Another Way of Saying "Congratulations" ... from the film 500 Days of Summer ... "Every day you make me proud, and today you get a card."

LA RUE: Missa pro defunctis / Missa de Beata Virgine (Ensemble Officium, Rombach)

I purchased a wonderful album last night on Amazon MP3 titled LA RUE: Missa pro defunctis / Missa de Beata Virgine (Ensemble Officium, Rombach) http://bit.ly/9AjTu7

Lent

A Catholic blogger I read whose name is Vito, author of the blog Stumbling After Francis: Learning to Live a Capuchin Life, published a blog entry post about his decision to not go online during Lent. I really admire his decision and I honestly don't think I'd be able to do it. The Internet is a big part of my life. I access music, movies, blogs, receive updates from my family and friends, and do my finances online. There's other things I use the web for that I'm no doubt forgetting.

I'm not affiliated with a church at the moment, so I'm not sure if I am even eligible for participating in Lent, but just the same I'm going to give up meat on Fridays and give up sugary foods. Now obviously I'm not going to be able to remove ALL sugars from my diet, but I will eliminate the ones that are nothing but sugar, like candy, soda, Red Bull, etc. Basically junk food is what I'm removing. I hope I can do it. This should be interesting. I'll post updates on my progress.

JR Celski

I really like him. He won the bronze tonight in the short-run speed skating at the Olympics. I'm now following him on Twitter. His Twitter account is here.

Valentine's Day

I'm single so I won't be doing anything special for Valentine's Day, but I'd like to watch a romantic movie. When I was at the grocery store I bought some chocolate-covered strawberries 'cuz I was in the mood.

I love the poetry recited during the opening ceremony of the winter Olympics.

"Even bad books are books, and therefore sacred." ~ Gunter Grass, author of The Tin Drum (1959)

Altruism in Avatar

There's a very poignant part of the plot of James Cameron's film Avatar that I want to discuss. Jake, the story's hero, is a former marine paralyzed from the waist down. He decides to participate in his dead brother's work in the "Avatar" program on the dangerous moon Pandora. Basically his job is to provide armed security to the human scientists who are interacting with the Pandoran natives, known as the Na'vi. The villain Col. Quaritch makes a deal with Jake. In exchange for intelligence information on the Na'vi and their surroundings the Colonel said that he would provide the necessary funding for an operation to allow Jake to walk again. Jake agrees to the Colonel's offer, but he begins to feel conflicted because, through his interaction with the Na'vi, he's grown to love them and their culture. He reaches the decision that preserving the Na'vi civilization is more important than him being able to walk again. Jake's altruism endeared me to him and I find it refreshing to have a hero who acts in such a selfless way.

My Saturday

Today I spent some of this morning helping to clean the house and then later I went to see Avatar (the 3-D version) with my friend. I like 3-D but I don't like wearing those glasses. They felt uncomfortable. I think Avatar is going to win best picture.

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory,
my understanding, and my entire will.
All I have and call my own.
Whatever I have or hold, you have given me.
I return it all to you and surrender it wholly
to be governed by your will.
Give me only your love and your grace
and I am rich enough and ask for nothing more.

St. Ignatius

My Review of Inglourious Basterds

I'm alone in the living room on an unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon in New England. The Jets/Colts game is on, but I have it muted. It's hard to write when someone else is speaking English. It's a bummer that the Patriots were knocked out of the playoffs in the opening round.

The purpose of this entry is to discuss Quentin Tarantino's film Inglourious Basterds. I was bored and felt like watching a movie so I rented it from iTunes. Let me just say that it was very entertaining. I was expecting it to be really gory, but fortunately it wasn't too bad. Basically, it's about a small group of Jewish American soldiers who kill Nazi soldiers during World War II. Most of the plot takes place in France and the climax takes place in a Parisian movie theater. The opening scene of the film has some of the best dialogue I've ever heard.

The acting was brilliant. Brad Pitt was humorously rugged, even with a deep Southern United States accent, but the actor who stole the show was Christoph Waltz, who plays a Nazi security officer, who has been assigned the nickname "Jew Hunter." This was the first time I've seen Waltz in anything and he was simply fantastic. He was evil, yet cunning and ruthless, but in the end he cared more about living comfortably in Nantucket than dying for the Third Reich. Don't worry, though, he gets what's coming to him, which leads me to my third point.

The plot caused me to feel sweet vindication for the fictionalized death of Adolph Hitler and other influential members of the Nazi party at the hands of vengeful Jews, but I felt somewhat disturbed at how happy I felt at their death. It is not a human being's job to kill those we don't like, even if they are war criminals. I believe that only God should have the power to take away a life. Sometimes I struggle with this belief when it is someone evil like Adolph Hitler or a senior SS Officer like Waltz's Colonel Landa.

Sorry if this post lacked direction or clarity, but I wanted to share what was on my mind.

Christian Living

I believe that the Christian life is about doing what is right, over what is easy.