May 11, 2008

Movie Update

I’ve seen three of the movies on the Netflix Queue I listed a few weeks ago and thought I’d give a mini-review. I liked two of the three pretty well: In the Valley of Elah and Rendition. I stopped the third movie, Margot at the Wedding, about 15 minutes in because it was so boring.

The most interesting part of In the Valley of Elah was the title. Growing up in church, the daughter of a preacher, and the product of a Christian school, the story of David and Goliath is a story I know very well. However, I never remember reading the location of the battle — the Valley of Elah (I Samuel 17:19).

The movie had a couple of other things going for it, too. I liked the father/son devotion as Tommy Lee Jones, who played the dad, searched for his son. It had a crime-solving element, which I liked, and it touched on the issues soldiers deal with after war which I think is important for us to recognize as a real problem.

Rendition also dealt with war, more particularly terrorism. An Egyptian man who lives in America is detained as a suspected terrorist, and questioned and tortured by a group in another country. The man in charge of questioning is tied to the terrorist act in question but in a different way. It was clever how  these two main plots were intertwined and how it all came together in the end. It was shocking, too, to think that (innocent) people suspected of terrorism can be detained and tortured in this way. I put this movie in at 9 p.m. expecting to fall asleep half way through and finish it the following night. But it was engaging enough that, like a good book, I couldn’t stop and watched it all the way through.

Some new additions to the Netflix Queue are:

The Golden Compass

Reservation Road

Untraceable

Stranger Than Fiction

Flags of our Fathers

Mad Money

May 5, 2008

One Year Blogging

A year ago yesterday I started this blog, making yesterday my blog’s birthday and/or the first anniversary of me and my blog. (A birthday measures age, and an anniversary measures the length of a relationship, and since a blog is kinda both, I’m not sure if yesterday was a birthday or an anniversary.)

So a couple of first year stats:

I’ve written 118 posts.

In my first month, I had 145 page views; last month, I had 1,269. Not too bad.

Total views for the whole year are 4,597.

My best day ever was April 21, 2008, with 98 views that day.

I’ve had 35 comments.

My spam filter has prevented 1,953 spam comments (Yeah spam filters!)

My Top 5 Posts, according to number of hits

So Many Ways to Say Happy Birthday 441
Target Retote 388
A Few Hours Too Late 334
Collect Points = Cool Stuff 258
Native American Nike’s 191

    The number one search term that leads people to my blog: target dog.

      May 2, 2008

      Summer Break

      I’ve got a two month break before I have to hit the books again so I’m going to take this opportunity to read all I can read, appreciate good movies and good music, and take better care of myself. I was too busy at the beginning of the year to make any New Year’s resolution, so you can call this my summer enrichment program or something. Here’s what I’m into:

      Books

      I’m currently reading “Dr. Space,” by Bob Ward, about Wernher von Braun. I got an autographed copy for Christmas and have been reading it a little here and there ever since. I’m about a third of the way through, and after that I’m going to read “The Choice” by Nicolas Sparks. Two other books on my “want to read list” are “To Infinity and Beyond: the Story of Pixar Animation” by Karen Paik (and the guys who started/run Pixar) and “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch.

      Music

      I’m really liking Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” and Miley Cyrus’ (aka, Hannah Montana) “See You Again.” While always a fan of country female artists (Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain, Carey Underwood, to name a few), I’ve recently reconnected with my country roots. My country favorites right now are “What Kind of Gone” by Chris Cagle, “You’re Gonna Miss This” by Trace Adkins, and anything by Taylor Swift.

      Movies

      As for movies, a few titles on my Netflix queue are:

      • In the Valley of Elah
      • Margot at the Wedding
      • Rendition
      • Goya’s Ghosts
      • Day Zero
      • Enchanted
      • Juno
      • Cloverfield
      • 27 Dresses
      • When the Levees Broke

      I’ll certainly take any suggestions for good flicks, good music or a good book.

      May 2, 2008

      Bring Your Own Bag

      Between Friends

      by Sandra Bell-Lundy, dist. by King Features Syndicate

      April 30, 2008

      Ice Cream Tastes Better When It’s FREE!

      Took the boys to Ben & Jerry’s Tuesday for free ice cream. Fun times.

      Free Ice Cream Day

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