Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, the movie about William Wilberforce, the 18th century British reformer who put and end to slavery in Great Britain is due to be released on Friday. Wilberforce is one of my heroes and I'm looking forward to seeing the movie. It was released by Walden Media, the company that also recently released Bridge to Terabithia.

Micheal Flaherty, President of Walden Media, talked about the vision of his company to inspire and to promote reading good books in a recent talk at Hillsdale college:

"You are what you read. We are shaped and influenced by the books that we read. They prepare us for more than interesting conversations—they actually prepare us to face real crises that we encounter in life. Few people would dispute this simple statement, so let’s ask a simple related question: What are we reading today?

Walden Media was started several years ago by myself, Cary Granat, and Phil Anschutz. We wanted to create a company dedicated to recapturing imagination, rekindling curiosity, and demonstrating the rewards of knowledge and virtue. All of our films would be based on great books, great people, and great historical events. They would be made by the best talent in entertainment and they would all be linked to educational materials developed by some of the best talent in education. We were taking Henry David Thoreau’s famous advice—to march to the beat of a different drummer—to Hollywood, which is why we decided to name our company after Thoreau’s most famous book, Walden."

Read the entire speech here:
Let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage

Travesty of Justice

It's President's Day and I'm enjoying a relaxing morning off. I came across a blog post this morning at odd time signatures that reports on a very disturbing criminal conviction in Connecticut. A middle-school substitute teacher has been convicted of exposing seventh-grade children to child pornography and is set to be sentenced in March. She is facing up to a forty year prison term.

I spent about an hour this morning reading the details of the case and it is appalling that she was convicted. I encourage everyone to donate to her defense fund at her blog and to contact officials involved to get this overturned and her good name restored.

I have been victimized by malicious ad-ware popups and I know how easy it is to become a victim. This woman is clearly a victim and not a perpertrator of a crime. Why not go after the people who create such malicious pop-ups for prosecution?

Top Ten Most Romantic Books

The Romantic Novelists' Association of the UK polled its members to find out what they considered the most romantic novel ever written. The 700 member association voted Pride and Prejudice to be the Most Romantic Book of All Time!

Click here to read the whole article.

The top ten were:

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
3. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
4. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
6. Katherine by Anya Seton
7. Persuasion by Jane Austen
8. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
9. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
10. Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier

I like this list since it includes some of my favorite books. I guess I really am a romantic at heart. The only two I haven't read are Katherine and Frenchman's Creek. I'll have to put them on my "to read" list.

Thanks to the Book-a-rama blog for the link.

Hard Rock Invitational

We had a nice family trip to Phoenix, Arizona this past weekend. We drove there on Friday for a gymnastics competition on Saturday. It was Aimee’s first out-of-state gymnastics competition. It was a fun trip even though competitions are still nerve wracking for me. It was a huge competition, with over 1200 gymnasts from all over the country competing in all levels and age groups over the weekend. The competition was sponsored by the Hard Rock Café and that made for some fun differences from other meets we’ve been to.

The meet was held at the downtown Civic Center. It was spacious and airy. This was a contrast to many of the competitions which are held in small gyms with spectators crammed in like sardines in suffocating heat. The medals were guitar shaped and the team 1st place awards (normally a trophy) were real Fender guitars. Aimee won three event medals and placed 5th all around. Her team also won the 1st place team award. The national anthem was performed live sans lyrics by a solo guitarist. And the gymnasts were treated to a gymnast party with a live band at a club in downtown Phoenix on Saturday night.

It was lots of fun to see all these little girls having a good time rocking out on the dance floor. Unfortunately for my fifteen year old son Eric, the vast majority, if not all of the girls, were pre-teen. Aimee was exhausted after competing earlier in the day so we only stayed for about an hour and a half. Besides it was difficult trying to hold conversations with the other parents over the loud music. All in all it was a nice change of pace for the weekend.

Go Colts!

This is why I was rooting for the the Colts and why I'm very glad they won. This is not funny and it's not cute. It's mean-spirited and ugly and all the other words that I don't want to write here. I mean, we're talking about a game here, but Katrina was no game. I'm sure that those who lost loved ones and those who lost their homes and communities don't think it's funny either.

A Literature Map

Enter your favorite author and see who "resides" nearby:

The Literature Map