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Pan's Labyrinth and The Queen
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Here are my thoughts on two terrific movies that I've recently seen.
 Pan's Labyrinth
Haunting and beautiful at the same time, this fairly tale with an adult perspective was a masterpiece. The imagery ranged from subtle details to vivid themes that stick with you long after the movie is over. It wasn't artsy-fartsy like Mirror-Mask. Rather this film remained somewhat grounded while pulling the audience into another world without losing them entirely. This is critical as this film is without a doubt adult themed with gore, torture, pain, and death mixed with a childs fantasy. It sounds strange, but it works wonderfully well and the soundtrack brings your emotions to the right place complementing the beautiful scenes perfectly. Excellent acting and an intriguing plot make the fact that the movie is entirely spoken in spanish forgettable. Normally subtitles fatigue me, but I didn't even notice as my eyes were eating each new line as greedily as the last. 9 out of 10.
 The Queen
More of a docudrama than a movie, this film showcases powerful acting with a facinating and unbiased look into the lives of the Queen and the British royal family at the time of Princess Diana's death and the rise of Tony Blair. This film will certainly gain Oscar nominations and will likely win one or two. Helen Mirren portrays the queen wonderfully. While there isn't a plot to speak of, the on screen events are riveting. While this is just a movie and much of the content probably isn't accurate, this movie makes you appreciate the perspectives of the Queen and her subjects, the people of England. 8 out of 10
Mood: Reflective
Listening to: Pan's Labyrinth Soundtrack by Javier Navarrete
Watching: Nothing at the moment
Reading: Finishing up Jarhead
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Rebecca's Famous!
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 My sugar-mama-in-the-making made the front page of the Hillsboro Argus today along with a half-page color spread. Pretty cool. Now to just sit back and wait for those royalty checks!
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Snow!
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 It hasn't officially snowed in Portland since January of 2003. While the latest STORM OF THE CENTURY OF THE WEEK wasn't as rough as then, this week's winter storm did lay down about 4 inches of snow. Apparently 4 inches is just the right amount to cause half of the metro area to not go to work. Admittedly the buses were only partially running, but the Max was running on schedule all day.
To be fair, the snow was somewhat of a surprise as most folks thought the predictions were another wolf sighting. The snow stuck however and left many commuters stuck in traffic for much longer than anticipated. I left my house at 7:50 on Tuesday morning and arrived at 9:55. My normally 35 minute journey lasted over 2 hours. I was rear-ended twice... twice! The only damage was a bent license plate, but still... twice!
I did leave work early, taking the train home and leaving my car at work. I'm glad I did as I saw a lot of crazies sliding to stop for the train crossing on my way home. Megan was kind enough to give me a lift from the station to my house, although in retrospect, the walk was nice. Everyone was playing in the snow, cars were doing 360's in the intersections, and the everyone's moods were so uplifted and joyous. You can complain about the cold and wet nature of snow, but all I saw were people generally happy about it. Sure, everyone was talking about how many accidents they saw and how the buses weren't running, and that it was ridiculous to go into work, but there was still an aire of joy on everyone's face. No amount of inconvenience or fender benders could hide the general happy nature that was on the face of everyone I encountered.
When I got home, I shed my work clothes, slapped on several layers of cotton with an outer layer of non-cotton prepared to do what all righteous dudes and dads must do. Throw snow balls at their kids and build a collosal snow man to demonstrate my supreme masculinity and reign over my domain. The kids won and when the snowman's midsection collapsed, it never fully developed. Still, I reign supreme!
Oh yes, you can see more pics of our fun in the snow.
Mood: Relaxed
Listening to: Dave Matthews Band (just can't get enough of these guys)
Watching: The Queen (a very fine docudrama - highly recommended)
Reading: Jarhead by Anthony Swofford
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PDXGamer Network
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I'm doing lots of research on the best/easiest method of setting up site to site VPN tunnels between my friends in PDX. I think I can do it with DD-WRT using the OpenVPN server built in. However, I am concerned about the compatability of my friend's routers as well as the CPU load on my router. I may need to purchase a seperate piece of hardware to accomplish my goal.
