Brad Bird Can Do No Wrong

Just finished watching Ratatouille, and it was wonderful! I loved Iron Giant, and The Incredibles, and more than anyone else, Brad Bird can walk that fine line of perky kids' movie with adult angst and sense of self. Remember the perfection of Craig T. Nelson in being a worn down by life and monotonous job of an insurance adjuster in the ubiqetous cubicle? Or the Iron Giant saying, "I am Superman!" while flying into the atmosphere? (I cry every time at that scene.)

Despite the main character being a rat, Ratatouille had lots of heart, good messages about staying true to yourself, and the consequences of stealing. Even with the lessons for the kids, Ratatouille was lots of fun. I wish now I saw it in the theater. Anyway, I still believe Brad Bird can do no wrong; he's a genius.

Cutest Polar Bear Cub Ever

Lordy, this was a break I needed from work this afternoon.

Found on jezebel.com and go to here [BWE] to compare paw size to your own hand.

*Grumble*

Pet Peeve #1:

Panera Bread wanted to charge me $2.59 for a large cup of hot tea. Mind you, this came with the same tea bag as the $1.59 cup of tea. So for an extra $0.75 (wait - what the hell? When did we lose the cent symbol on the keyboard? I've got a keyboard that controls the volume of my speakers, hot keys for underlining, redo and italics, a separate number keypad, and no cent sign???), I get 6 more ounces of hot water.

That's right. Hot water.

Now, I realize in these current economics times with the US at the highest unemployment rate since 1994, that a mere 75 cents shouldn't chap my ass quite s much. On the other hand, since economic times are what they are, shouldn't I be looking to save money anyways?

Of course, I could just be annoyed because I only had $1.89 in my wallet and I didn't want to use my debit card for their minimum purchase.

*Grumble*

How Freaking Awesome is This Picture?

*Drool*

After seeing Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, I am eagerly waiting for the next Terminator movie. All the tweens can have Robert Pattinson. And the Jonas Brothers. And whatever pubescent pretty boys are out there.

Give me a man who can kicks some ass. Who gets dirty. Who can pick up a weapon and inflict some damage and pain. A man, not a pretty boy, who can take a stand and defend it. A man who can survive an apocolypse and the fate of humanity can safely rest on his shoulders.

Yeah.

Christian Bale. Yeah.

You Reap What You Sow

For a few weeks now, Sarah Palin has taken on the role of mud-slinging, name-calling and general voicing of a smear campaign against Barack Obama. Her inciting the crowd at speeches has culminated to shouts of "Terrorist!" "Kill Him!" and such. Now, John McCain is stuck in the position of supporters at his speeches calling out the same things, and John McCain looks decidely uncomfortable. He shakes his head when terrorist, kill him, and etc. are called from the audience, and he is now in the position of correcting people asking questions about how fearful they are of the "Arab."

How much of this fear-mongering of Sarah Palin's is helping John McCain? I don't know, but any respect I have for him has evaporated as John McCain is in the unenviable position of reigning in his Vice-Presidential candidate and correcting his own supporters.

DC (Sort of) Tourist Part II

Three months ago, I had grand and ambitious plans to spend my time off between jobs wisely. I bought my first digital SLR camera (Canon EOS xsi) to take pictures while I played DC tourist in my back yard. I had lots of time, $300 on my Metro card, and tons of free museums and sights to visit.

I should add here for people who don't know, I joined the Coast Guard after high school. On top of only having three weeks off each summer while at the Academy, my life was dictated by the Coast Guard's needs. When I could take vacation not only had to be approved by my boss (standard for just about everyone working) but was also subject to war declarations, natural disasters, increased security, duty schedules, and general public chaos. I never had the year off after college to back pack around Europe and "find myself." I'm not complaining, just stating that I've been a very busy military worker bee since 18.

At the beginning of June, I started my terminal leave which meant I was still employed by the Coast Guard, but I didn't have to go to work since I separated at the end of the month. I was seriously job hunting at this point, but did not need to be anywhere on a regular basis for 9 -10 hours a day.

Suddenly, I had lots and lots of time on my hands. Hence the grand scheme for DC tourist.

Fast forward to the beginning of August. Other than traveling out of town three weekends out of four in July, I did one trip to the Mall which I talked about in my previous post. Now, I've been reading like a mad dog, and spending lots and lots of time with the dogs and cats. But the grand plan of sightseeing slowly slid away as I gradually got up later and later.

I decided this week that if I plunked down some hard earned cash and bought tickets ahead of time, I would be forced to get my ass out of bed at a somewhat decent hour (you mean going to bed at 4 am and waking up at noon isn't decent?!?) and be an ambulatory member of society if not a completely productive one.

I got up the earliest this morning than any other in the last two months (5:30 am!) to drive up to Baltimore to visit the National Aquarium in Baltimore. An interview with the director of the Aquarium on NPR last week piqued my interest. After successfully skirting most of the rush hour traffic by leaving at 7:30, I made good time to Baltimore with plenty of time to get my admission ticket, and tickets for the 4-D Immersion Theater and Dolphin Show.

The Aquarium had a diverse mix of salt water and fresh water habitats and animals on display. A huge tank had about 20 sting rays and manta rays gliding through the water. Once I found a spot to look into the tank instead of looking down at the sting rays and manta rays, the beauty and grace of watching them flap and ripple their way through the water was very soothing. I could have sat there all day.

Lots of sharks. Yuck.

Tons of tanks with different species of fish. Here is one of them.

