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The Blind Side

I went to see The Blind Side today. There were lots of previews that had nothing in common other than being dramatic. Or comedies. Or just some totally random collection of movies that had no tie-in to any other movies out at this time. Oh, well, it’s still good to see. But by the time they were finished, I had forgotten what we came to see.

In full disclosure, I had absolutely nothing to do with this movie except as a viewer. With that caveat out of the way, let me say how much I enjoyed this movie. I found it excellent in nearly every way possible. The actors all gave great performances, including the young Jae Head playing SJ Tuohy in a scene-stealing performance. It seemed Kathy Bates had less than five minutes on-screen, yet her presence was immense.

The essential plot is given in either of the two excellent trailers that I saw (which gave the essence of the movie without giving away the movie – a rare feat in trailers today). Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock in her best role so far) and her husband family take in Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a large, quiet, practically-homeless black teenager, one Thanksgiving eve and give him a home. They help him to learn, play sports, and become a young man who can live in society rather than be stuck in the trauma of his young life.

Having graduated from Mississippi State, I detest Ole Miss, probably as much as Leigh Anne detests Tennessee. Other than being located on a beautiful campus, I don’t know that I’ve ever had a pleasant thing to say about Ole Miss. Yet, the power of this movie was such that I was actually rooting for Ole Miss. My maroon blood had a blip of red & blue.

Maybe The Blind Side will receive Academy Award attention; I believe it’s certainly worthy of nomination. With a field of ten best-picture nominees, surely a place can be found to honor this movie; it is great enough to be nominated were there merely five choices.

Regardless of critical acclaim and awards or lack thereof, something deeper is at work in this movie. While we all can be better people and treat each other better and be more humane, this movie sounds a clarion call to Christians to step outside the ghetto of the church and be a force of change for good for the sake of people, not power or fame or control. While money can help and is necessary, throwing money at a problem will never solve said problem. It sometimes requires blood, sweat, and tears.

Years of inactivity, lip service, entitlement, and judgment have lead to our society in which Christianity is belittled (somewhat rightly) for overt hypocrisy, in which Christians seem to act merely to gain political power, and in which God is ascribed the source of all things evil and wrong rather than the Father and Author of all things Good in our world that He is.

Christian, you have been called to a higher standard and at great cost and sacrifice. Is it enough to say, “Thank God I’m saved”? is that the extent of the value of our lives? It is not enough to just be right; we must also do right. It is not enough to just be good; we must also do good. It is not enough to just be loved; we must also love.

“…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” – Philippians 2:12-13, NIV

Hard to do

On July 6th of this year, I had to do the hardest thing I’ve encountered in my life: I had to put my beloved cat, Clark Kent, of nearly 16 years (3 days short) to sleep. He had developed kidney disease; his liver was beginning to fail; he had a lesion on his lung; and his levels were all moving in the wrong direction.

I put up a memorial page on evercats.com. Sadly, the picture posted there is the only one I had available when I wrote it; it doesn’t show how beautiful a cat he really was.

I can’t believe how much I miss him, over two months later. I thought losing my dad was hard, and it was (and is). But I still cry for Clarkie. Not every day like the first couple of weeks, but man, I never knew how attached to that little creature I was and still am. I still hear him walking around, rustling paper. Fortunately, I don’t feel him jump up on my bed, but I have felt paper brush against my leg, and for a split second my thought is that it’s him. Then reality crashes in.

I know in time I’ll not cry (as much), but I’ll remember him fondly until my brain stops working so well. Goodbye, little buddy.

Sadness

Maybe it's because I first read about this on the first anniversary of my dad's death, or maybe there's something God is trying to tell me, i don't know.

But I read about this student who had been missing since May 1, Gerald Smith (he was a member of the Lockergnome community run by Chris Pirillo. He was found dead last night (click title for article). I "knew" yesterday afternoon that he was gone. When I read last night that his body had been found, I cried.

I'm not against crying or afraid to do so, or even afraid to admit that I do. But I'd sure like to know why it has affected me so much.

Finally

Well, after months of hemming, hawing, and darning, I have finally joined a gym. Dieting can only do so much, but in the past, working out has done wonders for me. And I really need to drop some major pounds, especially before I go back to the doctor in a couple of months. And I really want to be off my medication but soon. I'm tired of being overweight.

Tomorrow morning is my first workout (with a trainer). At 6:30 a.m. Future days I hope to start earlier.

One Month Later

While I started out with a bang this year on the blogging front, I quickly sank back into old patterns. It's been a month since my last post. To be fair, I've not been blogging a whole lot; hence, the lack of posts. Yep, think about that one a moment.

I set up mobile blogging a few days ago but haven't played around with it much. Don't know how "bloggy" I can be on a phone. Should voice recognition in the next G1 update come to fruition (they're adding an API for it, and it's there in rudimentary form currently), that might be more better [sic].

On to the purpose of this post (finally): I'm so looking forward to Terminator:Salvation. It's the continuation of the Terminator franchise, though this time after Judgment Day. John Connor (Christian Bale) has come into his own as the leader of the human resistance, and SkyNet is winning. Not having really read anything about the movie and its plot (I prefer to remain uninformed and enjoy the movie for what it is), the couple of trailers I've seen lead me to believe that SkyNet developed some kind of synthetic skin/body-type stuff, quite successfully. Check out the latest trailer.

I'm so stoked about seeing this movie. I got goosebumps seeing trailer 2(?) a few weeks ago, and I thought the only way it could be better was to open a week later on my birthday. Christian Bale rocks, period. I haven't seen everything he's done, but everything I've seen him in, he has done a good—great, even—job.

