My cousins at Easter
Best Book I Read for the First Time none
Best online video I watched for the First time: .JPG)
Friday, May 28, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Movie Review: Out of Africa (1985)
Won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1985, featuring Meryl Steep and Robert Redford, directed by Sydney Pollack.
Situated between 1914 and 1931, the movie features a Danish woman who has money and is adventurous. She marries someone who has a "good name", and they get a farm in Africa. before she got there, he planted coffee without consulting with her. All in all, her new husband doesn't really love her, and they end up separating.
Our Danish woman, Karen von Blixen, knows a different studly game hunter, and they fall in love with each other. Karen is good at telling stories and has sympathy toward the natives, and Denys is a tender guy although self-centered. and they do fun stuff together like flying in planes and going on safaris.
Anyway, I doubt anyone cares to read the plot on here.
the movie felt really slow. The main actors are beautiful people and the nature of Africa is obviously beautiful. The scene with the pink flamingoes is the best. The story though is just slow and ultimately a bit boring.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The Replacement
There are a lot of story lines with my new car. Here they are in favorite order.
#1. The drastic change between my old car and my new car.
My 91 Camry had "no power anything", and things were breaking, such as my door handle and emergency brake and the A/C lever. Not to mention it was uncomfortable and ugly. (Though it does look better than most 91 Camrys I've seen out there) There was a lot of rust and non-matching paint from when we tried to fixed rust.
The new car is 17 years newer. It has power locks and windows and cruise control. And it drives normally - like when you press the gas pedal, it goes faster. It is really really pretty.
#2. The evolving philosophy of the car search.
Well I am really used to driving small old cars, and assumed that I would always get another old Camry. I picked a price range that I felt was appropriate for our savings, and considering that we need to replace the Jeep soon as well. I tested out a couple of cars. We almost bought a 99 Camry for way under budget, but the person selling did not end up leaving for India. Then the Accord I tried out (from someone leaving for Turkey) had really bad tires, salvage title, and no proof of timing belt change.
I realized something needed to change, like stop trying to buy cars from people leaving the country the next day. We were also reconsidering our price range and the make/models. I looked into all car brands. I know so much more about 4 door sedans than I used to. But I still had difficulty finding a fair deal on a Malibu or Fusion or Impala, (ie other brands).
And all this time, it is very difficult to focus on my work and also find and test out cars, and prepare for our child. Each car I looked at would take away precious time from other things. So by this point I was more inclined to look at cars that were less likely to have problems. I didn't want to get into a car with 120K+ miles because it would feel like the same old story again for me, with things breaking. Annique was born, and the car search went on a short hiatus.
finally, a couple of weeks later, my car wouldn't start after work at exactly 162,000 miles. It upped the pressure for me to find a car. Also, my mechanic fixed it for nearly free (after we got it there through push-starting). So I decided to listen to my mechanic, who has always recommended Kia. I basically put in some specific searches in Craigslist for Kia, and came up with a couple of nice ones. I asked Courtney if she was willing to invest a little more in a car, and she was cool with that. So after I found this one, it was smooth sailing from there.
#3 The debt story line. If you have known me a while you'd have guessed that I followed a debt-free philosophy long before Dave Ramsey came on the local scene. It was just how I was raised. Growing up, I had never heard of a car payment. So it is still a foreign idea to me, just like "not having a car payment" is a foreign idea to other people. To be frank, I think car payments are a really bad idea mathematically and emotionally and spiritually. This is not really the place to expound on that philosophy, so we will move on.
The other thing is that Courtney and I are not big spenders, and we save a lot. Dave Ramsey has a saying "Live like no one else, so that later you can live like no one else". I lived like no one else - for a while I have driven the oldest car out of anyone I know. And now I feel that I can finally LATER drive like no one else - have the ability to drive a nice car without a car payment.
#4. The length of the car search. It started about the beginning of March when we got a wheel bearing fixed, but the clutch problem had surfaced. My mechanic said there were a lot of things going wrong with it soon, and advised to not invest in fixing it. Which was fine with me, because I was ready for a new car anyway. But I didn't know it would take almost 3 months to find one, and happen after our child was born.
#5. God's provision I'm a believer in God's hand in my life, and how He can use events to shape other events. So I am at peace when things are in His hands. I really feel like He was in this.
#6. Protecting it This is the first time I've been protective of my car. I guess that is what the insurance is for, so you don't have to worry.
Will update with pictures sometime...
#1. The drastic change between my old car and my new car.
My 91 Camry had "no power anything", and things were breaking, such as my door handle and emergency brake and the A/C lever. Not to mention it was uncomfortable and ugly. (Though it does look better than most 91 Camrys I've seen out there) There was a lot of rust and non-matching paint from when we tried to fixed rust.
The new car is 17 years newer. It has power locks and windows and cruise control. And it drives normally - like when you press the gas pedal, it goes faster. It is really really pretty.
#2. The evolving philosophy of the car search.
Well I am really used to driving small old cars, and assumed that I would always get another old Camry. I picked a price range that I felt was appropriate for our savings, and considering that we need to replace the Jeep soon as well. I tested out a couple of cars. We almost bought a 99 Camry for way under budget, but the person selling did not end up leaving for India. Then the Accord I tried out (from someone leaving for Turkey) had really bad tires, salvage title, and no proof of timing belt change.
