Movie Review - The Orphanage

Just watched the Spanish thriller El Orfanato (The Orphanage) last night, and I was blown away. After seeing the Oscar winning Pan's Labyrinth, I became a huge fan of Guillermo del Toro. While he didn't direct this movie, he attached himself to it as the producer, so, I gave it a shot.

The movie's protagonist Laura grew up in an Orphanage but was adopted by a family when she was a little girl. Now, as an adult, she and her husband (Carlos) bought the old orphanage, and dreamed of turning it into a home for special needs children. A noble ambition, but may have been driven by the needs of their own adopted son, Simon, who was born HIV positive.

With no other children to play with, Simon invents friends to play with. His new friend Tomas is particularly creepy....seen wearing a cloth bag over his head.....On the new orphanage's opening party, Simon disappears, and the general creepiness ensues.

I don't want to go into further details on the plot, but just wanted to comment on the production values. Juan Antonio Bayona, the director, knew where to place cameras in order to capture the mood and tension in his actor's face. He masterfully used music and dark lighting to accent the creepiness....

The actors, primarily Belén Rueda (Laura) and Roger Príncep (Simon) were incredible. Laura captured the agony of a mother who lost her son.....the mood swings, the arguments with her husband, and the pain. Simon, as the main child, breaks through upon learning of his disease and his adoption.

yes, the movie is in Spanish, but go see it. Its out on DVD, and its well worth a rental, especially if its dark and windy outside....see it, you won't regret it.

Inflamed passions at the Euro Cup

In yesterday's Euro Cup action, Poland was leading Austria 1-0 late in the match....when the ref called a penalty kick in the 90th (read - last minute) of the match.

Austrian Ivica Vastic nailed the penalty kick, tying the match, and keeping the Austrians in the tournament.

Afterwards, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk claimed that he wanted to kill the English ref....he has since backtracked on those words...but could you imagine an elder U.S. statesman making comments like that after a college football game?

link

Agent Zigzag.....Eddie Chapman

Sitting at the Tampa International Airport, I just finished the most incredible story. Its the TRUE story of Eddie Chapman, a career British criminal turned Nazi spy....turned British MI-5 agent....

Eddie's journey starts in lower class London, and takes you through Jersey (the island....not the Eastern US), to Paris, to Bonn, to Lisbon, Oslo, back to London, and ultimately to Ireland....

his riveting story, written by Ben Macintyre, tells the tale of love, betrayal, hope, espionage, and ultimately, patriotism...

this guy Eddie was one of the most secret spies of World War 2.....people like Goerring (head of the SS), J. Edgar Hoover (American FBI), and Winston Churchill followed his movements....the only British citizen to ever be awarded the German Iron Cross....the man was an enigma.

his story crosses paths with Ian Fleming, then a British Naval Intelligence officer, who used his memory of Eddie Chapman in creating James Bond.....he also was buddies with Terrance Young, who went on to direct Dr. No and From Russian with Love.

this book was incredible, I couldn't put it down, and I highly recommend it. It reads like a Tom Clancy thriller, James Bond script, and exercise in war brinkmanship......go out, and read it....you won't regret it.

On Senator McCain....

while the media has spent the last few months focused on the race between Obama and Clinton, I'm more curious in what John McCain has been up to.

I've heard vague notions of reviving the Straight Talk Express, something about bringing the soldiers home not being a priority, and that his tax plan will help Bill Gates and only Bill Gates.

So, has he picked a VP yet? Since he is going to be 72 when he takes office, his pick of VP will be scrutinized much more than Obama's VP. Here are my thoughts on some of the "top picks" (according to the LA Times):

Mitt Romney - good hair, good business background, Governor of a solid Dem state, and good at pleasing everybody. but, does he stand for anything?

Mike Huckabee - plays bass, is from Hope, Arkansas, and likes to quote the Bible. But, likes to quote the Bible a bit too much....would his name tarnish the maverick reputation of McCain?

Charlie Crist - governor of Florida (we all know how important Florida is), but wisely avoided the whole Teri Shiavo situation.....don't know much more about him, could be interesting.

Tim Pawlenty - Despite being from Minnesota, I don't know much about him. According to wiki, he has close ties to Dick Cheney, and is the most conservative Governor in Minnesota since the 1920s.

