Esprit de l'escalier

Well, it’s 8am Monday morning and once again I find myself sitting at my desk with pretty much nothing constructive to do. So naturally I decided to pass my early morning work hours checking out art.com – one of the coolest photography and art sites there is. You see, being somewhat an artist myself, I find hours of entertainment cruzing the picture/art galleries.
I have a few favorite artists. I have a broad, but still professional, taste in artists. A few of my favorites include American classics like Norman Rockwell and classy masters of detail like Jack Vettriano. Sometimes I get so lost when I look at his paintings. I especially like ‘The Singing Butler’, it’s such a charming piece. Anyhow, this is my short snippet for today. So until I am inspired again, check out art.com and awesome painters like Jack Vettriano and let me know what you think.

Mr. Deeds
Rated PG-13

Adam Sandler has made enough PG-13 comedies that they’re becoming a genre all their own. The latest in the line is “Mr. Deeds.” And if you’ve seen many of his other films, you know pretty much what to expect here.

The Story
Sandler stars as Longfellow Deeds, a small town guy who owns a pizza shop and tries to sell bad greeting card poetry to Hallmark. Then his long lost uncle dies and leaves Deeds 40 billion dollars and control of a media empire.

When Deeds gets to New York, he finds his uncle’s lifestyle unbelievable. The huge apartment. The servants. And his personal butler, Emilio (John Turturro), who has a habit of sneaking up on him. What he doesn’t know is that the men running his uncle’s company are trying to get him out of the way so they can take over and sell off everything his uncle worked to build.

Deeds is also clueless that the new love of his life (Winona Ryder) is not a school nurse, but actually an undercover reporter for a tabloid TV show out to smear him.

Unable to pretend to be sophisticated and completely uninterested in money, Deeds hugs new “friends,” shares his bad poetry freely, and hangs out with the servants. He also gives away wads of cash to almost everyone he meets. But will the innocent Deeds get his heart broken and lose his uncle’s company? More importantly, will he make you laugh before you find out?

The Verdict
If Sandler has worked for you in the past, you can expect to find some laughs with “Mr. Deeds.” A few of the scenes cracked me up, but the movie as a whole didn’t make me laugh enough to recommend it.

Part of the problem is that Sandler is much funnier to me when he’s playing angry than when he’s playing nice. And his character in “Mr. Deeds” is nice to a fault. The comedy is meant to come from the clash between the small town, innocent doofus and sophisticated, upper-crust New York City. But we’ve seen all that before in a hundred other movies.

Ryder does a nice job as the tough-as-nails reporter who eventually falls for Deeds. But she’s almost too “weighty” as an actor for this goofball comedy. She really seems to care in a movie that’s not trying to be believable.

John Turturro steals every scene he’s in as the hilarious and sneaky butler Emilio. The rest of the cast just exists to give Sandler people to play with.

“Mr. Deeds” includes bad language and some sexual and crude humor.

The Message
Most Sandler movies exist in a world that’s so silly, any serious emotion or message just comes off as dopey. But his character in Mr. Deeds has a refreshing attitude towards money. He just doesn’t care about it. He’s content with his life and friends in his small town. He doesn’t believe he needs money to be happy. He’ll take it, but he doesn’t need it.

Overall, the movie was ‘alright’. Honestly, save your $9 and spend a third of that renting it later.

English
Period 3 May 13,1998

Parenting Essay

Now a days it takes a lot to be a good parent. You must possess certain wisdom and qualities like health, stable income, responsibility, etc. You must also keep in mind what it was like to be a kid, this way you can relate to them better and know what is good to do for them, what they didn’t like, what they did like, what helps them and other useful things like that. All in all make sure you are ready for the responsibility, that alone makes a big part of being a good parent.

Atticus, I believe possesses a lot of those ‘good parent’ qualities. He explains things thoroughly to Jem and Scout. A good example is when Atticus is explaining how you shouldn’t judge somebody before you have stepped into his or her skin and have seen things through their eyes (p.30). Another ‘good parenting’ trait Atticus displays is that he sets a good example. Defending a person nobody else liked was a good example Atticus set for his kids, plus he explained to them why he was defending that person even though others criticized and ridiculed him for it. “Because it’s what I believe is the right thing to do,” he said.

Being a parent in today’s world is not being taken quite as seriously as it should, in my opinion anyway. I also think that it is far more difficult to be a parent today because it is harder to keep your children from being exposed to lewd and unacceptable influences. (Influences of which not even adults, or anyone for that matter, should be exposed to.) Parenting has changed a great deal in our society and is changing more and more every day as new discoveries and ideas are being revealed. And honestly, if the world keeps progressing at the rate it is, I think parenting is going to get harder and harder as every generation passes. The best hope we have for the future is the good influences that those seemingly rare ‘good parents’ out there have.

