Omnium-gatherum
Matt Hanson’s Brain Archive
March 7, 2006
Almost walking, almost talking
As I’ve said before I’ve been pretty lame at taking pictures of Maizy over the past year. But it’s not just Maizy - I find myself leaving my camera at home for all sorts of events. But when I look at my pictures I see why; I’m getting sloppy. My pictures are getting to be second-rate and it’s hard to get excited about taking them. I just need to put some more energy into it. I’ve also been slow on the draw - these pictures are already a couple months old.
Regardless here are some pictures of Maizy, playing at the house, at the playground. There are some good smiles at least. She’s almost a year old in these pictures and that’s a fun time. She’s crawling and standing up on her own using chairs and objects. Not only that but at almost a year she’s able to play more with Kaley without us worrying about her getting hurt. Granted Kaley sometimes is rough with her but she’s able to take it a lot more, and she has her own methods of fighting back…she likes to pull hair.
Starting at 6 months, perhaps sooner, Kaley was interested in the TV. There were a couple tapes (the Comfy Couch) that she would sit and watch the whole thing. Maizy couldn’t be more different. She has never spent more then a few minutes looking at the screen even for the most colorful and vibrant looking scenes. She may look at it for a minute but then she’s on the move to explore or play with some bauble in the corner. She’s either just too active with a short attention span or she needs glasses…
JFK
Movies ‘based’ on true stories have always bothered me. On one hand it can make a movie much more interesting knowing that the movie has some basis in reality but on the other hand I think everyone needs to realize that these movies are still fiction, albeit historical fiction. JFK is based on a book by Jim Garrison, a New Orleans district attorney who brought it upon himself, years later, to solve the mystery of hte JFK assassination. The movie is certainly entertaining, well done, and at least on the surface, informative. The problem lies in that much of the movie is made up - several characters never actually existed in real life. It makes several leaps and connections that seem very reasonable in the framework of the film but in reality are quite far-fetched.
Films/TV are the most popular medium today so films like JFK can be dangerous. The vast majority of people who have watched JFK will never ask questions about it’s accuracy, will never read real historical accounts, and will simply assume it to be a mostly true account. I’m not saying that the theories presented in the movie are false, nor do I know them to be true. I don’t know what happened on Nov 22nd, 1963 and it’s doubtful that anyone ever will - Oliver Stone included.
Watch the movie but take it with a grain of salt. If you find yourself shaking your head at the end of the movie, wondering about the evils of the US government, then consider that you’ve just let yourself be convinced by entertainment that doesn’t even claim to be 100% true.