Dick Cheney - pros: tons of experience, can easily step into the presidency
cons - he's Dick Cheney, he's already been President for 8 years.

7 year old wants to do hood rat things with his friends

wow..just wow...

CNN Video


and the requisite response:


Youtube Response

thanks for the links Autumn!

No Creativity in Hollywood?

What happened to coming up with original ideas? Granted, I shouldn't talk, since I'm not the most original person, but at least I'm not making movies with $100 million budgets.

All the big budget movies over the past years are either:

a) sequels

b) adapted from comic books or books

c) regurgitated from our memories

Of the 3 categories, I'm most upset with (c). First Transformers, now the Smurfs?

You have to be kidding me??? Why can't Hollywood get its act together, and stop blaming piracy for its lack of profitability?

Random sites NSFW.....weird

what are some random websites that are blocked at your work......

i'll start:

menshealth.com

theonion.com

cracked.com

Granted, the onion and cracked are complete time wasters, but, shouldn't my bosses applaud my efforts to improve my diet, health, fitness, and style?

what are some random sites that your corporate overlords don't want you navigating to?

Fun with FM Transmitters

Since I've switched over to the Westin Hotel in Tampa, I now have a 25 minute commute into work. Rather than listen to the rush hour junk on the radio, I decided to dig up my ipod and my FM transmitter.

My FM transmitter (seen below) is not the best, in fact, its a piece of junk. But it was cheap (somehting like $20 a few years ago), and manages to semi-work....



So I'm listening to my tunes, and I pull up at a stop light. All of a sudden, my radio switches from the Kings of Leon (great group, check them out), to some random country music. I chalked it up to the stop light and the car next to me.

Of course, as it turns out, the car next to me was going to the same place that I was, so I was treated to country, random club techno, and the song from Back to the Future at every stoplight.

I wonder what I'll get to listen to on my way home......it isn't my own music, but its still better than the crap on the radio.

Why Wait?

If you know that you need to do something....why wait?

I used to drive my parents crazy with "I'll do it in five minutes". But why would I do that? Why do people procrastinate?

The work isn't going to change in 5 minutes, next month, or next year. It still needs to get done, so why wait?

Case in point. I woke up this morning with the intention of going for a 4 mile run. I was out of bed, ready to go, and then got lazy, and went back to sleep. I rationalized it with "I'll run at night. Besides night running will help me unwind, so really, its a disservice to run in the morning."

Of course, the procrastination gods are punishing me....weather.com just listed a 60% chance of rain tonight.....doh!

No Caffeine - end of day 2

so, the work day has come and gone....and I survived. Even more impressive given that I was awake at 4:15 am to catch my flight down to Tampa this morning.

I drank 4 cups of decaf green tea to match my 3 liters of water. But, I'm happy to report zero soda, zero coffee, and zero caffeine.

Even snuck in a quick little workout, and I'm planning a much more ambitious 4 mile run tomorrow morning.

wish me luck

Fancy biking.....too fancy for me...

The Flobots claim that they can ride their bikes with no handlebars. way too fancy for me.....but great, catchy song.

check it out

Video Link via youtube

Thanks for the rec Niraj....

Day 2 - No caffiene

tired, groggy, but still trying to pull through.

any tips for a tired, soon-to-be-ex-coffee drinker?

Fubol Passion....

I'm watching Fox Soccer Channel...and watching some Argentinian futbol championship league, and some team named River Plate beat Olimpo BB for their league championship.

While the match was interesting, I was more into crowd watching. The place was insane!
The announcer claimed that the scene was bedlam, and I don't disagree at all....random fights, chants, streamers, and even fireworks being launched from the stands....madness

this match got me thinking. Latin America and Europe have soccer, Africa and Asia have cricket, and Canadians have hockey...what do normal Americans have?

The usual suspects are American style football or baseball. While they are both worthy, neither seems to inflame the passions of humans as much as soccer does. The closest that we may have is college football, which while being awesome, its decidedly tame compared to the soccer spectacle. With a straight face, can you say that the bedlam at a Michigan / Ohio State game....or a Texas / Oklahoma game will come anywhere near to any of the matches between Arsenal and Chelsea?

