Thursday 29 November 2012

Look, up in the sky...

Reflecting on various things I have come to the conclusion that it would be very nice to be Superman. Not the modern Superman who has a range of horrible fistfights with demigods and alien warlords but the old-fashioned Superman who lived in a constant state of wonder and occasionally nabbed some crooks. That would be nice.

Superman is a natural outgrowth of our wanting there to be heroes and more peaceful ways of life, and perhaps for some he represents their need for a power beyond their understanding which will care for them and take some of the harshest parts of life away without any effort at all. He certainly has been a metaphor for saviour figures on several occasions. I just want to fly and save cats from trees.

Looking ahead there's a movie review of 'Master & Commander' coming up, the long awaited movie review of 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' and some ramblings on the book 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher'. There may even be some continuations on 'The Carrot Man' and 'Night Trials', both of which have gone too long since their last instalments. Paper writing has abraded the old creative muscle over the last few weeks but now it's starting to fire again as I start to dig into new calculations and research instead of chewing over the old. Now if only I could work out how to build flow impedance into selected channel portions as part of a Stokes problem.

As I type this I'm listening to the movie 'Cat Ballou' in Spanish and it's hard! Getting some Spanish listening comprehension is going to be harder than I thought but working out which DVDs have alternate Spanish soundtracks is a good way to start. Coming upon the stack after 'Cat Ballou': 'The Fortune Cookie', 'The Apartment', 'The American President', 'Sleepless In Seattle', 'Mr Smith Goes To Washington', 'The Taking Of Pelham 123', 'Sneakers' and 'Groundhog Day'. Maybe I'll begin to understand un poco. Pero me parece que es imposible. De nada. Si no intenta entonces no triunfa.

<waves a shaky hand>

Oliver.

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