A Night to Shine - Post of the Week #1

Sometimes I get so busy in my life, that I don't check my blogroll for weeks at a time and miss the blogs that I follow. Now I follow these blogs because I enjoy their content. I have decided to try to take some time each week and read the content they provide. I will try Monday to reward one of those blogs with post of the week.
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The inaugural post of the week goes to one of my favorite blogs, Families Again. The winning post, A Night To Shine is a nice synopsis of the Night to Shine events that are sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation. It is a prom for Special Needs Children and Adults.  I found the post especially the three videos  depicting the events to be encouraging and inspiring.

Modern Times a 12 in 12 review

My Dad will turn 77 next month.   The movie I watched this month for the first time came out 2 years before he was born. There is often a tendency to think that anything that happened before you were born as hopelessly out of date. To think that nothing of cultural significance happened before you showed up. However, this is far from true. In 1936 when Modern Times



In 1936 when Modern Times opened in theaters it was already anachronistic. Modern Times, was a silent movie when the talkies had pretty much put that once flourishing industry out of business. Much like B&W movies were still being made in the 50's and 60's when most of the films were in color, there were still a handful of silent movies made in the middle 30's when Modern Times came out. Technically Modern Times (depicted below in lego format) is not technically a silent film. There is talking but not by any of the characters in "real life" only through the loud speaker, record player, or other "modern" inventions of the time. Chaplin also sings in one of the final numbers.



The rest of the movie is typical of the prototypical 1920 silent movies with music played over the action and dialogue cards. For example, here is a clip from the beginning of the film ...





One of the things I found most interesting about this movie is that even 80 years ago some things (like silent movies) that once had mass appeal were becoming obsolete and other things (like a modernized dehumanized work force) were tolerated but not liked or really accepted. There are many good reviews of the film that makes these points very skillfully, I recommend this review from Decent Films. 

I also found the 1936 review from Variety to be most informative.  The last line of the review, although written for "modern" audiences 80 years ago,  has a tinge of prophecy to it.

"Film has been two years in actual work and Chaplin should today find as wide a world-wide market as in yesteryears."

I found the movie to be very accessible even to modern audiences. That is one of the reasons why critics and filmgoers alike still enjoy this film. My watch again likelihood is 90 to 100%.

Crazy Uncle Dave's Sport-O-Rama: Ernie Banks 1977 Baseball Hall of Fame Induction S...

Ernie Banks , arguably the best player the Cubs ever had, died over the weekend.  Here is a link to his HOF  induction speech in 1977.

Crazy Uncle Dave's Sport-O-Rama: Ernie Banks 1977 Baseball Hall of Fame Induction S...

This has special meaning to me. as I was just at the HOF this past Summer to see Frank Thomas inducted.

Ernie Banks 1977 Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Speech

21 minute blog salute

One of the reasons why I don't blog as much as I used to, is because it takes so much of my time to type an then retype my posts. I'm a slow typist as it is, and now that I spend most of my work day behind a keyboard, I don't enjoy the prospect of going back home and sitting behind one again.

Another reason why I don't blog as much as I used to, is because since I'm easily distracted, and that tends to suck a lot of my time away and generally after 15 or 20 minutes I have nothing accomplished.

A third reason is that, as someone who is just one step ahead of being special needs and also a perfectionist(a unique but challenging combination)  I often struggle with writers block.

So  for today's post,  I am trying  to conquer those 3  reasons at  the same time.  I am using speech recognition software and speaking this post.  I am only using my keyboard when, for example, the software interprets this post as with both and then interprets with both as with bull  and then interprets with bull as with all.

I also, set my timer for 21 minutes, to avoid the time suck involved. I am also using the Amy plays Balderdash method of blogging.  Which means I am just saying the first thing that comes to my head.  I may edit my head later.

I set the timer for 21 minutes and now have six minutes left.  I'm going to play to the buzzer, but by the small content I have achieved in 15 minutes, you can see what kind of time suck I am up against.

I've been working a lot of overtime at my job lately, which may explain why this is my first post in eight days. It's better than the months at a time absences I usually experience. I am trying to use  some time to expressing myself in blog form at least twice a week.

I am not sure if this speech software will work for me or not. We actually got it for spider droid, so this is just a secondary use of it.

I am currently reading a book.  It is the first book in a mystery series that has Peter Rabbit author (that's the timer but I will finish this thought)  Beatrix Potter as it's protagonist. I read through the historical note at the end of the book today. And I'm going to put this Beatrix Potter quote on the blog masthead.  She said it of her rabbit Peter when he died in 1902. "Whatever the limitations of his intellect or outward shortcomings of his fur, and his ears and toes, his disposition was uniformly amiable and his temper unfailingly sweet. An affectionate companion and a quiet friend."

Well I am past the time I assigned for myself. So I will and now (but first I'll add punctuation).