(Originally posted Tuesday, January 30th, 2007)
Justin is 6 years born today. Every time one of my boy’s annometer clicks another year I get this feeling that the numbers will keep going up and at much faster rates than I am comfortable with. Between May and October later this year I will have every even number under 10 in my house, just weird. What’s nice is that Justin informed me today that he wants 800 Wii points for his birthday (not so coincidentally this is exactly the number of Wii points it takes to buy “Zelda: A Link to the Past” on the virtual console.) And since 800 Wii points costs exactly 8 bucks, I think I’m OK with it. Thank you Nintendo. In fact, we may just make it 2000 Wii points and let him pick up Mario Kart 64 or Mario 64 as well. We shall see.
Speaking of the Wii (which I seem to have been doing a lot lately), a lot of “Wii enhanced” websites have been popping up lately with big buttons and dimensions perfect for Wii’s internet browser (still free and in Beta). My favorite of these has to be the one that has many of the Homestar Runner games formatted perfectly for Wii use. There just seems to be something giddily addictive about playing “Population Tire” with the Wiimote.
Did you ever read “Bridge to Terabithia” when you were in school? It’s one of three books I vividly remember from those years of forced reading (“Where the Red Fern Grows” and “Tuck Everlasting” are the others.) Well, I recently saw the preview for the upcoming flim and it kinda weirded me out. I remember the story being about friendship and imagination but I don’t remember it being so fantastical and I’m not sure I like the world being so external realized in that way. However, just today I found out that Katherine Paterson’s son David actually wrote and produced it. And since a lot of the story was based on his experiences it gives me a little peace that the movie will be faithful to the printed pages. I’m now looking forward to this movie much more than I was.
Finally, I stumbled today (thanks to Digg.com) upon one of the most compelling anti-drug campaigns I’ve ever seen. It’s called “Faces of Meth” and it’s simple before and after pictures of Meth addicts. It’s absolutely stunning that a drug (and the lifestyle that goes along with it) can do this to a woman in 3 and a half years. Astonishing, and heart wrenching. I hope when you look at these pictures there is more compassion than judgement, and a real since of “There but for the grace of God”. These pictures outdo the frying egg analogy any day. “You, alright!, I learned it by watching you.” Don’t do drugs boys and girls, seriously, run away.
I know this is an old post for you, but I was getting caught up on all your past thoughts. I had the same thoughts about Bridge to Terabitha that you did. Ill be interested in hearing what you think about it. I’m wondering if they’ll change the ending since it doesn’t seem to have the same focus?
Read a review today that mentioned that the film is completely faithful to the book, even the end. And that the CG world of Terabithia is only in the film for about 10 minutes. So it was completely a marketing decision to promote it as the new Harry Potter/Narnia. Bad move, if you ask me.