that the books and films I've enjoyed the most over the course of my life are not necessarily the same as the ones that have had the most impact on me. When I read new books, or watch movies, I subconsciously compare everything to the books that define what I'll call "My Genre." When it comes to my occasional attempts at writing my own books, I find that many of my ideas are also strongly influenced by these formative books:

The Keeper of the Isis Light (by Monica Hughes)
The Chronicles of Narnia (by C.S. Lewis)
The Chrysalids (by John Wyndham)

Just for the record, some books that I enjoyed but were less "defining" include:

The Wolf King (by Joseph Wharton Lippincott)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (by Robert C. O'Brien).
Watership Down (by Richard Adams)

2006 Stanley Cup Finals: Game 5

2006-06-15T08:53:00.000-04:00

I watched Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals last night, starting near the beginning of the third period. I missed most of the action, as they tied the game up 3 to 3, but got to see the final Goal That Counted in overtime. What a play!

As I watched the third period action, I could see why the Hurricanes were winning the series 3 games to 1, in spite of being plagued by injuries. Their plays were organized, their moves were tight, and they were skating like winners. In contrast, the Oilers were fighting for their lives. They played well, and for the most part avoided penalties, but even they were getting tired by the end of regulation time.

I heard about a fan in game 4 who had a sign reading "Hockey is still Canada's game." NHL hockey had it's birth in Canada, and in spite of the increasing technicality of the game, with video training and high-tech equipment, the Edmonton Oilers proved there is still a place for good old-fashioned Canadian grit and determination.

In the first few minutes of sudden-death overtime, the Oilers were inches away from ending the game, firing 4 excellent shots in less than 4 minutes, one of which rang off the post with a resounding clang. The Oilers knew they were only one goal away from losing the Stanley Cup, and they fought passionately. If the Hurricanes scored, the season was over. A few minutes later, things were looking grim as the Oilers took a penalty. Being a man up for 2 minutes could have been just the break the Hurricanes needed to put away the season. But as the Hurricanes were regrouping in their end and preparing to charge the Edmonton goal, Fernando Pisani of the Oilers stole the puck. Time seemed to slow down as he sped towards the net, one on one with the goaltender. Was this happening? Had he just stolen the puck while his team was short-handed?? Was it possible? Then, could he score against this amazing goalie, who had just shut down the rest of the team 4 shots in a row?

Yes! A feint to the center, and a quick shot to the upper right corner and it was all over. In spite of the Hurricanes' organized play, in spite of their hours of practice and the experience of over 80 games together, the decisive factor in the game was a wildcard; a brilliant short-handed steal, and a one-on-one rush! Because of this good old-fashioned hockey, the Oilers will live to see another game: Go Canada!!!!

The exploits of Simon

2006-06-14T17:15:00.000-04:00

Please let my know if this slideshow takes too long to load, or has some other problem. I'm experimenting.

Flash Slideshow

Subtitles

2006-06-08T17:20:00.000-04:00

I've often wondered how they decide which people to subtitle....

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

So tired....

2006-06-08T08:20:00.000-04:00

Since about 6 weeks ago, I haven't slept for more than an hour or two between 3am and 7am. As I said to Brandon the other weekend, I get 6 and 4 half hours of sleep per night. I'm not sure why this is happening. I've known for years that I naturally wake up after about 7 hours of sleep, which is annoying since I need 8 or 9. Sometimes I think it's because I'm hungry, lately it's often been because of my cat nuzzling me (I banished him to the back room last night, and it was great!). It could be the dawn, but that seems weird, because there should be less light now, with daylight savings time, than there has been in summer's past. It would be easy to blame it on sleeping in a new house, with east-facing windows, but this definitely started weeks before we moved. So I don't really know why I can't sleep.

All this is to say that between work around the house, and being tired, I haven't had the energy to post much. Someday soon I will remember to bring my camera, and then I will have lots of pictures to post!

X-Men: The Last Stand (X-3)

2006-06-01T00:30:00.000-04:00

I was really looking forward to this movie, but I was disappointed. The acting and special effects were great, and the story had a lot of potential, but the movie just wasn't put together in a gripping, exciting way.

The superhero characters I have enjoyed getting to know through X-Men 1 and 2 are still there, but instead of doing cool stuff, they just strut around, serving the script. I feel their passion, but not their motivation.

At the end of a huge tragic scene, some of the characters start crying. When this happened, I felt suddenly catapulted out of the mood of the movie; I was just watching the actors cry, and I felt nothing, because the movie had done such a terrible job of telling the story during that scene.

