Things can change...

Rosa Parks

I know I'm late to the party on this but there's something about the photo above that stuck a chord in me. It hit me that 50 or so years ago it was okay to in America to opress a human being because of their skin color.

I was raised in a very Christian, Californian home with numerous ethnicities in my liniage, so racism wasn't something I ever really thought about. Racists were wierd people who lived either, a long time ago or in small backwoods pockets of The South.

But it wasn't very long ago that we we're seriously debating if black kids should be allowed to go to the same school as white kids. Heck, even ride on the same bus. If someone even suggested that today in a decent public place, I know that America would react with digust. But just a little while ago our Sentators we're debating this in our capital!

Now, 50 years later, there's still problems but it encouraged me to see how a society can change and I wanted to pass it along. If you're getting discouraged by things you're seeing, if you're upset by the opression and injustice in the world around you, remember Rosa Parks and take a little hope. Things can change. Don't give up or stop trying.

Crushes on fictional characters

Ahhh, finally I can sit down and write a post. It's been a busy week, striking out on my own here, but I'm loving every minute of it. However, I don't feel like writing about my work or anything really serious. Let's talk about crushes (or "sunflowers" for my midwestern friends). Specifically crushes on fictional characters. I hope my beautiful wife doesn't mind me talking about this. (It's not like I'm going to get together with any of these girl after all.)

My first real crush, the first time I felt the pangs of affection, was on a fictional character: Princess Amanda. I was ten-years-old at the time. That's her, slaying the dragon in the picture below.



She was a character in a wonderful book, Tales of the Kingdom which was an allegory of Christianity. Unlike most modern Christian fantasy, this remains one of the more lovely and skillfully written books I've ever read. I still pull it out and read a chapter or two every now-and-then. And when I was eleven I really had feelings for Amanda, one of the main characters. I remember thinking that it was kind-of sad being in love with a person that only existed in fantasy. Needless to say, it didn't last. (An interesting side note: My first crush on a real girl was purely because I thought her name was Amanda -- a sort-of real life incarnation of Princess Amanda, I assumed. It came as a shock when I learned her name wasn't Amanda. It's nice to remember how deep I was.)

Moving on, another young crush (and a less-obscure one) was on some girl named Tami Stronach - better known as The Childlike Empress from The Neverending Story.



I always thought Lana Lang was cute. If I was Superman I would've gone for her instead of Lois.



And while we're in the Superman universe, when the right artist was drawing Supergirl I was smitten. But with Supergirl it definitely depended on the artist. With her it went from attraction to feeling repulsed, depending on who was at the drawing board.



(While we're on the subject, probably my wierdest crush ever was on a lady who did the voice-over for a radio commercial. I was about nine and every night I'd listen to the radio program, Adventures in Odyssey while I went to sleep. During the program a commercial would regularly air, narrated by a missionary women, asking for financial aid for starving African children. "Your donation can bring these children life," she said in a rich foreign accent. I can still hear her right now. I have no idea why I liked her... But I did. And speaking of Adventures in Odyssey, for those of you who listen to the show, I used to have a crush on Lucy Cunningham-Schultz. Yes, I'm serious. Don't worry, those two are about as weird as it gets.)

Modern-day fictional-crushes?

1) Renee Zellweger as Nurse Betty.
2) Dawn Tinsley from The Office
3) Elizabeth from the Pride & Prejudice TV Series
4) Eowyn from the Lord of the Rings (when she's not all intense).

Okay, now that I've fully embarrassed myself it's your turn. What fictional characters have you fallen for? I know for a fact that my sisters always liked Tramp from Lady and the Tramp so I'm pretty confident that I'm not alone in this.

Work: Chapter 2

Me in my ex-cube. I have no idea where this picture came from. I just found it in a desk drawer today.

Thanks for the patience folks. Sorry that I haven't been around for the past week.

Today was my last day at Sutter Health. It was odd packing up my desk and discovering long-forgotten stuff: An ancient CD from MacWorld, a horribly outdated book on JavaScript, a birthday card thanking me for my hard work at Sutter. Weird.

It was even stranger saying goodbye to people that I've spent the majority of the past five years of my life with. People that, no matter what -- if I'm grumpy, tired, excited -- I see every day. Some I've connected with, others I haven't. But it was strangely sad to shake hands and say goodbye. There's definitely some folks that I'll miss.

Driving home for the last time was odd too. I did my usual routine: Listened to Grant and Mike argue with callers about The Kings, stopped by my favorite mini-mart for a grape juice then proceeded to have my usual near-nervous breakdown while I battled traffic. Finally I turned the corner into my driveway and my little boy, Jack ran out to meet me. He had made me a "Congratulations" sign on leaving my job and couldn't wait to show it to me.

