Saturday, January 14, 2006

Some Good, Some Bad

Bad stuff going on: My 99-year-old grandfather is ill.

Good stuff going on:

-- Today, Amy and I visited my dad, who is in town to watch a show.

-- On Thursday, Turner Classic Movies hosted showings of one of the greatest animated movies ever, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. TCM showed it twice: Once in an English-dubbed version; once in Japanese, with English subtitles. The last time I saw Nausicaa played on broadcast TV (then in Japanese, without English subtitles) was in Tokyo, the same day Amy and I visited the Studio Ghibli Museum, dedicated to the works of Nausicaa creator Hayao Miyazaki. Plus, TCM coupled it with another one of Miyazaki's best movies from the eighties, Laputa (shown in the US as Castle in the Sky, since Laputa has nasty connotations in Spanish -- as the coiner of the name, Jonathan Swift, intended.)

-- On Friday, I participated in the third part of an educational program for high school kids. Last month, I and two other appellate attorneys spoke to the class about the appellate process. A couple weeks later, we and the kids came to court and watched the cases we discussed being argued. Since one of the cases was decided later in December, we visited the class again, held a moot court where the kids played attorneys and judges and argued the case, and then we revealed how the court actually ruled. The kids were amazingly enthusiastic.

-- I've joined the Ipod generation. I got one of the new 30-gigabyte players. I'm now rediscovering my music library as I fill the device.

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