One of the things I like about X-Men 1 and 2 was that the movies and characters are so strongly grounded in reality. X-Men 3 is closer to its comic-book origins, and suffers because of it. The comic-book X-Men have fantastical histories; almost all of them have died and/or lost their mutant powers multiple times. For me, the strength of the first two movies is being able to identify with the characters, even while being awed by their powers. In this movie, reality is a distant memory, and the mutants' powers are little more than a special-effects freakshow.

King Kong (1933) vs. King Kong (2005)

2006-05-26T09:15:00.000-04:00

The 2005 remake of King Kong, and the 1933 original are both excellent movies; if you like one, you will like the other. They both have a fascinating story, a plethora of strong characters, even the same cheesy monster fights. Without detracting at all from the original film, the remake updates the cinematography and special effects to modern standards. This is not to say that modern standards are inherently better, merely that they allow the film to connect more easily with contemporary audiences.

It is fascinating to see virtually the same movie told from two different perspectives. Both could be called "Hollywood movies" (though not necessarily in the literal sense) but the culture of America in the 1920s has a distinctly different flavor than the globalization of 2005, and although both movies are set in the 20s, the differences are striking. Obviously, the use of CG vs. stop-motion animation and color vs. black and white film, but even the way people talk, and the nuances of relationships are heavily influenced by their respective cultures. For example, in the 1920s, no apology was necessary for the implication that women (such as the heroine, Ann Darrow) were frail, and that men were their protectors. In 2005, the movie bends Ann's character ever so slightly to accommodate modern cultural views; she is still largely a pawn in the overall plot of the movie, but she is a more strong-willed and self-confident pawn.

I may be one of the few people who watched the 2005 remake of King Kong before watching the 1933 original. I don't recommend this, for two reasons: first, the remake builds on the original in a myriad of ways, paying homage to shots and actions, characters and even quoting specific lines. Watching the original, I found myself constantly back-comparing, thinking about the history of the movies, instead of moving ahead with the story. Second, it's easier to appreciate the enduring quality of the original, and the faithfulness and improvements of the remake when you watch them in that order.

Yesterday I bought the remake, and I'm looking forward to watching all the DVD extras!

The Complaining-about-yardwork Club

2006-05-24T16:03:00.000-04:00

Every time I talk to someone about my new house, they make a big deal about how it's a lot of work to keep up the yard. Is this supposed to make me feel bad, or are they commiserating with me?

In a way, it's like they're accepting me into their club, but apparently one of the major club rules is that you have to complain about mowing the grass. I understand that mowing the grass is one of those things that just needs to be done, but no one really likes to do it. But is complaining about it some sort of therapy, or an attempt to drag me down into misery with them? I suspect the former, but I often feel like it's the latter.

Whatever happened to keeping a positive attitude?

New house; lots of work!

2006-05-22T19:02:00.000-04:00

I feel so much better now that we're actually in our new house! It's great, great, great to have our own place--a nice house, with lots of character, nothing that needs to be fixed right away, but lots of little projects I can do to make things better.

It's exceptionally convenient to live within biking distance of so many things. Friends, church, the Library, etc, etc. Now, back home I go, to....pick a task! There's always something fun to accomplish :-)

Plagiarism

2006-05-18T09:29:00.000-04:00

I just read yet another article about a rich or famous person getting busted for plagiarism. What's up with that?? With everyone and their dog writing books, making movies, etc, etc, these days, I know it's hard to come up with original stuff, but it's also so easy to share information (whether by book, web-site, or DVD) that I'm surprised anyone would risk it.

I learned my lesson in 5th grade, when I wrote a short-story version of "The Black Stallion." I wasn't even intending to plagiarize; I was just obsessed with the story, but my teacher pulled me aside and gave me a lecture about plagiarism, so I learned.

To me, "Do Not Plagiarize" was a basic life lesson, like "Do Not Steal." I pity the people who didn't learn this when they were young.

Spanglish

2006-05-16T13:33:00.000-04:00

Spanglish is an insightful, passionate story about the relationships between a mother (Flor) and daughter, both immigrants from Mexico, and the family that hires Flor as their housekeeper.

In spite of numerous lines of dialog, and even whole scenes in Spanish, I never felt that the movie was straining to make us Anglos understand. The script was cleverly written so that there is always some sort of logical translation--usually a bilingual character translating for an English-speaking character. The sole exception is, unfortunately, in the climactic scene, where the film resorts to a rather mundane voiceover that detracts from the emotion of the scene.

My favorite scene is one in which the Hispanic daughter translates for her irate mother. Not only is the girl an amazing actress, imitating first her mother, then the man she's talking to, but I was shaking my head in amazement at the hilarity and poignancy of the situation; a daughter forced into the middle of a fight between adults, but dutifully translating, even when it hurts her.

Spanglish looks, at first glance, like a typical romantic comedy. It is in fact a realistic look at the complexity of interactions between and within two families, and across language and cultural barriers.

