.: Canada Day without fireworks...

We went to Spokane this weekend to visit some friends. We were there on Saturday which was Canada Day! We usually light off fireworks on Canada Day, but ALL fireworks are illegal in Spokane County. I still got to make some noise though. I went target shooting with a friend and it was a ton of fun. Sometimes an AK-47 and an Uzi can be more fun than fireworks.

In my last post, I mentioned that I was thinking about going back to school. I have been looking at the MBA or Masters of Computer Science degrees at WSU Tri-Cities. I need to look into the programs more to know for sure what I want to do, but I am leaning towards the computer science degree. I'll let you know more when I find out more.

I had a comment on my last posting about the school I mentioned from one of the two people who actually read this blog. Sariah was wondering how an MBA would help with the school that we want to open. Well, the only thing that I can think of is that it would help me manage the school a lot better. The school is not a traditional school. It will be an art therapy school for people with disabilites. EZ used to run one when she was in school and she loved it. Our plan is to have a place where day programs can bring their clients for education and entertainment. I have worked for two small businesses since I have gradutated. Neither owner had any business training, from what I saw, they could be a lot more effective if they were more organized. Will more education help me? I don't know, but it can't hurt. I think I have pretty much topped out the pay scale as a designer here unless I get on with one of the big government contract companies and that is tough to do since people stay so long once they are there. Things are really up in the air for us right now. We know that we need to make a change. We just want to make the right choice when we do.

Oh, yeah! We saw X-Men III when we were in Spokane and it was awesome! I loved it and now I want to watch the other ones again. It is one of the best movies that I have seen lately. There are a lot of subtle elements in the story line that can be analyzed to figure out the plot. I also read on imdb.com that they are making a Wolverine movie that will explore his story too. EZ asked me what powers I would like if I were a mutant and I said that I would like to be able to heal myself (like Wolverine) and have stealth ability... maybe invisibility or something like that. So, (two people who read my blog) what kind of mutant powers would you like? I'm interested to know.

Now, for the SOTW. The other night we had some friends over and we ended up talking about X-Men III. They had a friend tell them that he did not want to see it since it was a promotion for homosexuality. The premise of the movie is that there is a "cure" for the mutant gene. (I don't think that I spoiled the movie since it is in all the trailers.) Also, a portion of the movie takes place in San Francisco, so this person interpreted the movie as an allusion to the promotion of homosexuality. We also ended up talking about Phil Collins song "In the Air Tonight." There is an urban legend that Phil wrote this song after he saw a friend drown while someone stood by and watched his friend die. Here is the link for the whole story. Anyway, it turns out that the song is just a song that he wrote.

EZ and I ran into this exaggerated interpretation while we were at a concert a few years ago. We went to Spokane to see the Barenaked Ladies on their Everything to Everyone tour. The cool thing was that the whole tour and Web site was based on a blog. The tour site had a blog where the band members would post. Following that idea, they had a "blog" during the concert. One of the percussionists was dressed as God, (I have no idea why.) He went out into the audience during the concert and the lead singers had a powerful spotlight they would shine on someone who wanted to ask a question. God would take the person a mic and they could as a question. The big single from the Everything for Everyone CD is Another Postcard. It's a song about how this guy keeps getting postcards of monkeys dressed up in clothes doing things that humans would do. The person with the mic asked if it was a song about the spread of AIDS since one belief is that the virus that causes AIDS came from monkeys. When the band was asked that question, the response was, "Nope!" The true story is that Steven Page (one of the lead singers) got a postcard from his parents who were travelling. The postcard had a dressed-up monkey on it. He thought it was funny and took it to the studio where they were recording their CD. They wrote the song Another Postcard and it ended up on the CD.

So, I guess my point is sometimes a song is just a song, a painting is just painting, and a movie is just a movie. There is not deeper meaning. Some people just need to sit back and enjoy something instead of exaggerating the interpretation. And if you want to sit back and see an awesome movie, go see X-Men III... and stay through the ending credits too.