End of the month potpourri (Special Memorial Day Weekend edition)
In the midst of enjoying a fairly relaxing, stay-at-home Memorial Day weekend.
As usual, I'm feeling guilty that I have been so negligent with this blog that I'm trying to make amends by throwing something together at the end of the month.
I continue to be depressed with the BP oil "spill" (which, let's face it, is more like an oil "geyser"). Is it just me, or the do the folks at BP come across as the most incompetent corporate boobs in history. I haven't decided if they're more reprehensible that the Enron people, but they definitely seem to have their head further up their a$$es. But that's just one man's opinion.
I'm currently reading an excellent book called The Liberators: America's Witness to the Holocaust by Michael Hirsch. It never ceases to amaze me that, no matter how much I read about the Holocaust, I'm continually amazed at the sheer level of the atrocities committed by the Germans against their enemies, be they Jews, gypsies, or any of their long list of "undesirables." The book is told from the point of view of surviving American GIs who helped liberate these concentration camps and death camps, and they had no idea of the horrors they'd find there. I'm still only about a quarter of the way through this book, but I highly recommend it. It's pretty sobering to be reminded man's capacity for brutality.
I'm picking this back up on Memorial Day, and the three day weekend has sort of run its course. Up until a few minutes ago, the kids were getting ansy and I was feeling ready to get back to the relative peace and quiet of work--scary thought, eh? It seems as though now, however, the kids are back playing outside with the the neighborhood kids, despite the fact that rain is coming down. This brief period of calm has allowed me to write.
Figuring we'd better do something that the normal American does on a three-day holiday weekend, we took the kids to the movies yesterday. Saw Shrek Forever After, and was pleasantly suprised at how much I enjoyed it. I'd read one review that was less than complimentary, but I thought it was good. I've always enjoyed how the Shrek movies play with the old fairy tales, and get a kick out of the pop culture references sprinkled throughout. This movie has fun with the idea that Shrek has become a bored, domesticated husband and father and misses his youthful, carefree days as the dreaded, frightening ogre. Predictably, there is a "careful what you wish for" twist to the plot, but I don't think anyone watches a Shrek movie for storytelling originality. If you're a fan of the first three Shrek films, you'll enjoy this one.
I'm reduced to commentary about kids' movies because I so rarely see "grown-up movies" in the theater anymore.
Well, my quiet idyll has ended, so I'm gonna wrap it up and post this.
As usual, I'm feeling guilty that I have been so negligent with this blog that I'm trying to make amends by throwing something together at the end of the month.
I continue to be depressed with the BP oil "spill" (which, let's face it, is more like an oil "geyser"). Is it just me, or the do the folks at BP come across as the most incompetent corporate boobs in history. I haven't decided if they're more reprehensible that the Enron people, but they definitely seem to have their head further up their a$$es. But that's just one man's opinion.
I'm currently reading an excellent book called The Liberators: America's Witness to the Holocaust by Michael Hirsch. It never ceases to amaze me that, no matter how much I read about the Holocaust, I'm continually amazed at the sheer level of the atrocities committed by the Germans against their enemies, be they Jews, gypsies, or any of their long list of "undesirables." The book is told from the point of view of surviving American GIs who helped liberate these concentration camps and death camps, and they had no idea of the horrors they'd find there. I'm still only about a quarter of the way through this book, but I highly recommend it. It's pretty sobering to be reminded man's capacity for brutality.
I'm picking this back up on Memorial Day, and the three day weekend has sort of run its course. Up until a few minutes ago, the kids were getting ansy and I was feeling ready to get back to the relative peace and quiet of work--scary thought, eh? It seems as though now, however, the kids are back playing outside with the the neighborhood kids, despite the fact that rain is coming down. This brief period of calm has allowed me to write.
Figuring we'd better do something that the normal American does on a three-day holiday weekend, we took the kids to the movies yesterday. Saw Shrek Forever After, and was pleasantly suprised at how much I enjoyed it. I'd read one review that was less than complimentary, but I thought it was good. I've always enjoyed how the Shrek movies play with the old fairy tales, and get a kick out of the pop culture references sprinkled throughout. This movie has fun with the idea that Shrek has become a bored, domesticated husband and father and misses his youthful, carefree days as the dreaded, frightening ogre. Predictably, there is a "careful what you wish for" twist to the plot, but I don't think anyone watches a Shrek movie for storytelling originality. If you're a fan of the first three Shrek films, you'll enjoy this one.
I'm reduced to commentary about kids' movies because I so rarely see "grown-up movies" in the theater anymore.
Well, my quiet idyll has ended, so I'm gonna wrap it up and post this.
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