G’rrr – two very interesting looking films that aren’t (at present) going to be released in this country – Garden State, and Danny Deckchair. Import DVD it is!
Check out the trailers (via imdb, for example)
The street bible
by Rob Lacey is a complete
reworking/summary of the Holy Bible in modern (street) language for
those who “have never read the Bible, or have read it too much”.
I have personally found it quite inspiring, particularly how he works the
four gospels into a single narrative (although the disciples being called
“Drew”, “Jim”, “Jonno”, etc was a litle disconcerting at first!!)
The book kicks off in the Old Testament, with a whistle-stop tour of
the books of the Bible, in canon order, but with the relative timings of the
events in the book explained. I thought this was great – all the boring
numbers and geneologies have been dumped, leaving stories, history, and
prophecy.
A good half of the book is based around the New Testament. The four gospels
are squelched into a single narrative, and the remaining books are
presented as e-mails to the various churches from the various authors.
But it must be said, it’s hugely enjoyable to read (which is not always true
of the Bible), and helped me think about things in a new light.
Buy this book on Amazon
And, as if having a huge list of films to-see wasn’t enough, I’ve also got a fairly substantial list of books which I think are worth a read.
I’m going to list them here, ‘cos otherwise I’ll forget what they are! (the links of book titles are all to said books on Amazon).
A friend is blogging his way through the book “This Book Will Change Your Life: 365 Daily Instructions for Hysterical Living”, which has been a source of amusement for us.
Actually, I’ll add a link to him under my “friends” links to the left (aren’t I nice?). Just found another friend is doing a weight watcher’s journal! I’ll add her too.
A sadness – my “to-see” list keeps getting longer, not shorter. Recently caught the trailer for Spiderman 2 which looks like an absolute stonker. Mind you, I just loved the first one!
Films recently added are: King Arthur, Anchorman, Farenheit 9/11, and probably Wimbledon, although I’m reserving judgment on that a little. Mind you, off to see Harry Potter next week, which I’m really looking forward to.
A pleasing enough film – can think of many worse ways to spend a couple of hours of an evening. Once again I am not a huge Jim Carrey fan (although I was hugely impressed with The Truman Show), and I found his character – Bruce Nolan – very unbelievable. That said, the premise is great, Morgan Freeman does a very good interpretation of God, I just love Jennifer Aniston (appropriately named Grace), and I found this film to be both very funny but also quite subtle, in terms of the collatoral damage done by Bruce weilding his power to further his cause (e.g. a ‘headline’ meteor strike causes power cuts, or lassoing the moon causes floods in Korea), how even when he gets what he wants he’s not happy, and how answering yes to everyone’s prayers is an utter diaster.
Still, it’s ultimately just a popcornfest, and Bruce is just a little too selfish and Grace a little too long-suffering to really be believable. (Oh yes, and the dog is real star of the show!)
Well, the last ever episode of Friends just aired, and like a thousand and one other people in the UK I’m blogging about it.
Friends has been a part of life for as long as I can remember – when it first came out I wasn’t into it (mainly because everyone else was), but when I saw an episode – probably late into series 2 – I got completely hooked. At one point I had several series on video, but that fad died away.
Wouldn’t claim to have seen every episode – for me it went off the boil as something to watch every week (something the Simpson’s has never done), but still great to catch occasionally.
I think it’s time had come – most of the cast have moved on to other things, and have really got to old for the comedy of Friends (funny to think Jennifer Aniston used to be an unknown!), but there’s still a part of me that got a bit sad watching this evening’s episode.
Fitting somehow that it should be followed by Big Brother 5’s launch – another show that’s passed its sell-by date! And it will be interesting to see what the Joey spin-off show will be like…
Shhhhhhhh – Ben’s made it to 7am (and counting!), In recent mornings he’s been waking at around 6!!
Did a New Scientist Enigma yeserday, for the first time in ages. I literally did on the back of an envelope too, which was cool.
It was all about combinations, which I’ve only just finished teaching to our undergrads, so I jolly well should have been able to solve it!!
Ok, as promised – my thoughts on why people speed.
It’s this last point that I think has lead to the average speed on motorways being nearer 80 these days. We feel like travelling is a waste of time, and so it’s something that should be got out of the way as quickly as possible. We try to cram in as much as possible, so that we have to travel quickly in order to get to the next thing in time. Faster trains and planes are lifted up as the ideal.
I’m as guilty of this as anyone – I often end up running to catch the train home because I wanted to do ‘just one more job’ before I left the office. Heh – even now I’ve just got in at 22.00 from a meeting, and have made a quick phone-call to arrange a friend’s visit this weekend and then quickly typed in all this, squeezing it all in before I feed Ben at 22.30.
I think it’s a shame though. We’ve lost the idea of travelling being a pleasure (probably because most of the time it isn’t), and imagine having the time to stop and literally smell the roses should it catch our fancy!
Done a lot of driving of late (most recently to a wedding at Brocket Hall, as in Lord Brocket, I’m a Celebrity.. and all that), and pre-Ben driving was a social experience with the missus, but these days she’s usually in the back looking after him, so we can’t really talk.
Although it’s sad not to be able to chat, it does leave a lot of time for thinking, mostly about driving, which probably figures. Anyway, latest jaunt along the M1 I was thinking about speeding, and speed limits. Why bother with speed limits at all?
I reached two (related) reasons for having a speed limit – first, and probably most importantly, it reduces the likelihood of accidents, for reasons I’ll elaborate on in a mo. Secondly, if there is an accident, the slower the vehicles involved are travelling, the less harm is likely to be caused to those involved.
So why does a speed limit reduce accidents? Well, the conclusions I reached were:
Arguments the other way probably would say things like modern cars are very stable, have lots of driver aids (like ABS), good crash protection anyway…
Dunno – shall post some thoughts on why people speed later this week, I think.