I'm glad that I'm closer to home now. I'll have about 3-4 extra hours each day and I'm excited to use them. I look at how God took care of me and my family through the rough times in the economy (actually he did more than just take care of us, he pampered us) and I know that he'll take care of us now. culturezoo is his and I want to run it like he'd want me to.

I'm opening a new chapter in my worklife and I want Jesus writing more of the plot. I prefer his endings to mine.

Now I need to check in with the rest of your blogs and see what's been going on.

Pardon moi

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note that I'm going to be slightly absent from blogging this week. I've lost any semblance of free-time at the moment. Things will change once I've finally left my job. So you can expect a decent post in the near future. Until then...

I quit, I quit, I quit. I quit, Mister White.

Aaugh! I just gave my two week notice at my job of 5 years! Aaugh!

I can't believe it. I just quit.

culturezoo here I come.

Watch The Office. Just do it (maybe).

Ricky Gervias as David Brent

In my Movie Awards I put the BBC show The Office at the number one position for "Comedy". It's that funny.

For those who don't know, The Office is mockumentary TV show in the style of Spinal Tap, Best In Show, Etc. Only it's better than those. (Something I'd have to see for myself to believe.) It consisted of twelve episodes and a final Christmas Special.

The series is written and directed by two amateurs, Ricky Gervias and Stephan Merchant. If you watch the behind-the-scenes documentaries on the series you start to realize that these aren't your usual self-important dry screenwriter/director types. In fact it's hard to tell where the characters they portray end and the real people begin. Instead of droning on and on about the production as those documentaries usually do they go off on wild tangents talking about bizarre stuff and insulting eachother. Gervias is especially weird, with a laugh like Mozart in Amadeus. You can see where his character comes from.


Merchant & Gervias.

Moving on to the series, the set-up is basic: There's a lousy annoying boss David Brent (Gervias) who thinks he's hilarious. David's lone fan is the waifish Gareth who's also obsessed with being a soldier. The emotional heart of the series is the sad relationship between sales-rep Tim and receptionist Dawn. Just about the only two decent people in the office.


Tim & Dawn

As the series progresses you can see that Dawn and Tim aren't just flirtatious friends but there's a genuine affection and caring for eachother. As Tim says:

The people you work with, are people you were just thrown together with. You don't know them, it wasn't your choice. And yet you spend more time with them then you do your friends or your family, but probably all you've got in common, is the fact that you walk around on the same bit of carpet for eight hours a day. And so, obviously, when someone comes in, who you, you have a connection with-yeah. And Dawn was a ray of sunshine in my life.

Tim and Dawn find each other in the middle of the doldrums and almost torturous environment of the office. But there's just one problem: Dawn is engaged to a rough jerk named Lee, who also works at The Office (in the packaging plant). It's an odd place to find a "forbidden love" plot but I don't think I've ever seen a better one.

The amount of emotion this series achieves is amazing given the format. After all, it's a "documentary" so you can only see what a documentary would normally show you. And the actors can only do what a person would do if they knew they were being filmed. And that's what impresses me so much. The emotions between Dawn and Tim are never stated outright. Everything is revealed in glances, subtext and the looks on the actor’s faces. At one particularly personal moment between Tim and Dawn, Tim pulls Dawn away from the camera and takes his mic off, so there's only silence for over a minute leaving the conversation to your imagination. It works amazingly well. After watching the entire series, I have to say that The Office is also in the top ten of my most romantic films.

And it's also hilarious. In a painful sort of way though. Watching David and Co. repeatedly make fools of themselves is more and more like watching a train wreck as the series progresses. This is a sad story. David Brent who could've been painted as your average jerk-boss is shown over the series as a very venerable, innocent character who just wants to make people laugh and have friends, but he's destroying any chances for that by his amount of trying. In the end don't laugh at his mishaps because you just want him to stop and realize that he's destroying himself. The end of series two, when it all comes down for David, will break your heart.

So just watch it. Forget about the American NBC version. I've seen it and it's a pale imitation. Stuff like The Office only comes around once and it doesn't happen twice. There's not one misstep in the entire series, not one wrong note (except for maybe the first episode). It's an achievement. Just watch it. I can say no more.

After all this adoration I have to offer a word of warning: There's quite a bit of crude humor (if you see the character "Finchy", just turn down the volume). The crude humor is sort-of necessary to the plot in the way that it makes the office a bleaker environment but more than once it goes over the edge. There's one or two episodes that I didn't even watch because of the humor. In other words, this is not a series for kids or some adults. But after finishing the series I'm so blown-over that I can't withhold my recommendation.

And whatever you do, finish with The Christmas Special. Don't skip it. It's essential to the story.

To whet your appetite, click here for a clip of David Brent's now famous dance.