Movie time

* Standard Operating Procedure: Another excellent documetary from Errol Morris. It covers the events at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the total breakdown in, well, everything there. As depressing as one would expect, particularly when you see why the documentary is named Standard Operating Procedure. But, you also wonder, what would I do in the same situation? Would I have reported it? Would I have taken part? Given the conditions there, and given the fact that "enhanced interrogation" was given a green light from what was taking place at Guantanamo Bay, it's tough to say.

I particularly liked the comments from the young African-American soldier who said that if there had been no pictures, nothing would have happened, and that there were no pictures of the actual torture taking place in the interrogation rooms. I also liked his comments on the best music to use to annoy prisoners.

* Bolt: In a lot of ways this is very similar to Standard Operating Procedure. OK, not really. I wasn't expecting much from this, so I was pleasantly surprised. Even though this wasn't a Pixar flick per-se, their imprint was all over it. The CG animation was top-notch, and with John Lasseter as executive producer it definitely felt like a Pixar movie. Actually, in that sense, it maybe felt a little too much like a mix of past Pixar movies, particularly Toy Story 2 (unwanted toy vs unwanted cat) and The Incredibles (all the Bolt action sequences). Nevertheless, it's pretty good, and actually got some applause at the end, something you rarely hear any more at a movie.

* A Christmas Story: Had never seen this movie, but needed to watch something that everyone could watch--kids and grandparents alike. Maria wasn't so interested, but I think everyone else liked it a lot, myself included. A little uneven, but man the funny spots were pretty darn funny. Laughed until I cried when the mom convinces Ralphie's brother to eat his dinner. A good movie.

Gaming Family

Dear Diary: sorry I haven't had a chance to write lately, work and home life have been very busy... but not so busy that we couldn't sit down last night and make ourselves our new Xbox 360 avatars. We'll work on the Mrs. to get hers to join the crowd, even though the last time she played a game on the 360 was almost a year ago.

Oh yes, and this does mean that I got my 360 back from repair, and that I have played some Gears 2 (pretty good), and that I finally got the Impossible Guitar Challenge achievement in Rock Band 2 (but only at Medium... we tried Metallica's "Battery" on Expert with No Fail turned on, and I think we would have failed about 5 seconds into the song.)

Stuff that happened this week

Work has been busy, particularly since I was out 1.5 days due to wife business travel and sick child, so I haven't been able to blog much lately. Here's a catch-up core dump:

• My cell phone broke so I took advantage of that and bought a 3G iPhone. I like it but need to find a good website that reviews iPhone apps. I mean, which is the best flashlight simulation program? I have to know! More on life with iPhone as I get used to it (I will miss hands-free dialing, for one).
• My stupid 360 is still broken. Got delivered yesterday to MS but still hasn't shown up in their system, which of course gives me a real warm fuzzy feeling.
• Since stupid 360 is broken, I can't play Gears of War 2 today. I can buy it but I can't play it.
• I got past the annoying section that I was stuck on in LittleBigPlanet. Now I'm stuck on a different annoying section. The user-created levels are kind of fun, though. There was a Ghostbusters homage level that was pretty funny. Plus, since Anna was home sick yesterday, she spent all morning making what appears to be a fun race level. The level creation tools are very impressive considering you're doing everything with a game controller.
• I finally saw Mad Hot Ballroom on DVD. It was good, very touching, particularly for a parent of a 5th grader like the ones featured in the film. My only gripe is that the second half of the film focused almost too much on the semifinals and finals.
  
• Let's see. Something else happened this week. Hm, what was it? Can't quite... oh, that's right, VIRGINIA WENT BLUE, BABY! Go President Obama. Erase the memory of the past eight years from my mind.