Final Fire Update

I realized the other day that I had been remiss in bringing the story of our house fire to a close. In my last post on this subject, I mentioned that the final piece of the puzzle was replacing the carpet. We finally got everything in place for this a couple of weeks ago, and we are more or less squared away. However, it can never really be that simple, can it? The carpet people caused some minor damage to the paint job that we had just had done. They will be sending someone out to touch that up, but it is relatively minor.

The thought that I want to leave you with on this topic relates to smoke detectors. We didn't realize the value of what we had until this fire. Our bedroom and the upstairs living room are about as far apart as two places in our house can be. The only reason we caught the fire early was because all of our smoke detectors are tied together. If one of them goes off, they go off in every room that has one. We would have probably been talking about loosing the house if this had not been the case. This is something that we will be looking for in our future houses, and I would advise you to do the same.

Until next time...
PH

Unimaginable Cruelty Followed By Stupidity

Many of you have heard the reports about Atlanta Falcons Quarterback, Michael Vick. For those who have not, here's the scoop. I really don't know where to begin. This is one of those stories that makes me sick, sad, and angry all at the same time. I don't understand the thought process that leads to anything like this being a good idea. However, I won't belabor the obvious. I think that we are in agreement on this point.

Most of the talk has now moved on to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and what he will do. To the dismay of many (including me), he is not going to take any action at this point. For a view with a bit more sanity that will likely be more satisfying to you, give this a try. I won't try to say what is already very well said.

Give your dogs (or other pets) an extra hug, and be thankful that they are with you and not someone like Michael Vick. As the CBS Sportsline story suggests, we can reasonably expect justice to be served. Take comfort in that as well.

Until next time...
PH

Minnie Driver - Singer?

In a word, yes. I'm not making this up. Today we actually are treated to Minnie Driver's second CD - Seastories. Add this one to the category of things that you wouldn't expect to be good that actually are. While I would not expect any Grammy nominations, it is very enjoyable - at least from the generous 1:30 samples of each song. And it is on the Zoe Records label who also distributes one of my favorite artists, Sarah Harmer. Enjoy.

Until next time...
PH

Know Thy Entertainment

I had a post earlier this month about the upcoming movie for The Golden Compass. Mark left a comment that I wanted to make sure everyone else saw:

"So, have you read anything about Pullman (Golden Compass author) and his intentional anti-Christian philosophy of storytelling? You can find stuff all over the internet, but here is just one link."

If you read the link above, it leaves little room for doubt about the author's intentions. However, I find it interesting that he waits until the third book in the trilogy to take on his overt anti-religious position. At that point, you have invested two entire books in what is otherwise a compelling story (both the accounts of others), and it is easy to feel cheated if you stop your investment. The same will be even more the case if you have taken your kids to see the first two movies so be advised and choose carefully.

Children want to identify with the characters in the books they read and shows/movies they watch. Do you want your children to identify with rebelling against "The Authority" - Pullman's figure of God?

Each of us must decide where we draw the line with regard to entertainment for ourselves and our children. We will likely choose different places, but that is OK. While some things are clearly not good (e.g. inciting rebellion against God), not everything is black and white. What's important is that we make conscious decisions about it.

Until next time...
PH

Amarillo By Morning?

Not exactly. I arrived at 2:10 p.m. yesterday. Christy's cousin is getting married at 7:00 this evening, and we are out for the weekend. Actually, Christy has been here since Wednesday. She and her mother have been having some extra "girl time". If you think it sounds expensive, you're probably right! ;-)

We have mostly been spending time with her grandmother (Memaw) since I arrived. She and her husband, Robert, live just south of the western part of town. I've only been through Amarillo once before, and that was while driving to and from Albuquerque. I have to say that you may find someplace that is as flat but probably not flatter.

In Amarillo, the mall is the epicenter of all activity. The girls had been there once before I arrived yesterday. We went back before dinner. Somehow, there was still more to do as they went back a third time after we took her Memaw home! I requested to be dropped at Barnes and Nobel on their third trip. Mind you, we are not talking about the Galleria here. It's about the same size as the malls in Denton or Texarkana. I suppose that's just what women do. Shopping seems to be as much of a bonding exercise as it is anything else.