The end of Camerata (for now)

2006-05-15T16:16:00.000-04:00

The St. Joseph Valley Camerata has disbanded, for the time being, following our last concert on May 6. We sang our hearts out, and it was an excellent concert. I will miss this group; I was looking forward to many years of professional choral singing with it.

But, in the words of David Seitz, musical director, "The board members accepted...my resignation. However, neither the corporation nor endowment were disbanded. There are no plans to resume performances just now, but the possibility of Camerata Singers, Inc. being the vehicle for future high-quality performances by accomplished and auditioned singers remains."

The day after the concert, I was talking with some singing friends about forming a smaller mixed voice choral group, more along the lines of mennosong. This idea is part of the Big Unknown currently dominating my plans for the fall :-)

Delay: Part II

2006-05-13T08:28:00.000-04:00

The mistake made by the USCIS has caused a cascade of faulty information regarding my immigrant status. The mortgage company gets their information from the Social Security Administration, but since the USCIS only got their act together this past Thursday, the SSA's data was out of date, and now the mortgage company's information is out of date. Unless the mortgage company can show some real initiative and contact the USCIS directly, as we recently suggested, we are at the mercy of the communication lines between USCIS and the SSA.

The upshot of this mess is that we might lose the house because of a bunch of bureaucratic miscommunication.

Delay

2006-05-12T13:34:00.000-04:00

We've had to delay moving until next Saturday, May 20.

Who knew that I would need proof of legal residence in the United States to get a home mortgage? Probably lots of people, but no one I talked to. I was supposed to have said proof a few months ago, but USCIS made an error. Thursday I drove to Indianapolis to correct this error. Ironically, if I was hispanic, like most immigrants, the mortgage people probably would have thought to address this issue sooner, and we wouldn't have had to delay.

Summer plans

2006-05-10T12:24:00.000-04:00

I have a lot of ideas for what I'd like to do this summer.

First among them is buying a house. That is almost finalized. Then I will want fix up the house. It's an old house, so it needs some repairs, but there are also some things I just want, like a garden, and a ceiling fan (it doesn't have A/C).

I would also like to find a part-time job in television, or something along those lines. Maybe a movie theater or movie rental place, although that might not be quite stimulating enough.

My parents might be visiting, and helping with the home repairs, but I would also like to visit their farm again, and see my sister's new place in nearby Owen Sound.

Interspersed among these major activities, I'm looking forward to catching some big summer movies; at the very least X-men and Pirates of the Caribbean. I'll also be hanging out with friends a lot; living near them is a big part of our reason for moving to Goshen.

I'm really looking forward to the next few months!

Jessica

2006-05-08T13:53:00.000-04:00

In preparation for living in Goshen, beginning next week, we've had to buy a second car. We can only afford an old beater, so I was pleased to find one with the redeeming quality of being interesting to look at ;-)

Car brain

2006-05-04T16:03:00.000-04:00

I'm looking for an inexpensive car to buy. I've been shopping around, and reading reviews of cars. I know about what I want (under $1500, good fuel economy and reliability), but now I have to find one. There are a lot of places to look. Too many options. My brain starts going in circles.

I read an article in Discover magazine about a study showing that people made better decisions about complex purchases when they didn't think about them too much. I'm not sure where the line is between being intuitive and being lazy. Can I stop thinking now?

I believe I love my stapler

2006-05-03T14:53:00.000-04:00

mennosong press release

2006-04-28T18:52:00.000-04:00

The a cappella male quartet mennosong will perform an hour-long concert at 7:30pm on Saturday, May 13 in the Reith Recital Hall at Goshen College. The program will consist primarily of sacred music from the Renaissance, and African-American Spirituals. Tickets are $4 or $1 for any student. Tickets are available from any mennosong member, on our website: www.mennosong.org, at the Teacher-Education Office at Goshen College, or at the door. Tickets purchased before the concert entitle the ticket-holder to $1 off a mennosong CD. CDs will also be available at the regular price of $10. mennosong’s previous performance venues have included Greencroft Senior Center, Das Essenhaus, Walnut Hill Mennonite Church, and most recently, Kern Road Mennonite Church. The current members of mennosong are Dan Horst, Jeff Martin, Adam Tice, and Michael Weins, all of Goshen. mennosong is available to sing at Church services, dinners, weddings, funerals, and other events. This concert marks the one year anniversary of mennosong’s "ministry of a cappella sacred music."

Moving day approacheth

2006-04-25T16:32:00.000-04:00

We decided that Sunday afternoon, May 14 will be the official day of moving into our new house. Yay, new house!!!!!

You don't know the pleasure of the dark side!

2006-04-24T01:03:00.000-04:00

From my friend "Skywalker," a highschool friend I re-connected with last week: