Thursday, December 29, 2005

Holiday Wrapup and Seasons Greetings

Went home for the holidays as the saying goes. I want to keep this short because I'd like to post something more “reflective” (i.e. longer) shortly. Let it suffice to say that I had a wonderful time getting to see my oh so amazing friends (missy, there’s no way that seeing you all could ever let me down, no way). I missed seeing many of them, but I know I’ll see them all again, hopefully sooner rather than later. I also got to see most of my mom’s side of the family. With over 20 people including many small children in one house it was pretty crazy, but then it usually is.

For those I got to see, it was SOOO AMAAAAAZING to see you again. Thanks for coming out and hanging. For those I missed, I am so utterly sorry and consoled only by the thought that hopefully I’ll see you again soon.

Hope your holiday was either exciting or relaxing…or maybe a bit of both and if I don’t post before Jan1, Happy New Year!

Shooting... Posted by Picasa

Down at the Farm Posted by Picasa

My second cousin Carly enjoying some music. Posted by Picasa

At Freestate having finished dinner. I had cheddar ale soup, of course and sample sizes of several of their beers. My favorite two are still Oatmeal stout and Ad Astra ale. Posted by Picasa

A picture of a pair of mittens. Well, I guess it's a picture of both a single "mittens" as well as a pair of mittens. Posted by Picasa

Monday, December 19, 2005

A Letter

Dear Lawrence,

I have missed you. The ways in which I’ve missed you are so difficult to press into the seemingly cold stamped steel molds that form the majority of my trite thoughts. How does one express the way they feel about the miles that separate them and the months that serve only to drive our paths apart?

The only redeeming quality to all of this distance and time is the edge it has given my nostalgia. When I think back to our shared experiences and all your amazing traits I’m thrown head long into a bitter storm of longing and expectancy for our rapidly approaching reconciliation.

I’ll be there to meet you on Thursday afternoon, December 22nd. We’ll have until December 23rd to embrace each other’s presence before fate cruelly forces us our separate ways once again. Oh how I long to see your magnificient plains and your enticing hills. Your tall proud trees make me want, if only once again, to climb to the tops and see for miles. How I long to stand on the cusp of your look-out and peer at your treasures. You seem so close Lawrence. So close.

With much love and many expectations,

Michael Colburn

Monday, December 12, 2005

Review :: Lion Witch and Wardrobe

It was a great movie. There were deviations from the book, but fairly minor in consequence. The book was better, but when isn’t that true? In a book everything is exactly as you picture it. For instance I always pictured Susan as a blonde…I’m not sure why. The bottom line though, is in a movie you understand what is going on without having to worry about whether a prop guy made the sword look believable, so those sorts of things don’t get in the way. I know what I think a narnian sword should look like, so when I picture it, it works – no questions. When a movie is released though all of the little things that might get glossed over in your imagination suddenly HAVE to be right or else it jumps out at you.

(Caution, some teeny tiny spoiler information if you’ve never read the books)
The movie was still awesome though, in my humble-ish opinion. Since I'm sure no one will read this I'll go ahead and say that as someone who has read and loved the books and views them as an example of using literature to discuss deep truths (similar to The Lord of the Rings), there were more than a couple points where I was having to try really hard not to cry. The imagery (whether actually present in the movie or brought to it by my own experiences/imagination) was just amazing in so many places. It's entirely possible that in the scene where Lucy and Susan are walking with Aslan in the woods (myself knowing what was coming...) I may have actually shed a couple tears, despite my most earnest efforts. I guess I can’t accurately describe the emotions that welled up in my as Aslan spoke to/mentored Peter, or corrected Edmund, or as they all sat on their thrones.

I think they did a great job of interpreting the book and keeping it true to the original work. I loved Lucy and just thought she was one of the cutest little kid actors I’ve seen recently. If it weren’t for Aslan she TOTALLY would have stolen the movie. Also, I was pleased that it wasn’t totally cartoony, heavy-handed, preachy, or secular. It was a wonderful balance of funny, serious, spiritual, and dramatic. Much koodos and I can only hope you all go see it. I’ll admit I want you to see it for selfish reasons, hopefully it will do amazing at the box office and they will simply have to do the other books in the series. Voyage of the Dawn Treader? The Magicians Nephew? The Final Battle? How cool would these others be with the action sequences, the story lines? Oh man.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Blessing and a Curse

So it’s a blessing and a curse living within walking distance to work. It was nice that with all the snow on the ground my only adjustment to commuting was wearing a pair of shoes better suited to the slush that occasionally covered the sidewalks. I didn’t see a single pileup on the sidewalk, or get caught behind a single snow plow. Indeed, traffic delays seemed isolated completely to the roads and affected the cars alone. Walking on the side walk I was exempt from all of that drama. I was slowed down by getting half way to work and realizing I had forgotten my cell phone however.

On the downside, I am currently the only one in my office and that includes people from the other company we share office space with. Sigh. Everyone else has yet to even get to work, and here I am. I admit I’m taking a 5 minute break to update the blog, but none the less – I’m here.

To end on the upside, I get to go to the Kennedy Center tonight to see the NPR Christmas Jazz Piano special. That should be terribly exciting. Good times.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Oh Glorious of Days

Project Runway Season II:
10:00pm Easter 9:00pm Central / Bravo
-Are you in or are you out?

Monday, December 05, 2005

Hippy in the Work Force

Jobs Hippies should not be allowed to hold:
-Phamaceutical Research - I just don't trust hippies with all those drugs, and think of all the new drugs they might invent. Hmmm, actually - who better to head up programs than hippies. If the FDA wouldn't let them test it on others, they'd probably test on themselves. They certainly wouldn't do animal testing.
-Zookeeper - I know hippies really like animals, but I don't want them freeing any lions into my neighborhood. You know they'd do it too.
-Policeman - I like the idea of having a police officer who is a hippy if I'm being pulled over, but that's about the ending point of where it seems like a good idea. They wouldn't enforce the laws, and instead of confiscating drugs they found they'd just sit down in a cirlce and just smoke it, THEN think about how many cups of coffee and donuts they'd go through. Not good.
-Pirate - Hippies are too peace loving to be good pirates. They wouldn't have the cruelty necessary to instil fear in the hearts of other sea-goers.
-Brain Surgeon - I don't know all the studies, but I don't think I want someone cutting on my brain who just sat down with a couple janiotrs and the anestesteologist and smoked a dime sack.

Jobs Hippies should be encouraged to hold:
-Trash person - Love the planet? Great, why don't you haul the trash off my drive way to make it a cleaner lawn.
-Pharmaceutical Research - Based on my conclussions above I've added this to the enourage list.
-Lawyer - Might make the profession a little bit more laidback and less like a bunch of sharks.
-Meter Maid- I'm not entirely certain what the masculine form of Meter maid is (meter Butler), but if hippies were doing this job, I bet a lot fewer people would owe the city money.

Thoughts or comments?