Here are some tips that I received a while back which I wrote down in my journal and I keep going back to every year as a reminder of where I can go if I let myself get carried away by the holiday shopping spirit. IÂ’m sharing this in the hopes that it might help someone to think differently about the holidays. My other motivating factor comes from working at an investment back and seeing how people many people file for personal bankrupcy in March and April from not being able to pay their christmas shopping bills.
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Posted by: Michele at 11:56 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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As most of you don't know... I have a thing for penguins. I love all penguins, and have been known to stalk a few of my fine feathered friends at the Central Park Children's zoo. But I am especially fond of the most beautiful of their species - the Emperor Penguins. Here's one of my favorite photos of them. However, these sweet, mild mannered creatures which were portrayed so nobly in the March of the Penguins are not the Penguins you will encounter in Happy Feet, so you are forwarned.

To begin with, Happy Feet has a rating of PG for some mild peril and rude humor. Well, I normally pre-screen all the movies my sun watches, except for this one. Having been written and directed by George Miller (writer/director of Babe) I thought it would be a safe movie. Well, I was wrong. And you know kids, the thing that makes the adults laugh most (the rude humor) is exactly what kids will remember most and mimmick with amazing accuracy. Well, I learned that parental lesson on Sunday morning when my son mimmicked exactly one of the rude and sassy Puffer Penguins on our way to church.

I must admit that I was both mortified and trying very hard to contain my laughter, while seriously explaining why mimmicking that character was not appropriate . Sigh!

I think a PG13 rating would have been more appropriate. Thirteen year olds have the ability (hopefully) to understand, that while certain gestures are very funny for a cartoon on a movie screen, they are inappropriate for a man of any age to approach a woman with, unless he doesn't mind being smacked by his mother or the woman.

On the other hand, the movie is appropriate for adults who love Robin Williams, have a good sense of humor, and who enjoy cartoons and music. The only other thing that bothered me was the way Miller tried to stretch the movie's theme from self-acceptance to "regulating the overfishing of the Antarctic oceans". While most adults were scratching there heads at the significance of the UN General Assembly scene. I was frustrated over the factual inaccuracies of the film. The 2 biggest of these are: a) Penguins are endangered (they are instead reaching over-population) and b) the thinking that the UN or it's members have any jurisdiction over Antartica. They do not. Here's a factoid to tuck away in your heads: since Antartica is not a country and its uninhabited, the UN has no jurisdiction over the ice caps or it's mammalian occupants. Still, if you're able to overlook all that, then I dare say you might enjoy the film.

As for me, I really enjoyed the computer animation. Oh, and the penguins!

Posted by: Michele at 09:56 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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