Hot Deals at the Public Library

Just got back from the Chicago Public Library (Lincoln Park branch - Racine and Fullerton), and as I was checking out, my eyes caught sight of this board.

The board contained a list of the most popular Chicago area museums, including the Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry. Each museum had a status of either "In" or "Out" next to it.

So, being an inquring mind, I asked the librarian what the deal was. So here's the skinny:

Each Chicago area library (I'm sure that other cities have this as well) have free passes to the museums. They have up to 5 for each place, and each pass is good for up to 4 people. You can't reserve them in advance, but if you score one, you get to keep it for up to a week.

So when its raining, and you want to check out some fish, but not pay $25/each to go to Shedd...seek out your public library.

note - i also picked up Erik Larson's "Thunderstuck". Pretty stoked about this book....

Summertime = Volunteering

Now that the weather is over 70 degrees, and the humidity is kicking in, I think its safe to declare that summer is officially here.

Being a Midwesterner who is buried under snow for 6 months a year, I love the summer. I love being outside and running, playing basketball, going to the beach, and....volunteering?

I've wrote about my time with the American Brain Tumor Association. While that's definetly a worthy cause (especially given my past), but in the summertime, I like to help out Chicago Cares.

Chicagocares.org is a listing service that updates various community projects on a daily basis. This morning, Mona and I went out to the Drake Community Gardens, and helped them get their place in order.

Being outside, working with our hands, enjoying the weather, and helping the community. all around, a great event, and I can't wait to sign up for my next event.

If you're in Chicago, check out Chicago Cares. If not in Chicago, I'm sure that your city has its own list, so seek it out! happy volunteering!

Memories associated to music

its weird how music can trigger random and disparate memories.

For example, whenever I hear Metallica's "The Unforgiven", I think of Bram Stoker's Dracula. As it turns out, when I read Dracula for the first time (way back in 7th grade), The Unforgiven happened to be my favorite song, so the 2 random items became linked. Now, I can't read one (or listen to one) without thinking of the other.

So I'm at work today, listening to my ipod. Rather than going to my normal go-to disc (Lupe Fiasco's "the cool"), I decided to dig digger. I ended up on the Band of Horses. Not realizing it, but the last time I listened to them was the day that I was officially rejected from all 4 of the business schools that I applied to. So now, I'm rocking out to the Band of Horses while trying to ignore the pangs of my bshool failure.

its weird how such a great band (the band of horses) is now forever linked with that day....

True Crime

For the past year, I've been on a true crime / non-fiction espionage kick. I grew up loving Tom Clancy and Hardy Boy books, and somehow made the switch over to the non-fiction side.

Some of the books that I've enjoyed are:

1) Devil in the White City by Erik Larson - murder and mayhem during the Chicago World's Fair

2) Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner - history of the C.I.A.

3) The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright - history of Islamic fundamentalism and Al Qaeda


I'm currently reading "Agent Zigzag", which is about a Nazi spy in World War 2. Once I'm done with this...I'll be looking for something new. Any good recommendations??

5 Lessons Learned from training for a Marathon

On June 1, I completed the San Diego Rock'n'Roll Marathon in 4 hours 50 minutes and 23 seconds. This was my first marathon that I have ever run. I started training for the race in late January 2008 and continued for the next 5 months. I wanted to share 5 lessons that I learned while I was training for the race...

1. Less is more...I started out with a training program that called for running 5 days a week. I was able to maintain this program for the first 8 weeks of the 20 week program. I gradually realized that I was becoming exhausted at the end of the week and would start skipping runs because my body was too tired from the runs earlier in the week. Eventually I switched to a program that called for running 3 days a week. Not only did this reduce the amount of times I was running, it also gave me the added flexibility of moving the runs to different days when I had other obligations going on. If I were to do it again, I would use the same 3 day a week program. You can generate the 3 day a week program at http://www.runnersworld.com/.

