Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

I love Dustin Hoffman. To be honest, I'm not sure how many movies I've seen him in. The most memorable part for the man has been that of Captain Hook in the movie Hook. (I guess he's the title role then.) I'm sure there's a lot of makeup on the guy but it's difficult to tell who the actor is. That - to me - is a high mark of a good actor or actress. Look to some of his smaller roles. You watch a movie starring Dustin Hoffman and you know it's him. But your brain quickly passes that fact and accepts that his character is real and alive and seperate from the actor.

Well, he did it again with Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. A delightful movie that gives nearly every plot point away in the trailer. But I didn't go to see the story as much as I went to see the characters: Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, and the always dry Jason Bateman. (He was on "Little House on the Prarie," did you know?)

I was surprised. Actually, I was caught off gaurd. There were some very deep concepts about life and death running through the story that made me think, "This is rated 'G'?" I've always assumed a "G" rating allowed you to throw your kid in front of a TV for a half hour and then let them run in the yard. You start throwing "PG" on a movie when the kid starts asking, "Daddy, what's 'dying' mean?"

"Well, Evie. That's what you do to cloth to make it different colors. Or your aunt Camille does to hair."

Truly it was a great movie. All in all, worth the matinee or renting. The sound design was good (as any larger-budget movie should be) but not to the point that you need the high-def speakers and theater surround-sound. The drama was fantastic. The comedy was clean and funny. The story kept moving. The journey was about life in both the real and fantastic worlds. The themes of faith and belief rang true.

So there you go. I hope to throw more of these up as time goes on. I've yet to really see or do things that send me to the computer to write about. But movies...

I am a critic. What can I say. I like to see and I like to respond.

How often should I be here?

Your Brain is Blue

Of all the brain types, yours is the most mellow. You tend to be in a meditative state most of the time. You don't try to think away your troubles. Your thoughts are realistic, fresh, and honest. You truly see things as how they are. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about your friends, your surroundings, and your life.

What Color Is Your Brain?

I'm digging the quizzes. I've gotten the most responses to the quizzes. What color brain do you have?

I guess it's quiz day

You Will Die at Age 91

Congratulations! You take good care of yourself. You're poised to live a long, healthy life.

What Age Will You Die?

91? They think I'm going to live to 91 based off of 20 "yes or no" questions? While that is a very old age, I'm glad my life isn't in the hands of the Internet.

I'm Superman! (Or I could be...)

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 100% Green Lantern 75% The Flash 70% Supergirl 65% Spider-Man 60% Wonder Woman 55% Iron Man 55% Batman 50% Robin 45% Hulk 40% Catwoman 20%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...


Let me guess. The layout sucks for this thing. Oh well, that doesn't matter. I'm Superman, baby!

Deep

Okay, so I don't think I will blog when I'm tired. That 300 post was a bit deep. You can tell I was tired. Sorry if I hurt anyone.

Hey! Here's a funny video.

300

300. I have now seen the movie twice. The second time was better for me. The first time I watched it was with Julie. The second time was with other men. (Can I get a little grunt from the back?) Perhaps the viewing audience I shared the experience with swayed my view.

Doubt it.

I would have liked or disliked the movie as much as I did the first time regardless. I pressed play expecting 300 to have a story -- a plot -- a building anticipation for the battle. Instead I saw mostly-naked men jump out of the woodwork and start banging on things with shields and swords.

My artistic side kicked in. "What is your motivation?"

The second viewing was much more balanced. I began to see the symbolism and the tale of virtue. Here is a small army that has trained for nothing but battle. Why should there be a build up to fighting? It's what they do before they learn to walk.

What inspired me most was not the willingness or ability to fight for their freedom but the willingness and ability to die for their freedom.

Living largely in a Christian surrounding and being a Christ-follower myself, I find it rare to meet someone who is willing to fight or even die for their faith ... for their freedom. Why is that? What is the motivation for not fighting or dying? Or is there a lack of motivation to fight?

Jesus calls us to lay down our lives for him. Granted, as Paul says in Romans 12 we are to "offer [ourselves] as living sacrifices" -- that is a living dead thing. Not a zombie, but a living being - I mean really living.

I find myself inspired by a movie I at first disliked in comparison with a section of scripture I have often misinterpreted. I suppose real living comes from a continual awareness and readiness to die.

Cigarettea

Just imagine the look on peoples faces when you take one of these special cigarettes from your pocket, drop it into a cup full of water and after a while start enjoying your hot cup of tea. Of course there’s tea, not tobacco inside of these cigarettes and the filter works like a float. Yummie.

