my life as a nomad

movies and skaters

-"I remember once imagining what my life would be like, what I'd be like. I pictured having all these qualities, strong positive qualities that people could pick up on from across the room. But as time passed, few ever became any qualities that I actually had. And all the possibilities I faced and the sorts of people I could be, all of them got reduced every year to fewer and fewer. Until finally they got reduced to one, to who I am. And that's who I am, the weather man."
-"Do you know that the harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing? Nothing that has meaning is easy. "Easy" doesn't enter into grown-up life."

quotes taken from the weather man. i wouldn't necessarily reccomend the movie... but it is a very fascinating (and dark) look at how easily the little stuff in life can build up until it overwhelms us. in other words, small decisions have big consequences, and life very rarely works out like we think it will. nicolas cage is pretty fantastic in the film (as is the rest of the cast, most notably michael caine), but there's quite a bit of language so i'd hesitate to say "you should watch it," but i thought it was a pretty powerful film despite some of it's moral drawbacks



in other news... olympic speed-skating gold and silver medalist joey cheeks deserves much more recognition for what he's done with his fame than what two rather self-absorbed teammates (hendricks and davis) have been doing with theirs. instead of stooping to some WWE-inspired feud between teammates , he's used the platform that his recent gold medal in the 500 meters gave him to announce that he was donating the prize money to charity. not only is he aware of the desperate plight facing refugees in the darfur region of sudan (which is more than can be said of most of america), but he's doing something about it. major props to him. he put his success in perspective in a press conference after the event:

"I thought I might actually have a shot at doing something great at the Olympics, and if I did, I wanted to make it meaningful...what I do is great fun. I love what I do. It's a great job. I've seen the entire world and I've met amazing friends. Honestly, it's a pretty ridiculous thing. I mean, I skate around on ice in tights, right?"

quite a guy.


(for more information on the ongoing crisis in sudan, you can visit this website. and if you're wondering why you haven't heard anything about it, you can thank the media for that. and thanks to my friend carol for passing along the info)


-noonan-

posted by Patrick @ 10:01 PM