Obviously it takes more than we often realize to be a good parent. Though a lot of people claim most of this job is run by instinct, a lot of it is raw work. The only problem is, in order for this relationship to ultimately work; it has to be a two-way transaction. In other words the child has to put in some effort along with the parent. The child has a reasonably easy responsibility to carry out; he or she just has to show their love and appreciation for what their parent does for them. And a lot of times, especially during the teenage years, this role can easily be forgotten.

As ridiculous as it seems a lot of the friction between a parent and their child is caused by the child’s lack of understanding. The inability to understand the rationality of their parents actions; for example, assigning a curfew, parents do this in order to set limits for the protection and guidance of their loved ones. Children often see this as nothing more than a way for their parents to keep them from having real fun. In reality, this is something done by a ‘good parent’. And more times than not, if the child follows this rule to the best of his or her ability a trust will be formed and he or she’s curfew might possibly be extended. As will the love and bond between the family.

English
Period 3 2-24-98

Reflective Essay

It was one of the biggest events of our High School lives. Well, so far anyway. To me it was just another dance. But to my friends, it was life.
It seemed like they couldn’t talk about anything else. It was always Winter Ball this; and Winter Ball that. It was as though nothing else mattered. Everybody was stressed and overflowed with anxiety. One particular friend of mine (out of the ten of us that where going together.) completely forgot to do her homework because she was so busy making lists and phoning for reservations. She had been doing this for about a month ahead of time. She had made dinner reservations and was arguing with the rest of the group about money for the limosen. I kept telling everybody that this was just the Winter Ball, not the Senior Prom!
Us girls even went out to get our make-up done professionally, and some girls went to a salon to have their hair done. Not to mention that most of the girls had there dresses two days after the event was announced. We pretty much had a second by second schedule laid out for us for the week before the Winter Ball. From here on it was a count down.
Finally the big day came and everybody couldn’t stop for a second. There were things to do and places to go. We each were off on a mission for the perfect night. First my mom picked us up to get our nails done, then, we were off to the mall to have our trial make-up runs by professional Lancôme artists, to get a feel for what we wanted the night of the Winter Ball. I personally came out looking like I was ready for a walk down the catwalk runway. My friends on the other hand came out looking gorgeous. No worries, it was just a trial run, and I got a new make-up bag out of it. So far, so good!
There were only a couple hours before the big moment and everybody was scurrying about like ants, looking and checking over and over in their minds for something they might have forgotten. My heart was pounding and my palms were like sweat shops. I couldn’t focus because my eyes were trying to look at too many things at once.
Well, I’m not sure how, but we managed to get everybody at my house ready to go. Though two guys showed up late, but that just gave the parents some extra time to squeeze in a couple more pickers. The parents were like tourists from another country that had never been to Disney Land; the camera flashes were nonstop! Finally the guys arrived, one of them being my date! Then we were off to dinner at a very fancy restaurant were the waiters sang opera for us and this guy at another table, whom we’d never seen before sent us fancy desserts after we finished dinner, he was a really nice guy!
We arrived at the dance a little over an hour late and ended up standing in line the whole time till the limousine came to pick us up to go to San Francisco. Therefore, we never even got to see the ball itself.
After getting our pictures, (of which one of the guys almost got pounded because he got mad that a whole other group cut in front of us) we finally got to leave. To make matters worse, my friend’s date and my date (the same two that were late) had their heads hanging out the windows of the limousine like dogs. All the while they all were yelling mean things to the bums and prostitutes! Though all these let downs made for a real hard fall, the guys managed to cushion it a bit with a surprise. They had the limousine driver take us to a lookout point on Treasure Island. It was so beautiful! Then the best part was when they turned up the music and we had our own little dance right there, to make up for the ones lost by not going to the ball! I had to admit the lookout point was far better than any gym.
A number of other events happened that night which would have ruined it for anybody else in our shoes. But we just made the best of it and tried to be optimistic. Now that I look back on it, I would have been miserable if my mind set wasn’t positive.
What my friend later told me is that, to her, the ball was a big let down. “A waste of money, effort and time!” she had said. I asked her why and she said it was because almost nothing went to plan, it all went wrong. I said “Well you can’t stop the rain, and anyway everybody had fun, didn’t they?” She said, “Yeah, I guess so”. I said, “Well, that’s the first priority. And always should be when concerning the event of a dance.”

Reign of Fire
Rated PG-13 for intense action violence.

It was about time for another post-apocalyptic sci-fi monster movie. If that’s your cup of tea, then “Reign of Fire” lives up to the genre with gloomy settings, moody characters, plenty of end-of-the-world corniness, and some pretty cool special effects. If that’s not your teacup, well, then, you’re going to hate it.

