True Grit

broderic on December 31, 2010

I heard that Christmas day is one of the days in which people watch a lot of movies at the theatre. Although, we caught it on the day after,True Grit (2010) was our Christmas movie. And while it wasn’t packed at all, it was more people than I expected given that a snow storm was coming and the movie was a Coen brothers film.

Ahh, Coens! Their last film was serious so this one has to be a comedy. You wouldn’t know it from the commercials that play up the fact that this is a western. And you wouldn’t know it that the last time the book was filmed, it had John Wayne in his only Oscar winning role as Rooster Cogburn, one of the protagonists. Jeff Bridges will make you forget John Wayne. But not The Dude.

The young lady playing the lead is pretty good. She would get an Oscar nomination if she wasn’t the lead but the supporting actress. She was good. Very serious as a character and whose seriousness brings out some of the hilarity of her situation.

Jeff Bridges is good too. Somewhat dudish, but only in some of his locution as he sounded more like the dude than a old-timey US Marshall.

I liked the movie for the simple fact that it was funny at times. It made watching it during my Christmas break enjoyable, and the mirth in the movie overshadowed some of the more gruesome parts of the story. It was good enough for 2 young kids to watch as well, as long as they don’t mind the dialog.

3 of 5 stars.

The Detritus of the Season

broderic on December 30, 2010

We’re nearing the end of another year and the end of the holiday season. I’ve survived and so have you. It is a weird thing to think about, but the holiday season hasn’t been the holiday season in a long while for me.

I’ve given up on religion for at least four years now. No church, no belief in an afterlife, no God, and does this affect how this part of the year plays out.

In my younger days and in the days before giving up on religion, I’ve always felt this to be the best time of the year, because of the connection you get from serving your fellow men with greetings of good tidings and holiday wishes. The giving of gifts extended these feelings; an extension of freely giving of yourself to others, in service to others. The selflessness that this season aroused in me was welcome.

But lately, I haven’t felt that way. I doubt it is the loss of religion as I don’t believe having religion as a precondition to being selfless and caring. It’s more that the last couple of years, the Decembers have swept by and the holidays get up and get down. Before you know it they’re upon you. You spend hectic days shopping, but never contemplating what it all means.

I find that only a few things can get me out of the funk and into a holiday mood. It’s A Wonderful Life is one, but sadly, it is no longer shown on every channel, every where. The Charlie Brown Christmas album is another, but iTunes is evil and splits it into 2 albums so I can’t listen to it completely on iPhone. These two, any time I catch them during December, it instantly becomes the holiday season.

Yet, I still wish I could get that feeling back. Christmas is gone. Maybe next year.

Monday Morning Musings [VI]

broderic on December 27, 2010

It's been awhile since the last post under this heading, but what better way to kick off a quiet week at the office. No one's around. Just me in the lab. No one to see that you're slacking off. Let's write a blog post about something!I figure that this one should be about the year that passed, 2010. While nothing spectacular happened, there are some highlights and lowlights to assess. Overall, another mediocre year in the life of BrowserMetrics.The best things to happen where the vacations with cousin Bob. It's a good time whenever he's around, but an ever better time when that time is spent in magical places: Disneyland and Hawaii. O, those were vacations to remember. Fun and sun. Surf, sand, and more. Lots of good things, good times, and good eats.Terrible things that happened this year. I never rode my bike. A good friend went back home. We had a couple of blizzards and I never made it to the slopes. My inaction on a lot of these issues was disturbing. Maybe I should get out more?Movies? Didn't watch too many. My Netflix queue is not getting serviced too much. Nothing is playing on TCM. I'm just waiting for something good.Books? Manga! Manga! Manga! From Uresawa to Uresawa: Pluto to 20th Century Boys. Lots of scifi in there: Saturn Apartments, Twin Spica, 7 Billion Needles. It's seems that I've run full circle to my reading habits although it's now manga. As for traditional books, not too much read.Anime! Too much torrenting, and not enough buying. K-ON! ended which makes me sad. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and Summer Wars anime movie were both released which makes me happy. Other anime to have watched: Oreimo, Amigami SS.There were lots of things I did this year. Just nothing spectacular. Have you done your year end retrospective as well?

Link of the Day [12.24.10]

broderic on December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve and if you don’t have that Christmas spirit then “Bah, humbug!” I’m home wrapping presents and doing last minute online shopping. It’s past midnight on the other side of the world, so it’s the 25th and Santa should be visiting those boys and girls of non-christian countries.

Stay safe this Christmas Eve.

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html

Scenes From The Maul

broderic on December 23, 2010

“She’s back.”

“Hey, dude. You’re girl’s back!”

“I heard you the first time. Stop the yelling.”

So I turn around, slowly, as cool as can be. Be the other side of the pillow. Be the other side of the pillow. She is there.

Ready?

broderic on December 23, 2010

This has nothing to do with Christmas, but everything to do with Christmas. It is the opening theme to the Haruhi movie, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. It takes place in December right around Christmas. The SOS Brigade would’ve had a nabe Christmas party unfortunately developments happened that side tracked the holidays. You just got to watch it. Of course, I’ve been telling you this for years now, but no one listens to me, because I have a blog. First, watch the two seasons of Haruhi and then watch the movie. I swear to kami-sama that you’ll enjoy! I think.