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C'est Moi!
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Fun Stuff
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This page is full of different things from time to time. Right now it has some
favorite websites, book & film reviews. (Keep scrolling.  ) Enjoy!
Quizes and Games and Pages ... Oh My!
These are some fun quizes and games and websites that I have found
in my travels. You might enjoy them too.
To get to know me better, I'm going to share a deep, dark secret
with you. I took the "Better Personality" quiz, and unbelievably, I was classified as a dictator.
 (See my results HERE.) I wish that I could direct you to that really great, insightful
quiz, but the site is completely gone. At least, you might understand me a little better. Oh well.
I keep finding myself getting sucked in to more message boards and
blogs that I feel an uncontrolable obsession to monitor everyday. One of them is a brilliant blog, Grant's Blog . I won't begin to imply that I understand half of what he's
talking about, but I usually feel that I have been given an unexpected glimpse into the larger world when I read it.
After that I don't even know if I should tell you about my
blog. If you have a passing interest, my main one C'est Moi Trois.
While we're having all this fun, it might be nice to help the hungry. You can do that by clicking
the following links: HUMANS & ANIMALS
*** Current Movie Reviews ***
(Current in the sense that they were done most recently. Some may be for older films.
It's anybody's guess. For some of my favorite reviews click HERE. )
Quantum of Solace
Just back from the latest installment of Bond, and you know what? I don't have much to say.
Hmmmm ... what can this mean? I guess that it means that it was pretty average. Everything was fine.
There were some cool chases, stunts, and shots ... Beautiful locales, but the spark from Casino Royale was missing.
The problems might have something to do with the fact that they were in the middle of shooting when the writer's strike was
going on. And, I'm not saying that it was a bad film. I guess that I was so spoiled by the last one, my expectations
from this one were too high.
I do have one observation, however. If the head villain in the last film was Mr. White, and this one
was Mr. Greene, does that mean that the next one could be Mr. Purple? The mind reels.  (Though it may come directly from the books on which these adventures are based. Am I willing to read
them to find out? Maybe I should visit a message board.)
In any case .... 
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The Darjeeling Limited
You know when you see a movie trailer, and you think it looks good. Then you see the actors and maybe the
director doing interviews, and you think, "Yeah, this should be really cool!" And your expectations get so high that when
you actually go to see it, you think, "What a piece of crap!"
Well, after a summer of seeing the trailers and being
delighted with the commercials for The Darjeeling Limited, watching interviews with Jason Schwartzman and Wes Anderson, seeing
the tragedy of Owen Wilson's suicide attempt, and being bummed because it was not shown within 100 miles of where I live,
it finally came out on DVD this week. (Note: While that sentence was long and convoluted, it was not a run-on sentence. ) I bought the DVD a couple of days
ago, but I was afraid to watch it.
I bit the bullet today, and .... it .... was .... everything ... I'd hoped it would
be!  And more. It is such
a delightful film. Strange and convoluted, yes (much like my sentence above), but it was also sweet, charming, interesting,
and funny. It was a wild ride, and you never knew what was coming around the next corner. That in itself is amazing considering
how much I heard about it. It made me laugh hysterically. It made me cry. It made me go, hmmmmm.
 *******************************
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*** Books Reviews ***
The Shack
A friend from my Sunday School class gave
this to me to read wanting to know my opinion and I guess, whether it would be good to use as a Sunday School study. Why is it important to say why I read it? I
think it's because it's not a book that I normally would have chosen for myself. However,
about a week after I finished it, I can see several reasons why God wanted me to read it.
A short synopsis of the book is that a man,
Mack, who went through a terrible tragedy of having his young daughter murdered is invited by God to meet with him at the
scene of the crime, a shack. Though not particularly a religious man, he's angry
with God for allowing the murder to happen. God wants to repair the relationship
and in fact, make it fuller than ever before.
