Long Beach Grand Prix

I had an all-hands meeting with work yesterday at the Hyatt in Long Beach. They shut off the streets and started practicing just after we finished in the afternoon

The Visitor

a new movie (IMDB here)

See the trailer here (click here)

In a world of 6 billion people, tt only takes one to change your life

about opening your eyes,
seeing the world in ways you didn't before,
seeing yourself for who you are and what you can be,
and about things we can try to change, but only if we try.

NOTE: I'm attempting to NOT spoil the movie for you!

Powerful, dynamic, intriguing, educating, diverse, honest - there are many things that I thoroughly enjoyed about this film. The Visitor is a journey into realities of an American world crowded by foreigners who are as much a part of the fabric of the United States as they were intended to be 200 years ago, only times have changed.
Fear, discomfort, laws, language: the story is one man's friendship with a young illegal immigrant, from whom he learns about his own life's rhythm, and from that how to really live again. But when his friendship is suddenly torn from him, he learns more about himself, his country, his heart, and his world than he ever envisioned.

Ultimately, I found The Visitor to be enriching and intelligent. I was disturbed when fellow moviegoers laughed at lines and actions that demonstrated their own ethnocentricity, but understood it and was thankful that hopefully, maybe, possibly, they would learn something from that which is new and different instead of forgetting on their way out the door. Also, though the drumbeat of the movie is meant to quicken the soul and heighten our enrichment, I found the raw emotions that should have been tearing me from my seat and wanting me to scream out at the outrages of the world left passive.
Maybe it is because illegal immigration is such a touchy subject that the movie itself was a soft sell to educate, but for me, I wish the characters had drawn me in more and made me want to laugh, cry, dance, drum, rage & love as much as it had the potential to.

Lawsuit, but... AWESOME!!!

The "Art" of Cheating:


FYI, while in Indo, I worked hard to STOP my kids from cheating.

*There's no way the NFL, the New England Patriots and Bill Belichek don't sue South Park over this, is there?