There are more than just bananas in there...

Category: The Monkey Thinks about Stuff (Page 2 of 2)

I get reflective, I write it down, you read it and leave comments. It’s kinda crazy but it works.

Every Time a Bell Rings, You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

The Walnut of Cheer

The Walnut of Joyous Tidings

With the snow coming down outside it looks like this will be a good night to curl up with some cocoa, turn the lights on the tree and relax with a great Christmas movie.  Folks have been bugging me to do a top ten list, apparently all good blogs have top ten lists, so I figured this was as good a time as any, especially since when I made my list of favorite Christmas movies, there happened to be ten, so here are my top ten Christmas movies, in no particular order.

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Bell Buckle Blues

November 14 was United Nations World Diabetes Day and as part of their campaign to increases Diabetes awareness they issued the second WDD Monument challenge.  The challenge is to increase diabetes awareness by lighting monuments around the world in blue for the evening.  According to their website, “A total of 279 iconic monuments were lit in 2007 as beacons of hope for the millions of people worldwide living with diabetes. Over 1.2 billion people were reached with campaign messages.”  The 2008 goal was to encourage a total of 500 buildings to light up to mark World Diabetes Day.  After a little thought, I decided I could help them out.

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I Like to Watch

I am not a fan of television in general, I would rather go out and do something than watch other people doing things.  However, I have found that my midday break which may or may not include a meal is an excellent time to decompress and go in for some mainstream entertainment.  I used to fill this time watching documentaries trying to further my education and expand my horizons and all that.  Then, we discovered Netflix.

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Mutatio Gratio Mutationis or The "Monkeybrad" Effect

Last month, Laura and I had the great fortune to attend a lecture by Ken Burns at Belmont University, in Nashville. Many thanks to Asheley R. for arranging awesome seats right up front and for letting us know about it in the first place. The lecture was fascinating to say the least, in fact it was so amazing that I will not even attempt to report on it, as I am sure that I cannot begin to do it justice. One thing I will say, Mr. Burns packs an incredible amount of information into a lecture. First off he speaks very rapidly, which requires you to pay attention just to catch all of the words, never mind processing those words. Secondly, there is no filler, he spoke for an hour and it was all substantial, simply amazing.  Just listening to his prepared lecture was treat enough, but he was just getting started.

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Monkeybrad for President

At the behest of several friends, I threw my hat into the political ring this year by announcing my candidacy for the office of President of the united States of America.  There are several reasons that I agreed to participate:

  1. I love this great country of ours and I feel that public service is a patriotic duty.
  2. This is the first election in which I am constitutionally eligible to participate as a candidate, having only recently passed the age of 35.
  3. I feel strongly that I am at least as well qualified as my esteemed opponents to bungle the handling of the current and any forthcoming crises.
  4. Uncertain times call for uncertain leadership, and while my leadership style is erratic at best, I would guarantee I would certainly be more fun than the other guys..
  5. I have always wanted my own secret service detail and motorcade.
  6. Like my esteemed opponents, I too am an attention whore.

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"Our Town" Revisited

I went off to college to study Pre-Law and Psychology and that went fairly well, until that fateful day when I noticed an audition call on the board at the Student Union.  Although, I had done high-school drama, I had never considered myself an actor or artist, but a buddy talked me into going with him and I ended up getting the part.  A couple of years later I found myself with several shows under my belt making a living in professional theatre as an actor and designer.  A few years later and I was doing design work for big clients and making a living as an “artist”, still doing some acting, but mostly designing.  Fast forward ten years, when my sister-in-law points out an item in the local paper that a new theatre group is having auditions for Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”, and I suddenly realize I haven’t trod the boards in a very long time…

Two weeks later, I am on the poster and deep into rehearsals to play the part I have always loved, The Stage Manager.

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