People are going to hold his tirade against him. "I'll never watch anything with him in it again." "He's an atrocious person." All because someone leaked a recording of Mr. Bale blowing up, a recording from a closed set, violating the trust and privacy of all involved. I have to trust the director, McG, when he says that Bale apologized to the offended party the day it happened. Why do I believe him? Maybe because he was there.

I'm sure those condemning Mr. Bale have never had a bad day, have never lost their temper—ever, and have never done anything they regretted. And certainly not had it recorded and then made public for all the world to see and pass judgment. I guess in today's world, those perfect people must cast stones because it's their prerogative. God left them in charge, obviously.

Late or Never?

Wow I've been busy. I started out blogging with a bang, and now it's been what, five weeks since I last posted. So much I've wanted to write, but haven't taken the opportunity to do so.

Okay, watched Stanley Kubrick's The Killing. Pretty good movie, and very accessible for a Kubrick movie. His stuff is not for everyone, but I think most people can enjoy this. The basic story is about a robbery of a horse racing track, the lead-up to the robbery and the aftermath. The story is told in a fairly straightforward manner, kind of a precursor to Dragnet stylistically. It's pretty violent for its time (1956), and I suppose still a tad violent for today. It's definitely not for kids.

I went to see Watchmen and enjoyed it very much. Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I think well worth seeing.

Went last Saturday to see Race to Witch Mountain — by myself! (I don't have a problem going by myself). I never did watch Escape to Witch Mountain beforehand, but I don't think it matters. Race pretty much only made reference to Escape, and it wasn't necessary to see the latter; Race is its own movie completely. I so wanted it to be so much better, and I feel Disney just rushed it before completion (ending work on a project doesn't mean it's finished, just stopped). Dwayne Johnson pretty much carried the movie on his broad shoulders. This is another one of those (few) "moments of goodness" interspersed with longer patches of "blah" and "oh, get real".

Tuesday night, while working until 2:30 in the a.m., I finished watching Darling. An interesting movie, kind of bizarre. There was one scene, The Truth Game, I'm still not sure about the meaning other than recognizing psychological dysfunction and perhaps symbolic of a "multiple-interaction gathering of an adult nature", but what?

I also watched a Japanese film whose English title is Branded to Kill. The number three killer is hunted/taunted by the number one killer after taking out the number two killer. Well done but odd.

And tonight, I watched Key Largo, with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, among others. I would have testified I had seen this movie before, but what I saw tonight makes me wonder what movie I did actually see so many years ago. There was a hotel and a hurricane, but other than that, the movie doesn't match anything from my memory. (maybe I should watch Escape to Witch Mountain, just to know that I'm not mis-remembering).

As of 5:30 yesterday afternoon, I hit 40 hours at work. Fun.

What's Going On?

Yesterday (Saturday), I rented three movies from RedBox: Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach (Can't believe I'm admitting that), City of Ember, and The Wackness.

Balls Out has virtually no redeeming qualities. It's not too often you see a movie about tennis; at times, it is roll-on-the-floor funny, but so much of it is potty humor, the cussing is horrendous, and there are many cringe-inducing moments. I don't recommend this at all.

City of Ember was decent. The basic plot is that a city was established underground due to some global calamity. After 200 years, the people would come back up to the surface. Only, the box being used to track the countdown has been stuck in a closet, and no one knows what's supposed to be happening. Food is running short (except for the foodstuffs horded by the mayor), and the generator supplying electricity is failing. No one knows how to fix any of the problems, only apply gross patches. I'm not sure why this movie didn't do better; I know marketing was horrible for it. What I was expecting from the spotty memory of the trailer is not at all what happened.

The Wackness is very odd. Since movies are due back at 9 for RedBox, I ran out of time to watch much more than about 20 minutes of this one. I don't think I need to see more. Interesting note: the main guy, Josh Peck, was in the Nickelodeon show Drake & Josh. The movie definitely should not be watched by any tween/teen fans of the TV show.

Right now, I'm listening to The Dan and Joe shoe, episode one. It's a talk show between Dan and Joe where they discuss movies and music and whatever. The link is www.danandjoeshow.com, a pretty basic site. Kind of humorous.

A Quick Note to Christian Bale

Mr. Bale,

Happy Birthday!

Thanks for your work. It is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Jack

New Things

Part of my non-year resolutions is to do more things that involve not staying at home watching movies (though I want to more of that, too, whittling down that list of unwatched DVDs I have not compiled yet).

Last Tuesday, for instance, I had planned to go see Jon McLaughlin in concert at Warehouse Live (he sang the song "So Long" from Enchanted); I have his album Ok Now, which I've listened to three times now, according to Windows Media Player; apparently I like it quite ok now. Ahem. By the end of the day, exhaustion had set in, and I just didn't feel good, so I didn't go. I regret not getting to see him perform, but I don't regret not going.

Today, I got up early, got my oil changed (at 7:01!), then to Sam's to pick up tax forms, then to Wal-Mart for my snack bars and some other stuff; home to do the taxes; a shower, and then off to the next thing I wanted to do. I was determined to do this, this thing. This thing turned out to be MP3 Experiment 1.0 with the Houston Flash Mob. We downloaded a an mp3 we weren't supposed to listen to until the event. Check out Houston Flash Mob web site for more details. The experiment was down at Discovery Green downtown. Everyone participating started the mp3 at the same time, and then we were all instructed what to do as time went on. It was a blast! I waved, danced, played freeze tag, melted, Chariots-of-Fire ran, and clapped. It was so much fun. And I went by myself and had such a blast.

I'm watching Kung Fu Panda tonight, rented from Red Box. It's been quite humorous, and a decent story, too. I'll probably add this to my collection; it's been far more enjoyable than I ever anticipated.

Updated 1/25/2009: corrected link to Houston Flash Mob website; I had reversed two letters. sorry for the confusion