Movie escape

Movies are meant to be a way to escape reality for a couple of hours.  Time to forget all about the world outside and enjoy yourself.  There are those movies that are nothing but fight scenes and explosions and they are great.  The ultimate escape.  They will never be an award winning movie or sneak into a top one hundred list of the year, but they are serving a purpose.  Entertainment.  And according to a good friend of mine, that is their purpose.  There are dramatic movies out there that draw you into a different time or different circumstances that you would never ever see and blow your mind.  Those are the award winners and the top one hundred movies of the year and they are around to make people think. 

And then there are documentaries.  I love love love documentaries.  Call me a nerd or a geek all you want but they are great.  I'm watching 'Imagine:  John Lennon' at the moment and, if anything, it is making me laugh.  He had such a nonchalant approach to life that it make me sad that he isn't around anymore.  He was socially aware of the goings on in the world as well.  He promoted peace and love in his adult life which is what makes him such a fascinating person.  But above all of that, he was a musical genius (and I try not to use that term [genius] very often). 

Documentaries are meant to make you aware of the world.  Of certain situations you may not know.  Or, if you want, to just learn about people.  Currently on my Netflix queue I have documentaries that range from the life of Hank Greenberg to the rise and collapse of Enron, to the struggles to find and reclaim European paintings the Nazis stole during the second world war.  So there are many different forms of documentaries and they are not all Michael Moore type documentaries, edited for the director's own agenda.  Those aren't documentaries.  Documentaries are meant to be objective, not meant to push an agenda.

I watched 'Taxi to the Dark Side' last night and if you need a reason to hate the George W. Bush administration even more, this documentary is for you.  It took a look at the escalation of 'enhanced interragation' and the death of a man suspected of being a terrorist.  The reason this man's death was so important is because he died from injuries he suffered while being beaten and left in stress positions for hours (and by hours, I'm talking twenty to thirty hours) on end.  It explored the blurring line between what is right and what is wrong and how the Bush administration abused their power. 

The next time you want to watch a movie, think about a documentary.  They can open your mind. 

We had a good run

I never really expect winter to hang around too long here in Wichita. This year, it was late and stuck around for a day and a half. It snowed for about thirty six hours off and on and left close to two inches on the ground. I was so happy for those two inches, it was everything you could hope for. Just enough snow to make it feel like winter and just enough snow to make people down here freak out about it.

The temperature really dipped this past week. I went to work several times this week and it was in the single digits (not including wind chill). One thing I always enjoy about winter weather is bundling up. Keeping warm any way possible. There is still snow on the ground, but the temperature rose into the twenties yesterday and the day before and it has started to melt. The grass is starting to poke through and you can expect nothing less with such a small amount of snow.

So, it was a good run of winter weather and temperature for about five days, but now the temperature gauge is rising a little at a time. The teens to the twenties and close to the thirties. A few more days and the only traces of any kind of winter we had will be in parking lots in the forms of snow piles.

The weatherman cometh

It has finally snowed in the city of Wichita. 9 January 2011. Finally, it feels like winter. It will be snowing the rest of today and suppose to be snowing all day tomorrow. The weatherman scared the hell out of a lot of people here. It was predicted earlier this week that it was going to snow on Saturday and there were weathermen on the local news that were telling people to go out and get their weekend groceries Saturday before the 'storm' came.

At any rate, it made for a busy few days at work, which is great. The way people react down here in Kansas, it makes me think that people want to look at the weatherman as the fifth horseman. So, when the end of the world comes, at least in Kansas, it will be death, famine, war, conquest, and......snow.




How sad or funny depending on your point of view.

Oh Jim Joyce...

Amy K. Nelson wrote a nice little article on ESPN.com about Jim Joyce and his dealing with his inability to call an out. As a Tigers fan I will always hold a nice little place of hatred in my heart for him, but as a human being, I will always feel bad for him because of what happened. He knows he completely screwed Armando Galarraga. The great thing is Galarraga's sportsmanship towards the whole situation. Everyone knows how he handled it and how Jim Joyce dealt with the situation, so lets move on.

The nice thing when reading the article is what was written on Joyce's baggage claim when he left the city. If there was anyplace where he was not wanted it was the city of Detroit. However, the tags for his suitcases held a special note from workers at the airport. It's a nice sign that people are willing to admit mistakes and that it is okay to do so.

As dark as the world seems at times it is good to know that there are people around to let you know that making mistakes is okay. Hey, who hasn't screwed up a call at their daily job every once in a while.

Don't call this a resolution

When the new year starts, countless numbers of people make a resolution. However, the worldwide joke is that resolution. Sure, most people can keep it up for a month or two, but I would like to talk to the people that make a resolution going into the new year and keeping it. Last year, I made a mental deal with myself to buy less beer. One case a month, certain situations such as visiting family, parties, etc. garnered more beer. I thought I did alright with it. It, however, was not a resolution. I don't think anyway.

So I thought to myself while I couldn't sleep last night, what can I do this year that is simple to maintain and doesn't need a ton of attention. Think of exercising or weight loss as a resolution. That takes a lot of time and dedication. It also takes planning. Planning on when you are going to go, where you are going to go, what kind of food you will be eating to lose the weight, when is it okay to eat a little more, etc. It's too much effort. I thought about saving money (much like last year's trial of less beer buying). The easiest way to save money is to not buy lunch at work, or at least scale back on the amount of money and days I buy lunch at work.

It's so convenient working somewhere that has a deli and a bakery and an entire grocery store from which to choose lunch. Convenient and pricey at times depending on what you feel like eating for lunch. My goal for a month of work is to only buy lunch four times in a month. That is less than one work week spaced out over the course of thirty days.

It sounds simple enough, but it could be difficult at the beginning of the year. I think that once I get into the groove of bringing lunch to work, it will be easier. Much like last year, I am going to keep tabs here. I'll be tagging an entry '2011' at the end of the month to keep track of when I buy lunch. I figure that if this plan gets out into the open and can be read by others, it will hold me more accountable for the year.

So here's to a new year and a new plan. Don't call this a resolution my friends, this is a plan of action.