- Email signatures that say something like, “Please consider the environment before printing this email.” In general, there’s no reason to print emails. Which means that if I printed it out, I must have had a good reason. This email signature only makes sense in a world where people are rampantly printing out every email that comes into their inbox before reading it. Is there anybody on the planet who does this? Has their email client hooked directly to the printer? And even if they did, has anybody ever had a deep moment of spiritual awakening, changing their life around based on an email signature? Who is this email signature addressed to??
- We noticed a discrepancy from our bank. Basically, we wrote a check, but $60 more than the price of the check was removed from our bank account. You can see the check image from the webpage, so you can clearly see that the check is written for $X and then the account was charged for $X+$60. Very straight forward. HOWEVER. When explaining this to the bank over the phone, they agreed there was a mistake made by the bank, but they couldn’t fix it. No, of course, for that you have to go into the bank. So Sara goes into the bank and, of course, they also agree there is a mistake made, but they can’t fix it either. Sara will have to wait to talk to a manager, and she’s 3rd in line, so it’s going to be a long time. Well, she didn’t have time to wait, so now we have to come back yet again. Bank! It’s your problem! Fix it! Why is it on us to go through all this hassle, when you’re the one who made the mistake! Anyone who looks at it agrees there was a simple error made. If the process to fix mistakes is this arduous, fix the process!
- As a species, we’re worse as driver’s, right? I don’t know if it is because I live in Chicago, but someone cuts me off every single morning. Every afternoon, someone goes when it’s not their turn at a four way stop. Every evening, someone blows through an intersection or ignores a traffic sign. I used to be frustrated by some idiot driver every once in awhile, and now it’s every single day. I can only chalk it up to a combination of out of control feelings of individual entitlement and the amazing control, performance, and safety of the modern automobile.
- When people say, “Marriage is between ONE man and ONE woman!” I understand the point you’re trying to make, but aren’t you putting the wrong emphasis in there? Or are you constantly defending yourself from people who think marriage should be between ONE man and MANY women? (Or, god forbid, MANY men and MANY women.) Every time I walk down the street, I’m always like, “Hey polygamists, stop eroding the fabric of our society! Sheesh!” I just didn’t realize that polygamy was that big of a thing these days, that we need all these people shouting about it. I blame Big Love.
The Artist
Since the kids were born, Sara and I see movies in the theater very infrequently. As I said the last time we saw a movie, when you’re only seeing about one movie a year, it’s got to be a good one. You’ve got to make it count. That’s why when we got the opportunity last weekend to see a movie, we quickly turned to the Academy Award Nominations to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak.
Hugo leads the pack with 11 nominations, however, it wasn’t playing at the theater closest to us. Close behind was The Artist, with 10 nominations, so we took the Academy at their word and checked it out.
I wish we wouldn’t have.
It’s not that The Artist is a terrible film. It’s an okay film at best. I won’t say I wasn’t entertained by the movie, but I will say my entertainment level was below probably half of the movies I’ve seen this year. And for a movie with 10 Academy Award nominations, that’s not really up to snuff, is it?
Sara and I tried to explain to ourselves later how this film garnered so many nominations, and the best guess we have is that Hollywood absolutely loves movies about Hollywood. I was positively shocked when I looked up some of the reviews and read how absolutely glowing they were. Again, it’s not a bad movie, but reading the reviews they made it sound like it was the greatest movie ever made. I have to say, I feel like there is some kind of emperor’s-new-clothes thing going on with this movie. Everybody has been told how good it is and how much they have to like it, that they think they *do* like it, because they don’t want to disagree and say it really wasn’t that good.
The only thing the movie had going for it was a gimmick: it’s a silent film. Now, full disclosure, I did not know this going in, and it’s something you should be prepared for. I knew the subject of the movie was silent films, but I didn’t know that it was actually a silent film. So I could certainly see the argument that it was unique and different, and perhaps if we saw tons and tons of movies we would appreciate it on that front. But the problem was not that it was a silent film, but that it wasn’t a very good film.
The Artist is up for Best Picture this year. Can someone honestly tell me they enjoyed it as much as say The Departed or A Beautiful Mind? Put it in the same class as Schindler’s List or Forrest Gump? Is it as iconic as Rain Man or Silence of the Lambs? Will it be remembered like The Godfather?
The answer is no.
It has an interesting gimmick. Maybe it’s worth seeing, maybe it’s not. But if you’re only going to see one movie a year, it shouldn’t be this one. It can’t be this one. You can not tell me it was the best movie of the entire year.
Maybe I am a curmudgeon who just doesn’t like things. Maybe seeing only one movie a year sets my expectations too high, and I didn’t judge this movie fairly. But let me also say this: the movie put Sara to sleep. 10 potential Academy Awards, and it put Sara to sleep. Even my mom, who said she really enjoyed the movie, said she almost fell asleep.
Is that the mark of the best movie of the entire year, that it lulls you to sleep??
Trouble Monday the Injured
Evie: “Each kid has 2 boxes of band-aids.”
Me: “I’m glad we don’t need to use that many!”
Evie: “Yeah, then I’d be Evelyn Lois the Injured.”
Evie: “Mama, how high can you count?”
Sara: “Probably high enough that I could count for the rest of my life.”
Evie: “But then you would be counting at my wedding and that would be really funny!”
Evie: “The moon is so beautiful. It looks like a hangnail!” – Poetic.
Sara: “Can you say your full name? Are you ‘Trouble Halbach’?”
Ollie: “Trouble Halbach Evie.”
Kid knows his sister.
Warwick Davis
What do all these movies have in common: Harry Potter, Star Wars, Ray, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Chronicles of Narnia : Prince Caspian, and Willow?
Besides the fact that they are awesome, they all star one amazing actor by the name of Warwick Davis.
It would be almost impossible to have not seen Mr. Davis in some movie. Aside from the fact that he works almost continuously (1992 was the last year he didn’t have something come out, and the only year since Star Wars Episode VI in 1983 that he didn’t have anything), but he’s also been in some of the biggest movies of all time.
- Warwick Davis as Wicket the Ewok
Of course, his big role was arguably the most famous little person movie of all time, Willow,
- Warwick Davis as Willow Ufgood
but for my money, his finest performances were in some movies near and dear to my heart, Leprechaun 1 – 6.
- Warwick Davis as The Leprechaun
This is, of course, not to mention some rolls in movies you probably saw but didn’t recognize him in, such as a member of the goblin corps in Labyrinth, or Marvin the Robot in the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy.
Maybe it is because I am a big fan, but I always recognize him instantly, even in makeup. I’ve learned that, for some reason, no one else seems to recognize him. For example, I don’t know how anybody could have watched the Harry Potter series without recognizing the same actor played Flitwick and Griphook:
- Warwick Davis as Prof. Flitwick and Griphook the Goblin
Because he is a little person, he is not known as a hugely successful actor, but his resume matches any but the absolute biggest movie stars (I mean biggest figuratively, not literally). I was so happy to see him get some big on-screen moments as Griphook, and I thought he was fantastic. Hopefully casting directors will (continue to) take note.
Isn’t it about time for a Willow sequel?
Shane Halbach 