This is a powerful book. If you are looking for a light read, it is not for you. But
it's so well written that it pulls you across the pages. There are some wonderful
images of what God is and the relationship of the Trinity. Very interesting ideas. I'm reminded of the T.V. show, Joan of Arcadia, where God appeared to
Joan in a variety of forms. The book follows this kind of idea for the "God the
Father" character.
In this case, Mack, who had issues with
his own father, could relate better to a God who appeared as a large black woman that liked to cook. I don't particularly mind that image either. It's at once
comforting and welcoming. The book talks about how God is Love and God is about
relationships (even among the Trinity). But it doesn't back away from the hard
issues, like:
- If nothing is impossible for God, why does he allow tragedies to occur? Couldn't
he stop them?
- Why is there evil in the world?
- Can everyone be redeemed?
- What is the relationship among the Trinity?
I don't agree with all of the author answers,
but his ideas are compelling. And it really does make you think. I can appreciate it more, now that I have some distance from it.
To say that reading the book was an emotional experience would be an understatement.
I cried through practically the whole thing. But am I glad that I read
it? Absolutely. There are some parts
that I wish that could read over and over again. But I'm not sure that I ever
would need to read it again in its entirety. It was too emotionally intense for
my taste. I have plenty of things to cry about all on my own, thank you very
much. lol
But do I recommend it? Unreservedly, with only the disclaimer that you should be prepared for an emotionally charged ride. As well as check your preconceived notions about God at the door.
************************************
Between the Bridge and the River - Craig Ferguson
I don't know what I expected when I read this book, but it wasn't
this. There had been warnings of political incorrectness, sex, violence, foul language. There were praises of
humor, satire, and comedic greatness. I have been watching the author do monologues on TV for months where he talks
about his life constantly with hilarious results. Indeed it was all of these things and more.
To be honest, it started off kind of slow for me. I can honestly
say that if I had just randomly picked it up in the bookstore and started reading the beginning, I don't think that I would
have bought it. Luckily for me, I had already bought the book, and I wanted to read it in its entirety regardless, so
that I would know whether or not Mr. Ferguson was as brilliant as I had previously judged him to be.
It did take several chapters to introduce the characters and start
on this wild ride. Luckily, they're not too long. I'm not sure how to describe it. Really, there are three
seperate stories, and every once in a while they cross paths, and never for very long. I'm not sure that each of them
could not have stood very well on their own. There were times while reading the book that I thought that they would
have been better on their own. But authors must have their themes, and while the individual stories might have been
better on their own, some of the themes would not have been as powerful. One of these themes being the interconnectedness
of life.
This book was everything that I was warned about along with a heavy
level of cynicism. That was fine. I expected that. My opinion of the observational powers of Ferguson was
reenforced. He, like the best comics, sees things and makes connections that are beyond the power of mere mortals.
Great, but ...
It could be that everyone looks at everything through the lenses
of their life, and so they see what they want to see, but ... I saw a sensitivity, a perception, an understanding of the universe,
a peaceful spirituality that I did not expect. It cut me to the core. I'm sure that others will overlook it or
pass it off as more of the religious patter and mumbo-jumbo that Ferguson rips to shreds through most of the book. Maybe,
he even meant it that way, and it's just my interpretation at this point in my life. But it doesn't matter. It
spoke to me, and regardless of the rest, that makes it great.
The funny thing is that until a few moments ago, I didn't get the
title. From the moment I heard of the book, I thought, "Between the Bridge and the River, what kind of title is that?
What can it mean? What is that? Where is that? On the bank by the bridge? What could be there?
Is it a part of a great line in the story?" Well, I can tell you that there is nothing like that in the book.
I could be totally off base, but the only thing that I could think of had a much more spiritual thread. Then it made
perfect sense. Craig Ferguson, theologian.
P.S. Apparently, Ferguson actually references what the title
means in the book, and he talked about it on his book tour after I read it, so there's no big secret about it. I guess
that I was so engrossed in the story that I wasn't worrying about the title at the time, or (more likely) I was so stuck on
my preconceived notions that I blocked out any other data. But, I'm happy with my experience of dawing realization.
It was much more thrilling and awe-inspiring.
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