Lerning iz Fun

My daughter is in 1st grade and I got to go and talk to her class about maps and geography, which they are talking about in class. It was so fun, not necessarily talking to her class, but seeing her so excited to see me in class and seeing her in her class and excited about learning. She is a great student and loves to learn and believe it or not, there was a time a long time ago when I felt the same way. I loved school.

I was just doing a query here at work where I had to use this character >, you know, the greater than character. How did I know and remember it was the greater than character and not the less than? Because if you pretend, like I learned in elementary school, that the sign is actually an alligator and always wants to eat the bigger number, then you know it is the greater than and not the less than.

Actually, the way I have just explained it has made it much more confusing but let's just say that when I learned it in Mrs White's class at Nephi Elementary School (now called Red Cliffs Elementary) I learned the difference and the alligator analogy has stayed with me lo these 25 years.

I am so excited to see my daughters go through these things, all their stages and learning. What a great feeling when your kids become more intelligent than you.

5 things you did not know about me and the Gilmore Girls

The other night I was talking to my wife about Erin's Blog and a post she had on there about 5 things a person may not know about her. One of her's was that she likes trash TV. Liz also had the same kind of entry and talked about playing Lacrosse and some other cool things.

But the trash TV got Daisy thinking and she said she was embarassed about liking the Gilmore Girls. I remember I watched the GG a few years ago and I never could get into it but it seemed to be a very popular show and not popular in the sense that Flavor of Love is popular but popular and acclaimed by critics and viewers a like.

Well, I thought that GG was nothing to be ashamed of, I thought that until last night. I spent a painful hour, that felt like several days, listening to the most unrealistic dialogue and witty banter that I was actually dry heaving. I realize The Simpsons, Scrubs, and most everything I like is not "realistic" either but Gimore Girl's is so well written and well done that it is sickening and disgusting and any man or woman of any sense of moral character or influence should shun it like they would a 3 day old rotting piece of raw meat.

Oh, and my 5 things that you may not know about me are:

1. I like my job.
2. I am a man and I usually pee sitting down.
3. I don't enjoy camping anymore.
4. I like the smell of skunks.
5. Big unnatural breasts are a major turn off to me as are sunsets and long walks on the beach.

Best Movie Scenes

Earlier I did a post about the best movies ever. These are some of the top SCENES in movies ever, at least the ones I can think of right now. In no particular order:

• Shawshank Redemption - The scene where Andy Dufresne is in the bosses office and finds those old records and plays that opera over the loud speaker and lets a little freedom into the prison. Anything Morgan Freeman is narrating is great. The scene below is an all time classic but too obvious.




• LA Story - The scene where the ENYA song is playing and the woman is leaving on a plane and all of a sudden the winds start to swell and the rains fall and she ends up back at Steve Martin's house. The weather literally would not let her leave. You did not know I am this romantic, did you?




• Office Space - There is a part where the main character, Peter, has finally realized his job is lame and he is just not going to put up with all the little things so to the music of "Dam* it feels good to be a gangster" he does all the things he has wanted to do for years. He parks in his bosses parking spot, takes the bolts out of one of the walls on his cubicle, unscrews the door knob that always shocks him, watches Kung Fu movies with Jennifer Aniston, and does what we all want to do, guts a fish on his TPS reports. Dam, it DOES feel good to be a gangsta. I really had no idea.




• Life is Beautiful - When Guido is captured by the Nazi's and his son is hiding and can see out and see his father and after all this time (**Spoiler Alert**) of pretending for his son that what the Germans were doing was a game for his son's sake here goes this proud man to be shot and the last image he has of his father is his father looking over at him, acknowledging him in hiding, and then marching in a mock fashion as if the game continues. What a powerful film scene and film. If you have not seen this film, even though it has subtitles, I don't want to be your friend anymore.




• Annie Hall - this is not really a great scene so much as a great line but there is a part where Annie and Alvy are both at their respective psychiatrist's office in different sessions. And the scene is a split screen so we can see both of them and the psychiatrist for Alvy asks, "how often do you sleep together" and Alvy responds: "hardly ever, maybe 3 times a week". And then Annie's psychiatrist asks on the other side of the split screen how often she and Alvy sleep together and she responds: "constantly, i'd say 3 times a week". I hear that sister.




• Edward Scissorhands - This film should have made my top 9 easily but I forgot about it. It has always been one of my favorties, I love it. But I love the scene where Kim looks out the window and sees the "snow" coming down and walks out in it and sees Edward making the huge sculpture and creating all this snow. And she dances in it and a nice song is playing.




• Billy Elliot - I tried to choke back the tears in this film when the father was forced or thought he was forced to cross the union picket line to get back to work to be able to provide for his 2 sons and mother-in-law. Seeing his oldest son, who was also picketing as a loyal union member, as the father got on the bus to go to work in the mines as a scab was riveting. You could see the anguish in his eyes trying to decide whether to cross the picket line or let his family starve. What a great film. The dancing was outstanding too.
  



• Good Will Hunting - I just saw this show again over the weekend and I love the part where Will just leaves without saying goodbye to his buddy. So his buddy goes to get him for their job tearing down buildings or whatever and he is just gone. And his buddy let's one of their other friends sit shotgun because he knows he is gone and he ain't coming back.




• Ghost - When Swayze and Demi Moore jump on that potting wheel together...j/k.....I did not like that scene at all......or did I?

Shoot, these are just the first ones I thought of, these are not the best but are some good ones. I can think of some great scenes in The Graduate or other classic good movies. There are too many to count but here are some goodies. It is funny having looked back at these scenes, most of them are not comedic in nature and many of them are heavily influenced by music. That is a great effect when the right bit of music is playing, it makes the scene. Ain't that interesting. What is your favorite movie scene?