[movies] 

Not exactly the sort of film you might expect from the director who brought us 28 Days Later ...

This one tells a more uplifting story. I'd catalog it more closely to About Schmidt or In America -- each comparing for its own reasons, part of the logic, for me, being that I enjoyed each of them, and they all include plotlines revolving around familial loss.

Millions centers on two boys from a single-parent household who find a large stash of British currency days before the conversion from the pound to the euro. One of the boys sports a somewhat encyclopedic recall of the saints who seem to appear only to him, and seems chronically curious about a "St. Maureen."

The story carries an offbeat sense of humor, and also features James Nesbitt (an actor I most readily recognize from 2002's Bloody Sunday, an excellent retelling of events surrounding January 30, 1972, in Derry, Northern Ireland) as the father of the two brothers.

There, now that I've done a little bit of independent film promotion, maybe one or two of you will find your way out (if only to the video store) to see any one of the four or five movies I've just mentioned. If so, enjoy...

 [personal/blog] 

Congress may extend daylight-saving time

-in a frantic attempt to prove that they still could impose their will on something, they chose daylight...

 [personal/blog] 

This is just another test to see if I can improve the readability of the page for those with higher resolution settings. I also implemented some CSS, which had caused me a few problems the last time I tried it -- so let me know if this page is showing up okay, please. A short comment would do the trick.

Conversely, if the page looks funny, or worse, impossible to read, let me know about that too. Thanks.

Something just didn't smell right

[personal/blog] 

Smelly Money Lands Indiana Man in Jail

GREENSBURG, Ind. (AP) -- A man who went to the sheriff's department to bond out his brother-in-law also ended up in jail when police realized the money he handed them reeked of marijuana...

 [personal/blog] [sociopolitical] 

Those who've spent enough (or perhaps, way too much) time patrolling my sidebar are bound to know that I proudly associate with a site called Philly Future.

The tag-line at Philly Future is "Urbi et Orbi - The News YOU Write - Since 1999." Though it has existed, in one form or another, since 1999, I wasn't lucky enough to happen upon it until last fall. Karl, the man behind the madness of netizen-based journalism at Philly Future, is one of the nicest, most decently-motivated folks you're ever likely to meet. He has a vision for open-source journalism that is quite admirable.

It's been remarkable to see the site's growth since I first stumbled upon it. It has started to really blossom into a community atmosphere, with many different Philly area bloggers joining the fray, not just by having their blogs included in the site's listings, but also by contributing stories directly to the site (you needn't have your own blog; once you sign up you can start posting to your own Philly Future-hosted blog). If anyone reading this from the Philadelphia area is interested in getting involved, I encourage you to click over to Philly Future to find out what it's all about.

And speaking of contributions, I just posted an item over there about a great campaign called Philadelphia Saves, which, for those outside the Philly area, is part of a larger-scale campaign called America Saves. Please feel free to check it out.

 [personal/blog] 

Suspect's Phone Tips Police to Burglary

"ROGERSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Hawkins County authorities were waiting for two would-be burglars after a cell phone in a suspect's pocket accidentally dialed 911 and dispatchers overheard them plotting the crime. ..."

Do they at least get some kind of tipline reward?

 [sociopolitical] 

I stumbled across news of "The Loan Shark Prevention Act", thanks to Eschaton. This resembles the kind of amendment activity I mentioned in my 2/28 post when Congress was debating the "Consumer Credit Card Company Protection Act of 2005."

Unfortunately, such redemption for that greedy little bill never materialized. But while I'm on the subject, I also noticed a story in today's Philadelphia Daily News, on page 11 (sorry, I couldn't find an online link to it) about a response by the state of Pennsylvania to the recent Brookings Institute study that focused on poverty in Philadelphia.

The article, entitled "Rendell aims laws to help the poor", included news of possible measures to crack the vicious cycle of multi-generational poverty that seems to run in many inner-city families. One or two of the solutions in the article were ideas I pushed in my 2/28 post. Though I'm sure they didn't get any ideas from me, I'm glad to see some of these things, like beefing up financial education for school kids, mentioned as part of a more comprehensive course of action. Here's a brief excerpt:

"The report said that low-income families in Philadelphia pay higher prices for cars, appliances and other necessities -- and higher interest rates on a variety of loans -- than higher income families. Poorer families lack access to financial information ...

"State officials also are working to integrate financial education into existing reading and math programs in public schools."

The article also mentions potential regulations regarding "payday" loans, which routinely charge interest of 400% or higher. It's nice to see someone in government taking action on these types of issues; now I only hope there's enough pressure behind the pols to keep them moving.

NOTE: Though I couldn't find a link to the aforementioned Daily News story, they do also have this featured editorial which lightly traces some of the same points.

 [sociopolitical] 

"Sleep, sleep tonight,
and may your dream be realized..."
-U2

Dragonballyee posts Rev. King's Mountaintop speech (given the day before he was assassinated), which I think is a nice way to commemorate the anniversary of his passing.

 [personal/blog] [sociopolitical] 

This via Dan Gillmor:

San Francisco May Regulate Blogging

I guess they figure since the federal government has yet to step in and regulate online speech, someone's got to do it, right? If this passes, it'll give me another reason to thank God I don't live in San Francisco.