2. Walking is acceptable...Before I started training for the marathon, I received a book that detailed how to train for a marathon. One of the themes of this book was that it was OK to walk during a marathon. The author, Jeff Galloway, an expert marathon runner, has done numerous marathons over the past 30 years and coached others to run in them. His basic premise was that by taking walk breaks, you are able to rest the muscles that you use when running. He also says that if you take the right amount of walk breaks, you will have more energy at the end of the race. His observation was that people slow down at the end of the race. I followed a somewhat modified Galloway style race. Instead of walking say every 10 minutes or every mile, I walked through each aid station to make sure I drank enough water throughout the race. I did this because the course was supposed to be relatively flat (more on this in a minute) and each station was about every 1.5 miles. I will say that I agree with him on slowing down at the end of the race. However, I feel the reason I slowed down was not because I didn't do enough walking, but due to all the hills during the last 5 miles of the run. Next time, I wish the organizers would be a little more kinder in their race design and put the hills in the beginning!

3. Prepare to eat and eat and eat...I thought I was going to lose some additional weight by training for a marathon. I didn't realize how much food my body would be demanding from all the running I was doing (especially early on). I think I ate somewhere around 18-20 pounds of spaghetti over the course of 5 months. The problem is you are burning so many calories that you need to keep eating in order to keep running. I'm glad I can go back to running shorter distances, lifting weights, and eating less!

4. Training is easier with a friend...Ok, so I was insane enough to agree to run a marathon, but was I up to the task of training by myself during the height of the cold Minnesota winter? For the most part, yes. I did long runs of 15,16,18,and 20 miles by myself. The 15 and 18 mile runs were on a treadmill. The 16 and 20 mile runs were done outside. There were severl 10-12 mile runs that I did outside as well. The last two weeks of training I found someone to run with me. Those last two weeks were 10 mile runs each and they went by easier with someone else running with me. This also gets me to the actual race itself. I'm really glad I had a friend there who ran with me. Not only was it nice to be able to run with someone I know, but this person was able to keep me going and push me forward. If you'd ask my friend the same question, he'd answer the same way I have.

5. Finishing feels great...The moment I crossed the finish line, I knew that the last 5 months of training were not wasted. I joined an elite group of individuals that can say they have completed a marathon. It was really a sense of great accomplishment once I crossed the finish line. Will I do it again? Probably, but not this year. Preparing for a marathon takes a great deal of time and I have some other goals I would like to work on this year. I will continue running and staying fit - I'm running a 10K at the end of June.

If and when I do train for my next marathon, I will try to remember these lessons and strategize accordingly. I leave you with a picture of me running to the finish line. Whatever your goal that you have in mind, may you succeed in reaching it.

Note: I am the white guy on the far left of the picture.

Thoughts on Lost....

I just finished Season 4 of Lost, and while I will continue to watch this glorious show, I now firmly believe that the writer's are starting to wing it.

While the 4th season was the shortest season, it was also one of my favorites. As I finished watching the finale, the thought struck me.

Why introduce an oddball / unknown character ("Jeremy Bentham") in the last epsidoe, only to reveal his identity. In previous seasons, the writers would have performed a slow burn.....peppering the entire season (or multiple seasons) with references to Jeremy Bentham....and in the process, driving the audience insane (see..."the numbers").

Anywho, still a huge Lost fan, will continue to watch and debate the show religiously....but....has the show jumped the shark?

Photoshop Elements Review

I just came back from Costa Rica, and I have a ton of pictues. Since I've been relying on windows to keep me organized (bad move), I just realized that I have no idea what img788234.jpg means.

So, I decided to give Adobe Photoshop Elements a shot. I read that the software is a mishmash of regular Photoshop and a good photo Organizer.

After installing, I let the program sift through the "My Pictures" folder...and it pulled all the images in. From there, I can go through and tag my pictures with the people in it (ala facebook), places, events, etc. Bascially, any way that I want to organize my pictures, Photoshop Elements will do it for me. great feature.

So now that my pictures are tagged (some, not all), I decided to play with some of the photoshop-ish features. In Costa Rica, we went ziplining during a tropical storm. I brought along my little Canon Point-and-Shoot, and while getting some amazing shots, most of them had huge raindrops on the image sensor. With Photoshop Elements, no problem...the cloning tool took care of most o fthem.

I've only had this software for about 12 hours, and its already starting to replace Picasa.

I've heard that it integrates with flickr, which integrates with Blogger....which means that it might be a few days before pics are posted...but thye will be.

stay tuned for more...