Author: stenaros

Three sentence movie reviews: Eat, Pray, Love


It strikes me this movie was made as a way to make a few more dollars off the legions of people (mostly women) who have read and loved the book as I think this would not at all be compelling if you hadn’t had the reading background first. It was fun to see who was cast as which character, but the book, sprawling and mostly internal dialogue, was greatly compressed to make this movie. Even in compressed form, it felt pretty long.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2010/eat_pray_love_ver2.html

Workaround for getting a google map into a blog post.

Sometimes I need something off the Internet that won’t let me copy and paste. In this example it’s a Google Map. There is probably a quicker way to do this or some program to buy that will do it for you, but here is my way:

Get the map centered the way you want it

Push the “print screen” key.

Open Paint (in Accessories)

Paste in the picture (I use the control-V keys)

Save As JPEG

Close

Find wherever you have saved it and right click

Choose open with Microsoft Office Picture Manager

Crop to proper size

Probably compress

Insert into document.

The end.

Early morning walk

I walked along the beach to “downtown” Mazanita and took some pictures along the way.

My favorite house on the beach.
This sign is along the accessible walk to the ocean. I am interested in history and so I did push the button, but nothing happened. Someone later suggested that it was some sort of over developed counter and perhaps they just were interested in the number of people interested in history?
A lovely mural on the side of the house. The owner, back from a walk on the beach, caught me taking a picture.

Dogs on the beach

Four dogs came to visit Spindrift: Deborah & Val’s Tuly, Amy’s Gunnis and Mac, and Stephen and Jim were dog sitting Clementine. As you can imagine, all dogs had a good time, what with all the smells and the sand and the running and the other dogs. Here Guiness (dark fur, blue coat) Tuly (blond fur, blue coat) and Mac (white fur, red and grey coat) check out another dog who is also happy to be on the beach.

Tuly has just finished sniffing the beer bottle. This bottle was referred to in conversation the night before as in “we walked all the way to the beer bottle leaning against a log.” When I noticed it, I confirmed that it was the very same bottle mentioned before and it was. In the background: an ostentatious house which will most likely be swept away someday.

Bros v. Hipsters

The highlight of my day came early on while reading the Oregonian’s Metro section. The headline: No racial intent or race-related outfits at Cleveland High’s ‘bro vs. hipster’ theme day.

It seems that it is Spirit Week at Cleveland High school. Spirit week apparently involves dressing up in themed clothing just as I did during my high school spirit week days, but Cleveland High has a “versus” theme. For example, ninjas vs. pirates or bros vs. hipster.

It seems that some faculty (read: old people) took offense to the term “bro” feeling that it implied African American men. They were worried that it might encourage racial stereotyping. The students (read: young people) helpfully explained that, “Today’s meaning of the word bro…is no longer a term for African American men who support each other but rather connotes a young man of any race who works out a lot, likes to party and may be a fraternity member or live the beach lifestyle showcased in the reality show ‘Jersey Shore.'”

This old person noted the distinction and turned to the next page to finish reading the article and found the following photo of four students, two each modeling the bro and hipster look:

My first reaction was to laugh and think, “um, they are dressed exactly alike. They are both wearing sorts and t-shirts.” My next reaction was, “ah. I’m officially old.” If I turned on my young person vision I saw that the two groups were profoundly different. The bros were outfitted in baggy shorts, and sleeveless shirts, sunglasses and sandals. The hipsters were wearing skinny jean shorts, t-shirts with flannels and nerdy glasses. Ah.

It reminds me of a spirit week theme day my senior year (spring of 1993) when we had a theme of “early 80s day.” I was telling my Pizza Hut manager (read: old person) about the themes and when I got to that one he said, “I went to high school in the early 80s and I wore jeans and a t-shirt. How is that different from now?” I (then: young person) just shut my mouth to avoid trying to explain what my friend later put so succinctly: yes, but what kind of jeans, how tight were they, what was on your t-shirt and what shoes were you wearing?