 [personal/blog] [sociopolitical] 

As we mourn the passing of a Pontiff, I'd like to echo much of the admiration others have shown for his 26 tenure. He was a man who sought compassion for the least of us, lived forgiveness, yet adhered to some of the most strict Church principles -- sometimes in the face of popular and political criticism. Instead of acting a salesman, he lived a life of stewardship, recognizing that the Church's purpose wasn't just to comfort parishioners, appease popular demands or cozy up to governments, but to follow the will of God.

Whether or not you agree with the message of John Paul II or the Roman Catholic Church, you should recognize that his leadership was based on principle. This, in an age of churches (especially in the West) that seem more motivated by filling membership rolls and collection plates than following Christian teachings. Here in America, if you aren't Catholic, chances are you attend a church that makes major decisions based on democratic rule or membership sentiment (if you attend church at all). This makes most churches into social clubs run by their members, rather than led by their leaders.

Over the past several months, I've been seriously considering the Roman Catholic Church for my own practice of Christianity and worship. It's in part because of the rigidity of the structure, because it doesn't sway or cave in to popular pressure. But it's also in part because of the example of forgiveness that I mentioned a couple days ago, in my last post on the Pope. His leadership wasn't swayed by public outcry, yet it was compassionate.

Perhaps nothing is more integral to Christianity than practices like compassion and forgiveness. These are certainly the two most important lessons one should take from the life of Christ; they are also two incredibly important lessons to be learned from the life of Karol Józef Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II.

God bless him, and may he rest in peace.

 [personal/blog] 

It came to my attention that someone thought the white background sported by this weblog for the past many months was "stark." I don't know exactly how to take that, and despite my longstanding tradition of not caring what other people think, I've seen fit to tinker with this current (green) background.

Any thoughts on the new look?

UPDATE: The green has since turned gray, but I'm still accepting feedback on the issue, and the final decision from smedley HQ is still forthcoming.

 [personal/blog] 

I didn't feel much like blogging for fun yesterday, so I didn't get a chance to point this one out in a timely fashion. But anyway, here's a momentous press release from Opera...

 [personal/blog] [rants] 

I was due for a new toothbrush, so I picked one up on my way home last night. Now here's what I'm wondering:

Why are there four hundred different kinds of toothbrushes? I don't just mean different brands, because there's only about ten different brands, but within each brand's offering, there are seemingly dozens of different variations on the toothbrush. If Oral-B sells both the Indicator toothbrush and the Cross-action Vitalizer (not to mention the many other choices in their repertoire), how is a person to know which brush is best? And if one brush is superior to the others, why even bother selling the others? I don't get it.

Of course, I used to have similar confusion with toothpaste varieties, when I couldn't seem to find Crest with both tartar control and whitening, so I had to make the difficult choice between getting rid of tartar and whitening my teeth. Thank God they finally merged the two features some years back, or I don't know what I would have done.

So as I perused the vast selection of dental cleaning tools at the local Rite Aid, I simply strove to locate a toothbrush that looked reminiscent of the brush I had purchased a few short months ago. But the crop of toothbrushes in my view looked to be an entirely new generation of dental hygiene devices, none of which looked even remotely like the last one I bought.

So now, my mind nearly overheating with the burden of choosing between soft and medium bristles, large and compact heads, single, dual, and even triple-action bristles, I almost gave up and chose the simplest, cheapest, most boring toothbrush I could find. And then, instead of toothpaste, I would come home with a fresh box of baking soda -- or at least Tom's of Maine (until I realize that even they've sold out to the demons of dental variety).

But not this time. No, I gave in and picked the super duper, cross-action, gum-massaging, indicator brush with a tongue-cleaning pad on the reverse side. For now I'll just counter the excessive technology of my new toothbrush by continuing to use the good old, mouth-burning blue Listerine a couple times every day.

But in three months, if we've already progressed to the next stage of brush evolution, I swear, I'm settling for a piece of emery cloth tied to the end of a twig and a box of baking soda.

 [personal/blog] 

Thief Steals Poop From Woman Walking Dog

Cziltang has a section of his website entitled Stupid Criminal Tricks. In that spirit, I submit the above item from yesterday's local paper.

 [sociopolitical] 

"I saw a man who was holding the hand
that had fired a gun at his heart..."
-Steve Taylor

It appears the Pontiff is "fading serenely." Here's what I'll remember most: a legacy of forgiveness.

No pious pronouncements, no political rants -- just a quiet prayer for Terri and all those she left behind. Go with God.

 [personal/blog] 

I got a five dollar bill as change from lunch the other day. I noticed that someone had written a web address on the edge of it. This tactic struck me as an interesting (and cheap) way to advertise a website, especially with the way paper money gets around. Based on this thought pattern, as well as curiosity, I made a note to self that I should check out the website on the five in my wallet, you know, to make their advertising dollars stretch a little further.

This morning I finally remembered to look it up. It was at this point I finally realized that the web address scrawled on my five dollar bill was not there just for advertising purposes, though that was certainly a fringe benefit. WWW.WHERESGEORGE.COM is an informal little tracking system for bills that have that address written on them. I don't know how widely used this site is, as I have only just discovered it, but the concept seems at least semi-interesting. I found that the 2001 series five dollar note was initially tracked in Minnesota, and that I am apparently the first person since then (about five months ago) to register its whereabouts on the website.

That's okay, I'll probably spend it now that I've satisfied a part of my curiosity, and maybe I'll even check in on it to see if it turns up again somewhere even more exciting than here.