A real life George Bailey: a man volunteers to get laid off so his friend can keep his job. Get some kleenex before you watch this one.
A side note: I cannot imagine how awkward that guy must feel having that paraded in front of a national audience. But I, for one, appreciate it and extend my thanks to Ralph for helping to renew my faith in humanity, just a little bit.
So, posting has been nonexistant rather than light the last couple weeks. Sorry for that. Work has been keeping me busy, and I’ve been doing a bit more to get caught up around here – not to mention the holidays busyness. In addition to that, politics has just been depressing lately, as have local sports, so I haven’t felt much like writing on said topics, which left me without obvious source material. That said, I’m back to give a quick update on what’s going on in the world of me.
The Cardinals have lost 4 of their last 5 games and now look like a team that doesn’t deserve to be in the playoffs. I’m hoping they come back and prove me wrong tomorrow against Seattle, but I’m not holding my breath. If we don’t shape up, it will be a quick first round exit for the boys in red. The Suns lost on Christmas day to the Spurs on a heartbreaking buzzer beater three, and the Celtics have now lost two in a row to break their 19 game winning streak. So color me annoyed.
I also got Mass Effect for Christmas from my brother, but am reluctant to install it due to the draconian DRM scheme put in place by EA. I am not sure whether to look for a crack of some sort, or just install it into a virtual environment, but I’ll certainly update with results of whatever I decide to do there. I also got an iPod (yeah, I know) which will be the subject of its own post later.
I finally saw The Dark Knight – and while I don’t feel it quite lived up to the earth-shattering hype that it was given by my friends and the online reviews, it was a masterful movie. Ledger truly did give a brilliant performance, in that I didn’t even recognize him as the actor in nearly any scene. I felt that Aaron Eckhart’s portrayal of Harvey Dent was also genius, perhaps on par with Ledger’s Joker in the method of portrayal, although obviously not given quite as much screen time or opportunity in the script. But I really felt that Eckhart was Dent, and being so convinced is the mark of great acting. With that in mind I think the character and portrayal of Batman by Christian Bale was outshone by the masterful acting of Ledger, Eckhart and the ever-brilliant Gary Oldman (as James Gordon). The movie was less dark than was expected as well, which made it easier for me to recommend to my parents and more squeamish friends. While it’s certainly deserving of the PG-13 rating, the violence was done in such a way that it was mostly kept off screen, and is thus easier to take. It’s a movie I can absolutely recommend, and strongly suggest viewing twice – it was much better the second time, for me.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Johnny Cash. The man was a genius. I’ve also been actually enjoying some Christmas music this year, which I normally don’t. I suppose that’s a good thing.
Christmas was a small, informal event in which my family got together, watched basketball, talked about life and God and the meaning of Christmas, and ate delicious foods. Exactly as it should be.
Here’s hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas. Now go drink some egg nog or something.
When one of the monkeys refused to ride on a child’s bicycle in a street performance in Sizhou, in eastern China, their owner beat it with a stick.
Although they were tied to the man with ropes attached to their collars, the monkeys appear to have decided to fight back.
The two animals came to the defence of the third monkey, grabbing the stick from the man, pulling on his ear and biting his head.
When he dropped his cane, on monkey snatched it up and began beating the trainer on the head until he broke the stick, witnesses said.
Next thing you know, they’ll be taking over the planet – and us without Charlton Heston? We’re screwed. Priceless pic below the fold…
Via Bill Quick, this tragic story of a man losing his family – and his all-too-rare, excellent attitude about it.
SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) — A Korean immigrant who lost his wife, two children and mother-in-law when a Marine Corps jet slammed into the family’s house said Tuesday he did not blame the pilot, who ejected and survived.
“Please pray for him not to suffer from this accident,” a distraught Dong Yun Yoon told reporters gathered near the site of Monday’s crash of an F/A-18D jet in San Diego’s University City community.
“He is one of our treasures for the country,” Yoon said in accented English punctuated by long pauses while he tried to maintain his composure.
“I don’t blame him. I don’t have any hard feelings. I know he did everything he could,” said Yoon, flanked by members of San Diego’s Korean community, relatives and members from the family’s church.
I got a little choked up by this one. I think its kind of sad that we’ve become so used to the blame game that when we hear about people reacting with genuine goodwill and selflessness in the face of tragedy, it is surprising. The man loses his family in this crash, and his reaction? To hope that the pilot is okay. In addition, Quick offers this sobering insight:
Sometimes, in my cynicism, I think that the average American’s reaction to experiencing a tragedy like this would be to first look for somebody or something to blame, then look for somebody to sue, and, finally, look for the government to pass some sort of law or create some sort of body to “make sure this never happens again.”
It’s humbling and uplifiting both to realize that those who come to this country seem to understand what was once called the American Way better than many of those who have been here for half a dozen generations.
My sympathies, as well as my deepest respect, go to Mr. Yoon today.
Well I’ve made it one more year. I feel like I should be doing something fun on my birthday, but I think after work I’ll just go home, have a glass of scotch, maybe watch the end of the football game, and turn in early. I’m starting to come down with something, I think, so I’d like to nip it in the bud early.
Sorry for the light posting the last few days. Should resume its normal consistency this week. In the meantime, thanks to all who’ve emailed and texted and called to wish me a happy birthday; it’s much appreciated, and those well-wishes assure it will indeed be happy.
And here’s a nice birthday present: Cardinals won the NFC west last night. First playoff game in 10 years, first division title in 33 years (in St. Louis), and first home playoff game in 61 years (in Chicago). And we clinched it against – of all teams – St. Louis. How sweet that must have tasted for Kurt Warner. Now if we can beat the Vikings on Sunday, I could see us taking the No. 3 seed and making it all the way to the NFC title game, if not the Super Bowl – wouldn’t THAT be something?