By Small Things Shall Great Things Pass Away

Like countless children before her, Lillian is discvering that she has a penchant for destruction. I, as an impartial narrator, have been gathering evidence for a month, or so, now. Some of it may shock you, but I give you my word that none of it has been staged or doctored in any way. What you're about to see is footage as raw as it gets. VDIA. As I've been pursuing coverage of these events, I've struggled to find words adequate to describe the horror of the things I've witnessed. In particular, I've had a hard time deciding what word to use to describe Lilli's role in all this.

Movie Review: Kull the Conqueror

This movie is Conan the Barbarian, but by a different name. In fact, it was originally intended to be a Conan the Barbarian installment but Arnold Schwarzenegger backed out. When they cast Kevin Sorbo he refused to play a character already defined by someone else, so they had to rename the character for his benefit.[1] It may seem like a little thing to replace all the instances of Conan with Kull, but after watching this you'll realize that even that small task wasn't worth the effort—much less the task of finding horses willing to appear in the film or forcing Styrofoam to help with the special effects.

Movie Review: Dragon Hunters

When I watched this movie I had no idea that it was originally a French-language film called Chasseurs de dragons. Even looking back I can't say that there was anything inherently 'Frenchy' about it. It's based on a television series, also called Chasseurs de dragons/Dragon Hunters. Both the film and the television series are set in a world where innumerable chunks of earth float around. It is never explained why the world is like that nor what it's exact nature is. Are there infinite floating planetoids in all directions? Or are they all floating over a larger, Earth-like planet. And if so, why does no one go down to it? I wish these questions had been addressed by the film. (Maybe they are in the television series.)

Movie Review: Constantine

When the trailers for this movie came out [1], I thought it looked like it was going to be pretty much the same movie as The Matrix, just with different characters. This was probably mainly due to the fact Keanu Reeves stars in both films as a 'chosen' man who fights demons (or demon-like entities) with unnatural skill; both feature dark, gritty camerawork; and because Keanu Reeves' acting is the same as ever. I'm sure more comparisons could be made, but I think there are more differences than similarities. For example, Neo, in The Matrix, is a reluctant hero while Constantine, in this film, is an antihero.

Independence Day

For the last year we've been avoiding family functions in order to avoid Lilli getting sick. Given her low birth weight [1] and the fact that she hasn't been gaining weight very well (due, in large part, to the fact that she's very active), we didn't want her losing weight because she was sick. But our main concern was RSV. Since RSV season is over, we decided to go to my extended family's Independence Day festivities. They were all thrilled to meet her. And, since she's quite the people person (she'll crawl into the laps of strangers at church), she was thrilled to meet them, too.

Spinning in Circles

One of Lillian's favorite things to do is spin in circles. She does it when she's having fun; she does it when she's not. She even does it sometimes when she's upset. She spins in circles when she's in the living room, when she's in the kitchen, when she's in the bathroom [1], when she's in her bedroom. She even does it in her crib sometimes when she's supposed to be taking a nap. But she always seems to spin clockwise. Never counterclockwise.

Birthday Party!

It's kind of hard to believe, but one year ago yesterday Lillian came into the world. We didn't expect her so soon (she was two months early [1]), but we're so glad to have her. On Saturday she had a birthday party with the Crook side of the family (her party with the Martin side is coming up later). Most of her aunts, uncles, and cousins, along with her grandparents came down from the north end of Utah for the party. (Not shown: her Aunt Melissa and her cousin Katie were sitting behind me when I shot this picture.)