Today is Father’s Day and the family is pretty much letting me spend the day however I like.  So, I’ve been listening to some music in the background and just taking care of some small things that I needed to do.  But a couple of songs caught my attention and made me stop what I was doing and just listen.

This first one from Puscifer sounds deceptively simple but is full of complexity.

For this next one I couldn’t find a video of the song I wanted, Cure for the Common Cold by Ha Ha Tonka, so I’m posting another one from the same album that’s nearly as good. 

Here’s hoping all the Father’s out there have a great day.

The church I pass going in and out of my neighborhood has a new sign this week that says:

“The Ten Commandments are Not Multiple Choice”

Well, this inspires many different thoughts…the first of which has me wondering how many christians actually know all of the ten commandments?  I recall that wonderful segment from The Colbert Report when he was interviewing a US Congressman who was arguing to allow a list of the 10 commandments to be shown in the capitol building and when asked to name all of the commandments, he couldn’t.

I don’t believe his situation is unique in this regard.  So for those who are unclear on the list, here they are:

1. You shall have no other Gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven or above or that is on the earth beneath….you shall not bow down to them or worship them.
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misues his name.
4. Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy.  For 6 days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work–you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.
5. Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
6. You shall not kill.
7. Neither shall you commit adultery.
8. Neither shall you steal.
9. Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife.  Neither shall you desire your neighbors’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Where to start….

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I’ve posted a few videos/websites before showing the scale of objects in the Universe.  Well, here’s another one and it does a really good job of trying to explain just how big some things in the Universe are.

And this only covers the size of stars…just imagine how large some of the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies are.  It’s always humbling to me when I see these types of comparisons.  One understands just how small and insignificant our problems really are when you consider the massive scale of the Universe in which we live.

My recent movie choices, including some Oscar nominated films, have left me less than impressed.  Here’s a short synopsis of the three latest viewings.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

My wife and I sat down to watch this film and within about 30 minutes I leaned over to her and said, "This is Forrest Gump in reverse".  My wife got bored and left about 45 minutes into the film.  I struggled through the remaining 2 slow hours of this film.  I later found out the writer of this film also wrote Forrest Gump…it shows.  Benjamin Button, like Forrest, is a naive individual with no drive in life, he is swept along with the events that occur to him with a strange life-long love interest that frankly starts rather oddly.  Two stars, mostly for the technical achievement in creating the Button character.  The TED talk about this process is way more interesting than the movie.

Quantum of Solace

The latest in the Bond film franchise certainly has fantastic stunts and chase/fight scenes, but in my view, they’ve tried to make Bond too much like Jason Bourne.  That’s not what I want from a Bond film.  Bond is supposed to be sophisticated, confident and smart, not a revenge driven bully who kills for virtually no reason.  And why would you power a building with a power source that can explode and destroy the entire facility?  sure it looks good on camera, but it’s ridiculous engineering.  Two stars for the action and the always attractive bond girls, but that’s all this film provides.

The Wrestler

Wow, what can I say.  Mickey Rourke certainly did a great job of acting (or was that just him), but I really had no reason to care about his character.  He deserved to be where he was, a has been and alone, scraping by on fifth rate appearances and fan events.  As for Marisa Tomei, well, I’m not sure what to make of that character.  It’s like she was thrown in to give someone else for the viewer to give a crap about, but with little backstory there was no reason to care.  The film is left with two people who made bad life choices and now have to live with the consequences….so what.  Two stars for decent acting, but there were no other redeeming qualities.