I realized something needed to change, like stop trying to buy cars from people leaving the country the next day. We were also reconsidering our price range and the make/models. I looked into all car brands. I know so much more about 4 door sedans than I used to. But I still had difficulty finding a fair deal on a Malibu or Fusion or Impala, (ie other brands).
And all this time, it is very difficult to focus on my work and also find and test out cars, and prepare for our child. Each car I looked at would take away precious time from other things. So by this point I was more inclined to look at cars that were less likely to have problems. I didn't want to get into a car with 120K+ miles because it would feel like the same old story again for me, with things breaking. Annique was born, and the car search went on a short hiatus.
finally, a couple of weeks later, my car wouldn't start after work at exactly 162,000 miles. It upped the pressure for me to find a car. Also, my mechanic fixed it for nearly free (after we got it there through push-starting). So I decided to listen to my mechanic, who has always recommended Kia. I basically put in some specific searches in Craigslist for Kia, and came up with a couple of nice ones. I asked Courtney if she was willing to invest a little more in a car, and she was cool with that. So after I found this one, it was smooth sailing from there.
#3 The debt story line. If you have known me a while you'd have guessed that I followed a debt-free philosophy long before Dave Ramsey came on the local scene. It was just how I was raised. Growing up, I had never heard of a car payment. So it is still a foreign idea to me, just like "not having a car payment" is a foreign idea to other people. To be frank, I think car payments are a really bad idea mathematically and emotionally and spiritually. This is not really the place to expound on that philosophy, so we will move on.
The other thing is that Courtney and I are not big spenders, and we save a lot. Dave Ramsey has a saying "Live like no one else, so that later you can live like no one else". I lived like no one else - for a while I have driven the oldest car out of anyone I know. And now I feel that I can finally LATER drive like no one else - have the ability to drive a nice car without a car payment.
#4. The length of the car search. It started about the beginning of March when we got a wheel bearing fixed, but the clutch problem had surfaced. My mechanic said there were a lot of things going wrong with it soon, and advised to not invest in fixing it. Which was fine with me, because I was ready for a new car anyway. But I didn't know it would take almost 3 months to find one, and happen after our child was born.
#5. God's provision I'm a believer in God's hand in my life, and how He can use events to shape other events. So I am at peace when things are in His hands. I really feel like He was in this.
#6. Protecting it This is the first time I've been protective of my car. I guess that is what the insurance is for, so you don't have to worry.
Will update with pictures sometime...
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
I wanted to see these Indiana Jones movies to refresh my memory about what they were all about, and come to find out, I haven't seen this one before. The only one I had seen was the Last Crusade, which makes sense, because it was made in 1989, and I then would have been old enough to watch these. I hadn't known that there was a five year gap between the movies.
Anyway, Temple of Doom opens up with one of the most exciting sequences possible. They travel high speed by car, plane, and boat. Then they end up by fate in a remote Indian village who had their sacred rock stolen, and their children kidnapped for slave labor. Of course our hero, Indiana Jones, and a nightclub singer, and Indiana's adopted Asian kid (?), go to retrieve the sacred rock and rescue the children.
Then a bunch of gross stuff happens with eating gross things, or reaching through, or walking through disgusting insects. Then the people who live in the "temple of doom" are having a religious service with human sacrifice and it's really evil and over the top. And not really entertaining to watch.
Then our protagonists get into trouble, and get out of it. And another exciting sequence, this time a high speed chase by underground coat (edit: I mean coal, but the first one is funny) cart, and on sketchy suspended bridges, ends the movie.
As you can gather, if you watch the beginning and end of the movie, it's really good. But if you skip everything in the middle you're not missing much.
Interesting tid bit: The director of the movie, Steven Spielberg, married the woman who played the nightclub singer/romantic interest / comic relief clown, after working on the film together. He also is quoted as saying he is not too proud of this movie, and he made it at a bad time in his life.
Anyway, Temple of Doom opens up with one of the most exciting sequences possible. They travel high speed by car, plane, and boat. Then they end up by fate in a remote Indian village who had their sacred rock stolen, and their children kidnapped for slave labor. Of course our hero, Indiana Jones, and a nightclub singer, and Indiana's adopted Asian kid (?), go to retrieve the sacred rock and rescue the children.
Then a bunch of gross stuff happens with eating gross things, or reaching through, or walking through disgusting insects. Then the people who live in the "temple of doom" are having a religious service with human sacrifice and it's really evil and over the top. And not really entertaining to watch.
Then our protagonists get into trouble, and get out of it. And another exciting sequence, this time a high speed chase by underground coat (edit: I mean coal, but the first one is funny) cart, and on sketchy suspended bridges, ends the movie.
As you can gather, if you watch the beginning and end of the movie, it's really good. But if you skip everything in the middle you're not missing much.
Interesting tid bit: The director of the movie, Steven Spielberg, married the woman who played the nightclub singer/romantic interest / comic relief clown, after working on the film together. He also is quoted as saying he is not too proud of this movie, and he made it at a bad time in his life.
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