RECOMMENDED STUFF
MOVIES
I work in an office. I work in technology. This movie is truth! If you happen to be even a little bit of a geek, you will probably love this movie. The acting isn't that great, the plot is pretty simple, and there aren't any fancy special effects. But damn this is a funny movie. By the way, just in case you care, Jennifer Aniston is in it. It's not like she really shines, but hey, thought you might like to know. Buy it, okay?
Sustained frenetic emotional intensity building on driving music, a triple-crescendo plot, exquisite directorial and cinematic intelligence and a woman with really cool red hair. Buy it okay?
This movie doesn't even rate a cover image on Amazon. Too bad! I have to admit that it has been a long time since I have actually watched this movie. I own the DVD, but I haven't got around to it yet. Its a weird one. Basically, an alien lands on Earth, he's "ebony" as they describe it on the back of the DVD case, and he's got amazing super powers. He wins, and the movie is cool. You should be getting the idea now: buy it, okay?
Simply, this is just one of my favorite movies. Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell are great. Basic story: nasty guy gets caught in time, repeating the same day over and over and over and over each time a little different. I think the movie might actually only show about 10 or 15 days, but my guess is that in the story he goes through about 5000 days (he learns to be a piano virtuoso among other things). In the end he learns much that is hidden about life, love and himself, and turns into a good guy.
The
Hudsucker Proxy (PG, 1994)
Tim Robbins is great. Story of a mailroom guy being suddenly promoted
to the head of a company. Foils the machinations of the bad guys. Really
fun.
This movie, although dealing with some very ugly human qualities, shines out with beauty. The beauty is in the sets, the cinematography, the acting, the music, the dialog. If you appreciate the unusual in a movie, you must see this one.
The
Mighty Quinn (R, 1989)
A fun movie with Denzel Washington. Some scary scenes. Unusual set.
Some basic Harrison Ford - just a good adventure.
This is a great movie by Luc Besson starring Jean Reno. They also did work together in The Professional and La Femme Nikita.
MUSIC
Wierd fusion of country and techno from the early nineties! There's some pretty brutal lyrics so if you have a sensitive sort of personality, I recommend avoiding this one.
WEB SITES
This is a radical new approach to education: it is an online educational system which totally destroys barries to making education democratic and meritocratic. Any participant can be an educator and an "accreditor" as well as a learner. Register (for free), and submit your old essays, write quiz questions, evaluate content - in other words, participate fully in education in an open education community!
NON-FICTION
If you think the public education system is doing a decent job in America, you need to get your head out of the ground and read this book. This is a book to make you rage or cry. Anyone interested in education of children should read this book.
I read this in 1985 when I was 13 years old. And essentially, I haven't watched television since. Look beyond the specifics of his arguments since some of the data is a little old. Instead consider his fundamental arguments. And then stop watching television - you will be happier and better for it.
Laudan examines the history and nature of scientific progress. This book is amazingly readable and interesting considering its somewhat esoteric subject matter. If philosophy, history, religion or the sciences interest you, I highly recommend this book. It is not long, and you will come away from it with a deep insight into how knowledge is advanced.
McCloskey takes an eye-opening look at economics and points out three mind-boggling vices which plague economists in their practice. This book deals with statistics, theory and prediction. It is written with a general reader in mind: there is no difficult math or esoteric economic terminology.
FICTION
"Ship of Magic" is the first title in the three book series. I highly recommend it to everyone. It's a hefty series. The characters are believable and heroic at the same time, and the action is continuous. They are not the typical quest-style of fantasy that I have grown very tired of. Rather, they are more like hundreds of small stories seamlessly woven together into an epic adventure that explores the limits of both the characters and the fantasy world itself.
This is a fabulous introduction to the fantasy genre for young adults. It's got some pretty scary stuff. The writing is excellent and it is more "mystery" style fantasy than "quest" style.
TOYS
SOFTWARE
It is fabulous!!! Basically, it works by giving you images and words together and you have to match them up. As you go along, it presents new material with new images in such a way that you can always figure out what the new material means. At no point are you ever given a translation!!! You are only ever given words (written and/or voice) in the language you are learning and images to associate with those words. It also has a speach recognition feature that works very well. The first lesson starts out with boy, girl, man, woman, dog, cat, airplane, car, ball, elephant, horse, with/and, on, under, in (and maybe a few others that I forget). The thing that is really exciting is that you immediately start being able to recognize the words. I can't recommend this highly enough. It's costly though... but if you want to learn a language don't even bother with anything else! I've tried many of the various language learning packages, and for that matter, real live college courses, and this blows them all away. They have a downloadable demo that you can install and run to see what I mean (caveat: the demo has some features not yet available in the CD's but I have been assured that the cost of upgrading is only a few dollars). The "Explorer" package is the same as the full package but it only has two units of eleven lessons each of material instead of the full eight units of ninety-two lessons total in the Level I package or the 118 lessons in the Level II package. Unfortunately Amazon.ca does not offer software yet. The Amazon.com prices are lower than the prices on the Rosetta Stone web site.