We did have a good visit with Memaw and Robert after breakfast this morning out at their house. Robert showed us pictures of where his son and family live in Germany. Okey helped Memaw figure out how to access her address book in her new phone. AT&T finally forced her off of their old CDMA network which forced her to get a new phone. Change does not come easy at 85 so she needed a little help. After going for a nice lunch at Texas Roadhouse, we dropped Memaw back at her house for a nap. Christy and Jeri are doing something with their fingernails that takes a really long time and a long time to dry. It will be time to get ready for the wedding soon.

Until next time...
PH

Unfinished Tales - Part II

I have finished the next story in Tolkien's Unfinished Tales. As previously mentioned, this is the "Narn i Chîn Húrin (The Tale of the Children of Húrin)". It is also a very rough early version of the story in the recently published The Children of Hurin. As I previously promised, here is a brief comparison of the two.

The overall plot is the same in both versions, but as expected, the "Narn" version is significantly less polished. Many of the chapters in the Narn are shorter and less developed. There is actually a significant gap in the story from the time that Turin and the Outlaws begin their dwelling with Mim the Petty Dwarf until after the sack of Nargothrond. If I had read these versions in the opposite order, I could image being very frustrated as there is merely an appendix at the end of the story that tries to piece together the plot during this period of the story. It also shows just how much work Christopher Tolkien put in as editor to produce the more recent edition.

Otherwise, the characters are the same, and the geography is more or less identical. Beyond sitting down and doing a side by side comparison (which I did not nor do I intend to do) the differences are not troublesome. The one thing I did find troubling was the lack of a map of Beleriand as it was in the First Age of Middle-earth. I referred to the map in The Children of Hurin - which I also did in reading "Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin". Given the breadth of locations in Tolkien's works, it would be quite difficult to keep up without a map.

In short, it is a compelling, but rather frustrating version of the story. However, I believe this is what you are signing up for when embarking on a book that in its very title claims to be "Unfinished".

Until next time...
PH

Interesting Movie Coming In December

Christy and I went to see the new Fantastic 4 movie over the weekend. It was ok. Don't look for it to win any awards, but if you liked the first one the second keeps things going reasonably well.

What was really interesting, however, was one of the previews that we saw. New Line Cinema may live to regret the hype they are creating, but The Golden Compass looks to be worthwhile.

This the first movie in a trilogy based on the books written by Philip Pullman. I am not familiar with his work, but I do intend to read the book before The Golden Compass comes out.

These movies may be set up for failure though. The trailer implies that these movies will be on par with The Lord of the Rings trilogy that Peter Jackson directed earlier this decade. While they may turn out to be fine, successful movies, that is a tall order. We'll see.

Until next time...
PH

EDIT: Please see my follow up post regarding this movie.

TV On Your Phone?

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a market research study related to TV service delivered over cell phones. I've never done anything like this before, but I love gadgets. When you throw in the fact that they provided the phone and I got to keep it after the study was done, what was there to lose? That would be enough to get most people to do it, but they also paid a small fee to boot. It was almost too good to be true, but this company bought me a new phone and paid me to use it!

So for an eight week period, I was supposed to "use the service as much as possible" and log my viewing on their web site. This wasn't a big deal, but I did find myself some days thinking, "I haven't watched anything yet. I better take a quick peak and log it on the web site." I only missed one day in the eight weeks so I felt like I held up my end of the bargain.

However, based on these eight weeks, I have to ask, "Do we really need TV on our cell phones?" I settled on a pretty solid "no". Outside of the trial, it costs an extra $10 a month. That in of itself is a deal breaker. For $5 a month, I might consider it, but that's even iffy. However what they had to offer as "service" was really nothing to write home about. There were eight channels in all, but I was only interested in about half of them - Fox, NBC, ESPN, and Comedy Central. Yet, these were not the "real" channels that you would see on your TV at home. Occasionally they would show the same programming, but most of the time what I saw seemed to have no rhyme or reason to it. ESPN often showed the same program every hour - boring! I usually only watched for about 5 minutes most of the time anyway. Finally, the reception was average to poor. I watched a few minutes of a Stanly Cup Playoff game, but I never did find the puck.

Even though I didn't care for the service, it was still kind of fun to play with one of the latest and greatest toys. After it the study was over, I used the money they paid me to get a phone that was more to my liking. Now I'm going to try to figure out the best way to sell the "TV phone". The main thing I need to do is figure out how to wipe all of my information out of the phone and get it back to the factory default state. All in all, I say it was a good deal.

Until next time...
PH