July 31, 2011

Argentina Film Festival

In this short post I share a few YouTube videos I like.  It doesn't seem like a very classy thing to blog about, but oh well.

Apparently there's a film festival in Argentina.  I don't know much about it, except that it has some pretty funny video advertisements.  Here are my favorites:




July 19, 2011

A gallimaufry of recent thoughts

So far, each of my posts has been about a single topic; this post consists of several thoughts.  One day I'm sure I'll write a post about what I'm doing instead of what I'm thinking.


1.  Save the Core
It took me a while to come up with the name of this blog.  For those that don't know, I served for two years as a full-time missionary in Paraguay for my Church.  (I carefully planned the placement of the previous sentence's prepositional phrases.)  While there, I found some materials used to teach English to the Spanish-speaking Paraguayans.  Among these was a kit that had several children's poems written out on strips of thick paper, one line of a poem per paper strip.  One poem had a couple lines that read something like "eat an apple / save the core".  I thought "save the core" was a funny phrase by itself.  I took that strip of paper (as well as one that read "I like to sleep") home with me - the kit appeared to have been there for a while and there were no future plans for its use.  Those two strips of paper have been hanging up in my apartment ever since I've returned from Paraguay.  I love watching people's reactions to the ambiguity of "save the core" - it's hilarious.


2.  External links
Another note about my blog:  within the text I include links to other sites that may explain or relate to what I'm discussing.  Most websites underline and change the color of the text, denoting a link.  I have intentionally NOT underlined or changed the color of the links in my blog.  The only way you can tell if one of my words is a link is by rolling over it with your mouse - as you do this, the links will be underlined (for example:  gallimaufry).  Most of my previous posts include these links.  Consider them as a "hidden treasure" of sorts!


3.  Window washer
A funny thing happened to me a couple weeks ago that hadn't happened since I was in Paraguay on my aforementioned mission trip.  I was driving home from work at midnight-ish.  (For those of you that are familiar with Houston, I exited I-45 North in preparation to turn left onto 249.)  While at a stoplight on the feeder road (I was the only car around), a man walked up to my car and started cleaning my windshield.  I wasn't frightened; I'd experienced this in Paraguay and I wasn't in a bad part of town (although it's more urban than where my house is).  I started to signal to him that I didn't want it done, but then realized that the windshield actually needed a washing.  When he finished, I gave him a couple bucks and he said "God bless."  I figured that someone sitting at an intersection in the middle of the night waiting to wash windshields is really in need of money.  The most haunting part was that he was about my same age, or a bit older.  This experience made me grateful for the blessings that I've been given.


4.  Warning
Don't accidentally fall asleep on the toilet.  You might end up there for 45 minutes.



5.  Picture
Here's a cool picture advertising the final Harry Potter movie, which I saw today (I guess it was yesterday, technically).  I thought it would spice up an otherwise very wordy post.  "The brain loves color!" as my seventh grade English teacher would say.  Make sure you click on it to see the full-sized image.  I plan on posting a review of the movies I will have seen this summer, which definitely includes Harry Potter, so there's something to look forward to.