I headed over to the Immersion Theater which is a 3-D show with added senses for the audience in coordination with the show. The bubbles, water sprays, smells and wind were great. Having things touching my legs and poking me in the back freaked me out. I really really don't like things touching me that I can't see. After the second thing whipped around my legs, I chickened out and put me feet off the floor and on top of my camera bag. Ack!

The Dolphin Show was quiet and tame since the Aquarium had a bottle-nosed calf born nine days ago. The staff wanted to not traumatize the new-born with loud noises and asked the audience to not even clap. I used my zoom lens for the first time and got some nice pics of the sweet dolphins.

The Aquarium had an Amazon exhibit with birds, a tree-toed sloth (which just looked like a mound of grassy moss) and amphibians. Here is a colorful bird. I know nothing about birds, so I can't tell you what kind it is or anything. Also, a volunteer very enthusiastically pointed out two primates, and I forgot what they are called. Oops. But I got some pictures of them!

And lastly, this quote finished off the Aquarium experience for me.

I'll write another blog about the sheer irony of how I spent 17 years in the Coast Guard, I love the ocean, I love the water, but am absolutely terrified of swimming in open water and having something touch me. I forced myself to go snorkeling in Aruba once and practically had a heart attack when I cruised along at the surface of the water and caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye of something that I thought was swimming towards me. Terror. Absolute terror.

Next trip: Thursday at the International Spy Museum and possibly finish the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

DC Tourist, Part 1

I did some searching online last night, and ran across an announcement for the Jim Henson Exhibit at the International Gallery of the Smithsonian. No photography was allowed, but I did stop and read every placard which took about an hour and a half. Lots of Jim Henson's earlier work was displayed, and clips from some of his non-Muppet film shorts, as well as drawings, sketches and storyboards from Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth, the Dark Crystal and others. Fantastic. The exhibit is traveling, and I already let my sister know it's coming to Orlando in February. I got teary walking through room after room of Jim Henson's vision of teaching children community, learning, and peace and thinking how much the world lost when he died.

No pictures were allowed inside the exhibit, so this was the only one I could get.



Due to some weird twist of fate, I walked over to the National Holocaust Memorial Museum around 3:30 pm. When the museum opened, tickets were needed to go through the permanent exhibit, and I wanted to see if tickets were still necessary and when they usually ran out. Lo and behold, active duty military and veterans get special tickets reserved for them every day, so I snagged one. Since I knew I could get a ticket any time, I wasn't in a huge rush to get through the exhibit in the two remaining hours the museum was open.

The elevator took me up to the fourth floor, and immediately the experience was the polar opposite from the Jim Henson Exhibit. There were about 30 people in the first room and hallway coming from the elevator, and not one person said a word. Other than the shuffling of feet, a dead, heavy silence filled the area. The ceiling and walls are black and the floor dark, so that the displays, pictures and videos starkly contrast in black and white. Having read up a lot about the Holocaust growing up, and reading fiction set in that time, I knew the horror of what I was getting into. But when I came across pictures of Polish school teachers and priests moments before they were executed in the woods and fields, I started to tear up again. Perhaps the Nazis being so organized and documenting everything wasn't such a bad thing, there is plenty of photos and videos giving evidence to their systematic approach for domination. One thing interested me: Along with exterminating the mentally and physically handicapped, acute alcoholism was considered a mental illness and acute alcoholics were sent to concentration camps or shot on sight. I got about halfway through the permanent exhibit; up until Auschwitz which is probably a depressing point to stop. I quickly cruised through the last half which encompassed the liberation of the concentration camps, heroes, children of holocaust survivors, and the memorial room. I plan on going back to spend more time listening to the tapes and watching the videos and seeing the last half of the exhibit.

I'm not sure why I happened to visit one exhibit full of light, love and happiness, and the next one filled with horror and despair. Sometimes life is like that.

Whew!

I'm two days back from ICYP in Oklahoma City. I spent most of yesterday dawdling in bed with the dogs and cats, and finally got up around 3:00 pm to run to the vet for flea medicine since I started accumulating flea bites. I splurged on the more expensive flea egg killing K9 Advantix since the biting had begun. I scarfed down some Mexican food and then, because I ate too much, fell back to sleep last night at 10:30 pm.

Spending the weekend with old friends and new ones had rejuvenated my program. I think the sense of community, purpose and "being a part of" is something I've been missing up here in Northern Virginia. Also, meeting up with the Louisiana, Florida, Texas folks showed me how much I had been isolating myself with the depression I've been going through for the last few years. Bu t things are turning around.

Sunday night I went to the National Memorial in OKC with some friends. The Memorial was beautiful, haunting, sad and hopeful at the same time. I got into photographer mode while I was walking around and taking pictures. Not until I walked over to the chain link fence that had mementos of items found in the rubble where I lost it. There were pictures, stuffed animals, wreaths with poems, and knick-knacks hanging in the fence. But the sheer number of key chains overwhelmed me. For every key chain I saw dangling in the (ever-present) wind, I thought there was someone who didn't get to go home that day. Someone who didn't spend the night in the safety of their house with their loved ones. I saw pictures of two adorable brothers who were 2 and 4, and couldn't imagine the loss of their parents from that terrible day.

I'll post my photos when I figure out where the cable is. I finished moving at the end of June, but I still have piles and boxes to sort through and organize.

That's about it for now. I'm avoiding rewriting my resume for the Army Corps of Engineers. As soon as I get the resume into construction terms, I can start working for them in about a month, so I have to get off my duff. I do enjoy having a significant chunk of time off though. If only I can figure out a way for someone to pay me for doing nothing productive ...