The Story:
It’s the year 2020, and most life on earth has been wiped out by fire-breathing dragons. Yup, I said dragons. Apparently, these dragons are what killed off the dinosaurs and caused the ice age. When they run out of food (i.e., people, animals), they go into hibernation in the depths of the earth until life has a chance to repopulate the globe. The latest feeding frenzy started around 2002.

In rural England, Quinn (Christian Bale) is trying to hold together a few dozen survivors in the ruins of an old castle. But the dragons are running out of food and come around to scorch and kill more and more frequently. Then a bunch of Americans show up, led by a bald, muscular, tattoo-covered soldier named Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey). He’s a dragon hunter who has learned how to kill the creatures and he’s looking for help to tackle the baddest dragon of them all.

Afraid it will get his people killed, Quinn wants nothing to do with Van Zan’s plan. Eventually, though, the showdown between dragons and humans must happen. As Van Zan says, “Only one species is getting out of this alive.”

The Verdict:
The plot description should tell you most of what you want to know about the movie. This is the kind of film you either have to buy into and ride to the finish or stay away from completely. If you start analyzing too much, you’ll come with all kinds of plot holes and questions that will make your head hurt.

“Reign of Fire” takes itself completely seriously. There’s no tongue in cheek sense of humor here. Christian Bale delivers a pretty good performance as the protective and terrified Quinn. Matthew McConaughey plays his role of gung ho military dragon killer so far over the top that he comes down the other side. The story offers a few new twists, but by the time you reach the middle the conclusion become inevitable.

The coolest thing about the movie is the dragons. Using distance and the gloomy countryside to hide the digital edges, the dragons actually look very realistic bearing down on the fleeing humans. And like all great monsters, they’re almost scarier when you can’t see them. They manage to touch some sense of inner dread we all carry about being chased and eaten by something so big.

“Reign of Fire” contains some bad language, but there’s no sex of any kind. Almost all of the violence has to do with getting burned or getting eaten.

The Message:
Refreshingly, “Reign of Fire” is unusual for an apocalypse movie in that it doesn’t blame humans or technology for the end of life as we know it. There’s no anti-nuke or anti-capitalism message. The dragons were coming back no matter what choices humanity made.

The worldview of the movie, however, is completely godless. At one point, Quinn leads the little children under this care in their “prayers.” Bur prayer just turns out to be reciting the rules for watching out for and running away from dragons. Asking God for help isn’t an option.

One More Thing:
Well, as much as I looked forward to seeing this movie; I still walked into the theater not knowing what to expect. I didn’t do as much research before seeing this film as I normally do with other movies. One reason might be because this movie wasn’t talked about as much as others. Anyhow, I walked out of the theater after the movie feeling somewhat…unsatisfied. I’m not sure why though. The cinematography was good, there was a lot of none stop action (but hardly any blood, guts or gore), there wasn’t any obvious romance, and I guess I felt that the plot could have been developed more. “Reign of Fire” had a lot of potential, it had a brilliant plot, and a great cast with unique characters and well formulated backgrounds. The only problem was that they didn’t utilize what they had very well. The dragons themselves were awesome. The anatomy and graphics were gracefully orchestrated. (I’ve always had an unpersued fascination with dragons and mythical creatures.)
Anyhow, through a moral scope, the movie was extremely clean. Very little cursing, no sex at all (not even kissing!). As a matter of fact, there was hinting at different potential romances, but it stopped at that, nothing went further than an arm across the shoulders. The good guys won in the end and of course there were two heroes, one of which bravely sacrifices himself in pursuit of justice and saving the human race. (I’m trying not to go into too much detail, so as not to spoil the movie if you plan on seeing it.)

