I don’t know what was going on with me last night, but I was overwhelmed with a need to go to bed about 7:30 last night. Normally I can go a whole day on six hours sleep with no problem whatsoever, and the night before I actually got a little over seven hours of sleep. I don’t know what brought it on. I did have a busy day at work, but it was nothing that should have made me this tired. I hope I’m not getting sick.
In other news, Cassie went to the doctor and was diagnosed with tonsillitis and was put on a heavy dose of antibiotics. She’s doing much better now, actually she’s doing too good. I woke up from my slumber last night at 10:30 and she was cleaning like a madwoman. It was like Monica from Friends had moved in to our apartment when I was sleeping.
Cassie and I did go to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last Thursday. It was really well done and I was very happy. My only complaint was that the movie’s pace was a little too fast. It’s a very long book and they squeezed it into a 2 hour and 18 minute movie. They still hit all of the high points and told the story, but it went by too fast.
I have read the seventh Harry Potter book once already, and I’m re-reading it again right now. I wonder if I can count it as two books for my new year’s resolution to read at least 30 books this year?
Last night was a pretty eventful night. We had a business meeting at church, which was the first one Cassie and I were able to attend because we are now full members of Tri-City. The meeting was the normal facts and figures that every church has. I’m not a huge fan of going over financial reports and the business of running a church, but it was my first glimpse into the finances of a very large church.
After that was a very special Reality. I haven’t written about it here, but last night was Dave Stephens’ final night as the director of Reality. He’s stepping away from Reality to focus more on his responsibilities as creative arts director and also as the main associate pastor for the whole church. It is a bitersweet thing to see Dave leave. On one hand I will miss seeing him and working with him every week. But I also realize that this is best for him, his family, and for our church as a whole. We also have great leaders who are stepping in to his shoes, Jeremy and Christi Roth. I’m sure I’ll be talking more about them in the weeks and months to come.
After we got home, I rushed to turn on the Oscars which had already started. Thankfully I didn’t miss any of the big awards being handed out. I was very pleased with the way the major awards were decided. Late last week I filled out my own Oscar ballot on Yahoo! movies. Of the major awards (Picture, Director, Actor & Actress, Supporting Actor & Actress, and Screenplay) I only was wrong about one of the categories. I picked Eddie Murphey to win the Best Supporting Actor category, but I based my vote on who the critics seemed to be favoring. I was actually hoping Alan Arkin would win and I am very glad that he did. I am also very glad that The Departed cleaned up the top awards because I loved that movie. I’ve probably watched it 5 or 6 times in the past couple of weeks and I enjoy it every time. It’s not the best move that Scorsese has ever made, but it’s definitely one of his better ones.
So Cassie and I haven’t really had much of a chance to watch very many movies recently. By recently I mean the past year or so. But thanks to a free trial of Blockbuster Online, we’re starting to get caught up.
Tonight we watched the movie Crash, which was the winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture this year. I had heard a lot of good things, and some mixed reviews as well. I was so incredibly impressed with this movie, I can’t stop talking about it. It’s written and directed by Paul Haggis, who also wrote Million Dollar Baby which I also loved. (He also wrote The Last Kiss starring Zach Braff which I just saw. That movie was great too.)
The movie is a harshly honest look at race relations in Los Angeles specifically, but America as a whole. No punches are pulled when each race is represented. Each culture is shown to have its own biases and prejudices. The story is woven together brilliantly and the actors really make the movie. It would take far too long to list all of the actors in the movie, but it’s a huge list of big stars. A couple of standouts from the movie are Matt Dillon and Ludacris.
One of the most compelling parts of the movie is how realistic each scene and character are. I was watching the movie thinking to myself, “I know people who are just like that.” Or even sometimes, “I’ve done that” or “I’ve thought that.” It was challenging to me personally to examine the subconscious prejudices that I may still have. I haven’t seen a couple of the other movies nominated for Best Picture, but I can say that this is the best movie I have seen in a very long time.
There’s not much to report. From now on philhull.com will redirect to this blog which is actually philhulldotcom.wordpress.com. It’ was just too hard to find a decent free webserver that wasn’t crippled with ads or something like that. Plus I like some of the features on wordpress.com and it’s free.
We watched the movie The Weatherman yesterday with Nicholas Cage. It was quirky and strange, but I liked it. Some of the parts were really random, which I find hillarious. The acting was really good, especially the two kids who played Nicholas Cage’s children. The best part is the montage of people throwing fast food at him, that’s classic.
It’s slow at work, which is why I’m posting on my blog when I should be doing other stuff. I guess I’ll go do that now.