The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of 2006 Movies

The Oscar is one of my favorite events of the year. I love the glamour, the clothing and the whole aspects of the production and I always watch it religiously despite all. However, I have to admit that there are many times that I do not agree with the selection of the judges. For the most part, I think that the criteria of nomination are more politically driven than anything else, and secondly, I find the nominated movies in their entire truth ness, have very sad themes and difficult situations.

I love movies, but when it comes to films, like everything else, it is a matter of taste. People raved about the Borat Movie and some thought that it was even robbed out of Oscar nomination, while I thought that yes it was funny, but in some ways stupid and disgusting. The “Broke Back Mountain” won the academy awards in 2005, and I left the movie theatre in the middle of the film. I guess that is why other kinds of awards have started circulating that represents the taste of an average viewer rather than a few sophisticated critical judges, like the people’s choice award.

We always nominate the best movies, why don’t we select the top five worst movies? So in the honor of the 79th academy awards in 2007, I have decided to nominate the some movies that I have watched and disliked in 2006. Some of these movies I watched with 4teen, don’t ask why, and the others where actually my choice and I can’t blame anyone else. So here we go:

Jackass
Tucker Must Die
The Breakup
Running with Scissors
Apocalypto
Lady in Water
Basic Instinct 2
Eragon

Click
The Wicker Man

I stop at number ten, like a professional would, but I actually have more bad films to add, a lot more. I would like to hear about your worse movies of 2006, if you would like to share, then maybe we can start our own tradition of dreadful movies of the year?

Valentine's Day & Practicality

Valentine’s Day is all about great expectations and as a consequence, and the extent of one’s happiness is very closely tied to those expectations.

As some people celebrated this day last week, some were very pleasantly surprised by the number of balloons, chocolate covered strawberry’s, flowers and the way they were all presented before a romantic dinner, while others hugged a lousy teddy bear expecting to have received more than a cheesy stuffed animal that said happy valentines’ day, something more with a personal touch, or a bit more $$$$.

Northeast USA had a terrible snow/ice storm on that particular day that immobilized the region for at least a day, while schools are still closed. Some were disappointed that no flowers arrived at their doors, despite the fact that they new northeast USA was drenched in snow and ice and almost everyone stayed home if they could. While others hopefully believed the obvious lie that their flowers was also stranded on the icy roads and will not get to them because of the road conditions. (Ingenious thinkers)

Florists & restaurants were mentally adding all the cash that they will receive on this day, while many were relieved that they could cancel their reservations and pocket the cost of the expensive meal. They know that they can use that fund to eat out maybe three or four times on other normal nights of the week.

I heard a lot of comments from friends and colleagues for this day that was basically summed up in this blog in a nut shell. Except for one that I will actually share the story with you, because despite the commerciality of valentine, I like to receive and get heart shaped funky stuff to people who are close to me. However, I do not like to blow it out of proportion.

Anyway, a friend emailed me the day after valentines that she had broken up with a boyfriend of almost 3 years on valentines’ eve. I was so sad and I wondered why would anyone break up on Valentine’s Day while we have 364 other days to do it?
The answer she gave me was that they were going to break up anyway, so why spend money on gifts and dinner, while they know in their hearts that they are not a good match despite their love!

And my 4teens call me frugal! See, there are people who are practical, even when it comes to the matter of hearts!!

Class of 2007, Before & Beyond

Last weekend, I attended a lovely graduation party. I know that this is an odd time for graduating from high school, but this particular school, has the graduation in February and for the rest of the school year takes the seniors on a memorable trip to teach more of the world that no book is able to teach.

Last year I went through the whole process with my 4teen as a parent, but somehow this year’s experience had a very special meaning than the emotional one of the previous year. This year something clicked within me that was not obvious to me last year. I think that last Saturday, I grew a bit wiser! I hope.

Where I come from, graduation parties were thrown only if someone was getting a bachelors or a higher degree. Graduation parties from high school were unheard of and graduation parties from kindergarten, elementary school and middle school would have raised a few eyebrows here and there.

When I moved here you can only imagine my mixed feelings when we celebrated the graduation of my 4teens from kindergarten through high school high school and every step of the way. I felt very proud, yet found this whole ordeal very bizarre and unwarranted. In short I was supposed to feel No big deal, yet it was a big deal, this was my child!

Yesterday as I looked at these young people so proud and so eager to invade and save the world from all the bad things , for the first time, I started remembering all those 4teens and younger who did and will not graduate because they are either ill, deceased or other. Yesterday, for the first time, I felt for the parents that are not privileged enough to see even a kindergarten graduation of a single child. And it was then that all came together to me. We celebrate every graduation of every child, because we have accomplished a difficult milestone in raising our children. We thank God for this day, because our children are healthy despite the crazy world of guns, bombs, knives, peer pressure and many more, that can happen in their own back yard, and not in Iraq, Sudan or wherever, on a daily basis. We applaud ourselves for doing the best that we can to bring them to this day, not only for our sake, but for the society’s sake as well.

Sincere congratulations to all the graduates of past, present and future, and of course their families too.

Who is a tough guy?

The Tough Guy Challenge, an annual event to raise money for the Autistic society, was celebrated last Tuesday January 30, 2007. This event is in aid of charity and is open to individuals and teams. The 10 mile cross country run involved negotiating 25 obstacles en-route including plunging into an ice-cold lake, jumping over burning bales of hay and crawling through mud under barbed wire. It's a survival ordeal and a test of physical and mental endurance designed to take you beyond your limits on torture rack obstacles known as The Killing Fields, following a wild terrain warm up. Believe it or not, people train for this event way in advance just to be able to make it to the finish line.

I understand the contestants pay to participate in this event and the proceed goes to help autistic kids and their parents. However, what I do not understand is why do people do this idiotic stuff like running through burning bushes and swimming through ice cold river to win this challenge for the title of Tough Guy? What are they proving and to whom are they proving it?

To me, tough guys are the parents and the siblings of the autistic children that day in and day out are battling with their situation with no reprieve. These tough guys are constantly going through hoops of fire and ice and God knows how much more and they endure it mentally and physically better than most other people, yet never titled as tough guys and for sure never recognized publicly or in newspapers around the world. They just do it, because they have to, and not because they chose to. The way I see it, the tough guys do not need to prove anything either to others or themselves.

So the question still stands; why should someone be called a tough guy while he walks through fire and self inflicts pain and burn and other sorts like that? God knows that I have a better name for these kinds of people.