Amy and I took a couple quick shots of the Abbot cooling towers tonight. The cold weather has left them, as well as their surroundings, entombed in ice. I’ll do some editing of the shots and post them up on picasa but for now, here is one that didn’t need much editing:
This weekend I had the chance to watch an excellent film, a rarity, the excellent part. Receiving high praise from friends whose musical taste I trust I decided it worth the adventure and rented Once to watch with Amy on Friday night. The film had been sold to me as a musical romance between two budding musicians, complete with a soundtrack begging to be purchased.
You need to see this film.
At first, describing the film as a musical left me uncomfortable. (This can probably be chalked up my general distaste for genre and misunderstanding of how everything is classified as either a “comedy” or “drama”). Thinking about it now, I am more content describing it as a musical. In all honesty, the story is told through the music. The characters lack names yet feel complete enough to be a good friend – we learn about them through their music and bond with them as their pain pours through their voices. After all, isn’t this part of the draw of music, the stories songs tell, the emotions they invoke, their empathy.
In honor of not sharing plot points or ruining the film for others, I’ll end on this note. My enjoyment resides strongly on the amazing soundtrack but also in the themes presented. Watching, I was reminded of the goodness of remaining faithful to commitment, the pain and worthwhileness of forgiving, the beauty of romance and the honor in being a person of moral character.
PS: The film has a low budget or indie film feel due to it’s minuscule budget of $160,000. More interesting back story, including how neither of the main characters are or plan on being professional actors, can be found here on the ever helpful wikipedia.
“This is like turning water into wine!”
~ Josh, my officemate while making our morning pot of coffee.
Strange, I’m actually sort of proud of the fact that I ranked so high in this quiz. I understand my dependancy on the bean juice and I can quit at anytime… really I can, but why would I want to do that :-)?
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Now playing: Chicago Public Radio – #303: David and Goliath
via FoxyTunes
Last night I had the chance to see Juno at the Champaign Art Theater – the pretentiousness of this theater felt right for this film. Since seeing the film I’ve had the above song in my head and thought I’d share it with you. Time is rather hard to come buy right now so this post isn’t to in depth, I invite you to interact with me about the film via comments or emails or in person. I really enjoyed it.
It snowed pretty good here the past day or so. The weatherman called for 10 inches – seems about right. Playing in the snow so far included shoveling out my car, making a snow angel and taking pictures. Sledding and building a snowman were on my list but I figured I’d wait on those until friends wanted to play too.
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Now playing: Switchfoot – Awakening
via FoxyTunes
The old Electrical Engineer joke comes to mind, you can’t spell geek without EE.
I just woke and began my morning routine – checking my reader for new feeds. I scanned a few posts and then saw the new xkcd comic for today.
I’ve been sniped! My brain will be useless all day until I get a handle on that infinite grid of resisters.
“bring me the bean juice, I’ve been a good boy, bring me bean juice!”
As Chris and I chatted this morning we came to a realization that coffee must only have half the usual amount of caffeine on Mondays; thus twice the usual needs consuming. Our conversation reminded me of this e-greeting card:
(click on the image to go to the cardI’m not in the habit of over-sharing on this blog, nor vagary – some might refute that. Life has been sweet as of late:
“There’s this girl.
That I know.
That I see
in my dreams at night.See her smile.
Hold her hand.
Touch her face
I know she cares.
She cares.”
~ Slingshot57
I haven’t listened to this song in years – probably since I was a freshmen in college. Yet, as sleep begins to swallow me, it has crept into my head.
It makes me smile and makes me hope for sweet dreams.
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Now playing: Slingshot 57 – Crystal’s Song
via FoxyTunes
While working intently on his paper, Ben came across this website: Free Rice I thought it a wonderful idea – I play a game (and develop my vocabulary) the outcome of which feeds hungry people around the world.
Now, I don’t need a game to remind me that my vocabulary isn’t much larger than that of a high school senior, but I’ll do my best to feed the poor and needy.
I played for about 10 minutes this evening and donated 300 grains of rice and received a vocab score of 42. Watch out Freerice.org, tomorrow is a Friday and I have a full work day to spend donating rice 🙂
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Greg Van Nada
VERY COOL Love you, Dad
On Mission in Haiti and Memphis / nicknamy.net
[...] some of you may have noticed in our last update letter Illini Life sent off two different missions teams
Desiree
Ahahah! Such a funny commercial!
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[...] back I posted giving a brief rundown of the process of raising support most missionaries go through. It’s a
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Generousee seems a fitting word, surprised we made it this far without it. :-) Thanks for the prayers and kind words
