Children of Men is Cool

Nelly and I took a little time this weekend to go see Children of Men, which turned out to be a rather good idea. It's an interesting and thoughtful movie. Now usually that means there will be a ton of exposition and a lot of boring quasi-philosophical narration. But Children tells its story deftly and the details of this crazy mixed-up future-world seem to flow out naturally from a great script.

The one thing I would say is that, if you are receptive to the movie when you see it, you should prepare yourself for some strange dreams. This movie hews to our reality so closely that when it raises its unanswerable questions its effects are fairly chilling.

Word of the Day: Triage

I was just talking to a friend of mine online. In describing my work I used the word triage. I don't know why, it just felt like the right word. I was a little concerned that it might be a misuse, considering the heavy dose of hospital-related TV shows Nelly and I watch. However, after looking it up online, I think it's pretty appropriate.

the system of prioritizing patients in an emergency situation in which there are a great number of injured or ill.

It's an apt metaphor for my situation these days. It's funny how this sort of thing just kinda blows up on you.

Roomba

I got Nelly a Roomba for Christmas. Here's a video of it in all its glory.



It's adorable! And it does a great job cleaning up.

The Good Shepherd v. Munich

For the past two weeks, Nelly has been on break from law school. That means we have more time for doing fun things like seeing movies. We recently saw "The Good Shepherd" which was unbelievably long. (Remember that scene at the end of LotR where all the hobbits are hugging on the bed and they're saying goodbye and it just goes on and on... worse than that!)

It's length was just about the only attribute that stood out in this movie. It wasn't that it was bad more that it wasn't nearly good enough for me to spend so much time watching it. This reaction was put in stark relief last night as I flicked over to HBO and found they were playing "Munich" (based on the reputed Mossad assainations after the Munich Masacre).

Both movies follow a regular joe as he backs his way into becoming something of a master spy for his country. Both films take on the delicate balance of familial and patriotic duties. Both show a man slowly progressively losing himself, his friends and family to his occupation. They even have similar run-times (with Munich coming in 4 minutes fatter).

Except Munich paints a much more vibrant, interesting, entertaining, and captivating picture. In every imaginable aspect (writing, directing, acting, dialog, music, editing...) Munich far exceeds TGS. The only categories The Good Shepherd wins are fedoras, trench coats and misery.

"Surge"

The word "surge" has been in the news recently. Mainly it's used by people describing our president's latest Pinky-and-the-Brain plan to take over the world (Or at least, "complete the mission" in Iraq). That is, he's going to announce a plan to send even more troops to Iraq.

It's sly to use the word "surge" to describe this troop increase. Surge implies that the level increases and then drops off (perhaps even below prior levels). It connotes an imagery of a flood of troops storming into Iraq and breaking down the insurgency and then whisking safely away back home. When the reality is that these troops will join the 120-140K (anyone know the actual number?) currently trying to avoid IEDs and hunkering down in their heavily defended bases.

This is not a surge; it's an escalation. These poor men and women aren't going to come home until after Bush leaves office.

Tomorrow's Forecast

I know that talking about the weather means that I have nothing interesting to say, but did anyone else notice that tomorrow's weather forecast calls for near-record highs of 67º? I know what a certain badger-like person would say: "GLOBAL WARMING!"

The weather certainly was enjoyable during our trip to Washington, DC over New Years (more on that later). And since I lost my hat, I'm kinda glad that it has remained rather temperate. But I like the seasons and I really do love snow.

Plus, my sister got us this incredibly delicious hot chocolate and I just don't feel right drinking hot chocolate when it's 70 degrees outside.