Mood: Shivering with antici... pation
Listening to: Louisiana Bayou by The Dave Matthews Band
Watching: The 4400 Season 3
Reading: First, Break All the Rules (a people management book)
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Ozland
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The plannign for our vacation to Australia has officially started. I'm thinking about spending a couple of days in New Zealand since we have to stop in Auckland on our way to Melbourne. Besides, how can I pass up a chance to see the Hobbiton set?!
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Last Year in Review
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Last year seemed to go by so fast that I started thinking about the highlights of last year. A lot of things happened, some great, some less so. Highlights - We visited my mom, Thom, Aunt Lisa, and my grandparents. Mom took us on a tour of the fire station where she works. We even all got a ride in a fire engine!
- We spent a few days at Disneyland which was awesome as always. The kids were able to ride almost everything and boy did they love roller coasters!
- We visited with our good friends Damon and Monica and our adopted nephew Daniel and niece Samantha. We hit the beach, learned how to play Nertz, and Damon even setup a castle bounce house for the kids.
- We visited Rebecca's Uncle Warren and Aunt Patty. They treated us to a nice dinner and a visit with her Grandpa. Although his health was clearly failing him, it was awesome to see him. He was happy to see his great grandkids. Uncle Warren was a laugh riot and I hope we can visit them again this year.
- We had a great 4th of July Party. Let's just say that any party where circular saws and beer are combined equals a great time!
- We did a lot of remodeling. The dining room, kids bathroom, girls bedroom, classroom, and the kitchen all received improvements.
- Chibbs and I stayed up all night and well into the next morning talking about theology, faith, and other stuff.
- The WebTrends company picnic at the zoo was fun.
- My best bro Chris and his wife Karen came up for a week. I hope they move back up here. It was great to hang out with them.
- I saw my favorite band Flogging Molly live again. This time I went with a large group of friends.
- I really enjoyed the Christmas eve church service at Morningstar Community Church in Salem. We went with Mom, Thom, Steve, Kelly, Christian, Nathan, and dad. Great music and a good sermon. Praise God!
- Christmas was awesome and I managed to not do any projects while mom was here! I also beat Thom's high score on Dynomite. My grandpa made my kids gifts out of wood.
- My kids got older. :)
Lowlights - I didn't see Jeff, Gabe, or Kevin enough.
- I didn't go camping.
- I only took the canoe out once.
- Jeff Driver died.
- I didn't go rafting.
- Bubba died.
- I worked too much. I love my job, but I just spent too many hours in the office.
- I found out that my step-brother Don died of cancer. I hadn't actually talked to him in a few years.
- Rebecca's grandfather died in December. His passing wasn't a surprise, but it was still very sad news as he was a great guy.
- My kids got older. :(
- I got older. :(
Mood: Indifferent
Listening to: The Elephant Riders by Clutch
Watching: Nothing... waiting for Lost and Heroes to start again.
Reading: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Peter Jackson directing a movie of this in 2007)
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Melbourne, Brisbane, Whatever!
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I noticed that Paul and Michelle don't live in Brisbane (not sure why I thought they did) but rather they live in a suburb of Melbourne... not even close! Either way, it will be exciting to visit Australia. Now all I need is for them to answer my darn emails so we can start planning our trip down under. :) I was going to upload a cool picture of Melbourne that I found, but Blogger's upload tool isn't working right now and I'm too lazy to do it manually. (picture beautiful Melbourne here)
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Here's to 2007
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 Near Brisbane, Australia Happy new year everyone! 2006 went by with much haste. My children are growing inches with each blink of my eyes. Hannah is 7, Miriam is 6, Simone is 5, and Levi will be 4 later this month. It was a good year and I only hope that 2007 slows down a bit. :) New Year's Resolutions - Lose lots of weight
- Blog at least once per week
- Vacation in Australia. We're hoping to visit our friends Paul and Michelle in Brisbane, but if that doesn't work out, a trip to Europe would be awesome as well.
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