Source: idealist

Bow to your sensei

I haven't watched this in forever. Paul, my manager at Costco, was telling me about some product we were getting in using a "Kip-esque" voice. For some reason I pulled out, "Bow to your sensei!" from my back pocket. Weird to think that Napoleon Dynamite is a 3 year old movie.



I'm going to go see "Die Hard 12" this afternoon. Maybe I'll review it here. Maybe I won't. All I know is no one wants a round-house kick to the face while I'm wearing this shirt.

Revolutionized by the iPhone

I know I'm nearly 2 weeks late in posting anything about the iPhone but these videos say everything I've felt about how wonderful it was to anticipate the new device. I want one, oh yes. But I think I'll wait until the next generation or two once they've added a few more features.

All in his head

Here's a guy who has time on his hands and a great ear. He claims to have no musical skills whatsoever (ie. can't play drums, piano, guitar, etc...). But I would have to say this guy is a musician. He makes music, does he not?



And after that one he ventured into the duet world.

Not much to say

...and yet so much to say. It's been a month since I last considered posting. I guess that's the perks of working a "real" job - you never spend time on the computer. Let's all say, "YEA!" for Costco.

The only reason I jumped on the blog train at this exact moment is because I found this map that shows all the countries that have not yet adopted the metric system. Once I finish counting them I'll post the number.

There's more going on in life. New life for one. Our next door neighbors - and fast becoming "old" friends - just had a baby girl. Go to http://ineedhugs.blogspot.com/ to see some new born pics.

And as far as the rest of life at the Jodock house, I'll post again soon.

Music in Various Forms

Being a music lover, I find myself searching the web for the sounds that fit my ear best. I am an avid rock 'n' roller when it all comes down, but I am drawn to anything that moves me. I would absolutely love to have a soundtrack running for my life. (That's a fairly common thing, I think. I mean, just look at all the people with headphone cords hanging down their necks. We want to be immersed in a music-driven life.) So I will regularly be posting video links to some of the coolest and most innovative forms of music I can find.

This first one has rocked my socks for over a year now. The fine people of Eastern Asia seem to always be the most daring in trying new things. I mean they have, what, half the world's population in China? You're bound to get a few genetic combinations that produce children who say, "Hmmm. I wonder what happens when I mix this with that and spin on my head while eating this...thing...here."

I give you, DJ Kentaro:

Astoria Trip

Leaving your mark
Originally uploaded by jasonjodock.

Julie and I had a fantastic time in Astoria this week. It was less than 3 days away from home but it felt fantastic. I'm still quite relaxed. And then I think about work tomorrow. Then I remember this photo and wonder if our names are still in the sand or if the tide came in by now and shook up the enormous Etch-A-Sketch. I kind of hope so because my cursive sucks.

Click on the image to see a few of the photos from our trip.

Jodock Family Photo - Easter 2007

100_4826
Originally uploaded by jasonjodock.

I'm hoping that by clicking on this image, you'll be able to link to all of the photos I uploaded from this Easter. Julie, Evie, and I all dressed in yellow. (Yes, I'm wearing a tie.)

It was a glorious day. I always feel giddy on Easter. There's just something about the thought that on this "exact" day 2000-something years ago, Jesus rose from the grave. How cool is that?

We then spent the afternoon at Julie's folk's place eating more food than my stomach could handle. Evie also ate too much because she woke up with the flu (or something like it) on Monday. Poor thing couldn't keep anything down and had no energy what so ever. But she's feeling much better now....uh...that's the end of my story.

Evie Crawls!

It's alive! Just having a proud Daddy moment. I was so excited I had to go to the bathroom. You'll see my feet toward the end of the video and hear the beautiful sound of *flush* *gurgle gurgle*.

Long Awaited Vacation

I just booked a room at a bed and breakfast in Astoria, Oregon for the end of this month. This will be Julie and my first vacation alone since Evie was born... wait a tick... this will be our first vacation alone since we went to Disneyland in 2004. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), I'm looking forward to this much needed vacation.

I'll be sure to get pictures up once we get back.

Getting Started

I've finally given in. I'm blogging.

Let's take a moment of silence to let that sink in.

Okay. First things first. I intend to use this place as a meeting place for friends and family. Mostly I want to post my pictures here. I can't use Soteria's site to post pictures and if I use Costco's online print center to store my images I have to allow permission to people (versus letting the world into my life as they please).

So here we go...into the great abyss of the Internet...and then into history.