Month: June 2009

The Pacific

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Steven Spielberg, HBO, and Tom Hanks have teamed up again to make The Pacific, a follow-up to their mini-series Band of Brothers, that focuses on, as its name suggests, the Pacific theater of operations during WWII. I have posted the first trailer below. If someone in it looks familiar, it’s probably Joseph Mazzello, who played Tim Murphy, the boy in Jurassic Park.

My hope is that this mini-series does as much justice to those men who fought the Japanese as Band of Brothers did to Easy Company, the entire 101st Airborne, and those who served in the European theater. The trailer looks like it will.

Aren’t There More Important Things in the World?

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The protests against David Letterman in New York City make me a chuckle; Sure what he said about Palin’s daughter and A-Rod was in poor taste, but to take time out of your day to go yell at the building where he works seems a bit over the top, don’t you think? Even funnier are the protesters protesting the protest, of course they turn it into a political opportunity rather than a look at what was said as being inappropriate.

Yet, halfway around the world people are protesting and dying for change in their country. Seems like our priorities are out of whack. We’re worried about whether restaurants should be serving trans fats while Iranians are being told they are not allowed to gather in public places. Let’s get our priorities in order and worry about the things that matter, which, I’m sorry to say, do not include what talking heads say on television.

How Can You Not Love This?

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As I was sitting on the couch the other night, I looked over and saw our dog Sofie dozing off. I waited for a few minutes and slowly pulled my phone out to take a picture. Why slowly? Sofie has a knack for knowing when her picture is about to be taken and does everything in her power not to be caught with her eyes shut. She failed this time.
Sofie Sleeping

EveryBlock Houston

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EveryBlock, a site that focuses on local data, has expanded to include Houston in their database. They do not have our neighborhood, the Heights, populated yet, but over time I am sure it will show up.

It is a great site with a great team behind it and allows users to look at their local communities from a granular level. Users can see crime statistics, restaurants, businesses, food inspections, and tons of other useful information.

D-Day – 65 Years Later

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Today marks the anniversary of the turning point on the Western Front during WWII. Some will say that the battles in North Africa marked the turning point and others will reply with mentions of Sicily and Salerno, but the truth of the matter is, the events that took place on June 6, 1944, from the beachheads to the hedgerows, changed the course of the war to a direction from which the Axis powers could not recover.

Watching the ceremonies that took place today in France made my eyes water. I saw war veterans being stopped in the street and asked for their autographs, being treated like royalty, and being thanked. The news station interviewed some of them and their humbleness was unbelievable, most explained that they were just doing their part and that the ones who deserve our thanks are the ones who did not come back. Those who paid the ultimate price do deserve our gratitude, but the ones who lived through the war deserve to know that their  hard work is not unnoticed and was not in vain.

The generation that stormed the beaches that morning is slowly dying, we need to thank them and take as much time as we can to know their stories.

June 6, 1944 changed history. Americans, British, Canadians, French, and Australians stormed the beaches of Normandy and parachuted into places like Merville and Ranville. They fought for every inch of beach and in doing so, started a chain reaction to overthrow the evil that had infected Europe.