Yea Yea, I know I’ve posted like 20 thousand entries today, but what can I do? I have a lot to say and I’m finally getting the hang of this thing. hehe *proud smile*.
I was thinking last night as I gently placed my chipmunk cheek on my pillow (btw, I’d just gotten my wisdom teeth pulled – go to trademehalos to read more about it). Anyway, as I was saying; I have the best friend ever! I know you all think that your best friends are the bestest in the whole wide world, but seriously – you’d think twice about your best friends if you ever meet mine. Her name is Loreanne and she has been there for me ever since we were in diapers. That’s right, we’ve been best friends for 20 years now! (I just know you’re jealous, hehe). But honestly, I’ve had plenty of friends in my life time, but Loreanne has been the most faithful, loving and sometimes, brutally honest best friend in the whole wide world. She’s been there for me when I have been an absolute cranky pants and when I have been in need of a hug. She’s been there when every guy on the face of this planet seemed to be a jerk and she’s been there when I was seeing through rose colored glasses. She’s been there when I went off to college where I didn’t know anyone. Let me just say a quick side note about that. You know when you are going away and all your friends give you their email addresses and phone numbers and stuff and they say “Oh yes, we’ll definitely keep in touch! And we’ll stay friends FOREVER!” haha, let me just say WHATEVER! Leaving for college is not only a time that forces you to clean out your room, and re-evaluate your life, it’s also a time where you learn who your real friends are. And I have tons of people who are still my friends and we still talk and stuff whenever I come home on a break from school or whatever, but Loreanne is the only true friend that would call me and send me real written letters in the mail and would let me know she still loved me. She is the only true friend who always has perfect timing and would always stop whatever she was doing to talk to me when I called her on her cell phone. She’s even the one who introduced me to this lovely LiveJournal site. She’s the one who listens to my corny jokes and watches kung fu movies with me even when I know they’re not her favorite. She tells me about her favorite books that she’s reading and about a new top that she got at the mall. She tells me about the neat things she comes across at places like the fair that she knows I’ll like. She is beautiful in every way to me. She has a gorgeous laugh that brings her big smile and frosty blue eyes to life. I love her laugh, it’s a soft warm laugh. Someday I’ll find the perfect words to describe it. She has a beautiful voice and she just smiles when I tease her about singing all the time. Sometimes I’m jealous because she has never had any sort of dental appliance in her life and she has a perfect white smile (the kind that people like me pay a fortune for). She’s super strong and she’s a leader, but only acts like one when she feels called upon. She loves kids and kids love her. I always have fun telling my friends at college about her because we’ve had so many exciting adventures together. Someday I hope to write a book about her, because everyone should be able to experience an episode of the Loreanne series. I would say we are complimentary opposites, but we have tons in common. She is the bestest friend that any girl could ever ask for and I can only pray that you too are blessed to have a true best friend like Loreanne.

Ok, so maybe I’m a young idealistic college student in a brash, take-it-or-leave-it society. But is there no ‘good honest’ business these days? Perhaps I’m sounding like an old grandma, but I mean…I kind of wish things were like they used to be, you know…like, doing something for someone out of the kindness of your heart type stuff.
Just a moment ago I was given some paperwork to do and so I take it and start working on it like I normally do…typing and whatnot. What I was typing up is called a ‘packout’. A packout is a list of boxes and the items in them that our workers pack up for people who have had a disaster (such as a flood or fire) in their home. What we do is pack up their stuff if they ask us to and we bring it back to our warehouse to clean and restore if possible. Now this particular write up wasn’t organized into boxes like normal, in fact it had no order whatsoever. So I went to my supervisor and asked what should be done. He told me that I should just organize it the best that I could from the pictures that were taken. I asked if I should go tell our workers to organize the stuff into boxes, so it’d be easier for the people who have to clean it. He said that the workers wouldn’t do anything unless they were paid to do it.
I was kind of sad to hear this. I mean, honestly, it wouldn’t take that much effort to simply put stuff neatly into boxes. Plus it would have given our company a better image. After all, that is what our company is known for. To do the best we can at all times. We base our company on principles and our number one principles is to honor God in all we do.
Oh well, perhaps I’m just pursuing an American dream that faded long ago. A dream of ideals, smiles and trustworthy service that has become nothing more than a ploy to sell business and get people to trust in us while we do nothing more than what it takes to get by.
For what it’s worth, I hope there are more people out there that hold the same morals and values that I do. People that maintain integrity in a ‘dog eat dog’ economy. Because it may sound cheesy, but this dog isn’t going to leave her heart on the porch.

I sit here at work, in my little cubical and I listen to the hardy bantering of my co-workers. Normally I would be chuckling to myself at their good natured joking. But this time, for some reason, my conscience has once again chimed it’s warning in my head. I begin to listen to the joking again, but this time I have my moral sensor turned on. This moral sensor used to be turned on all the time, but recently, while watching a movie with my friends, I had quietly switched it off for social acceptance sake. I knew better, however, I casually glazed over it in a moment of peer acceptance. Anyhow, back to the office….I began to listen to the chuckles again with my moral sensor and, unsurpised, I began to hear what I knew would begin to weigh heavily on my heart. Racial slander, harsh reality, the works.
I had recently found out that the caucasian race had become the legal minority in California, but honestly, being a white female, I had never felt like a minority, let alone a majority…this was just something I had never really thought about. I have always been aware of these realities…but I suppose I had just tried to block it out.
But listening to my co-workers joke about imagrants and border crossing and stuff like that. I really began to strike a cord with me. I didn’t say anything, but I sat and began to weep in my heart for those who were not here to defend themselves.
So I cast the woes of this heavy heart out into the cyber abyss, out to anyone who will listen to my futile whining. And now, farewell for now deep abyss.