Ambrose Bierce

A little while ago I used a quote from Ambrose Bierce for my Quotable Thursday feature. I usually try to link the quoted person to their wikipedia page so that you can go and learn more about them if you so please. In the process of doing that this time however, I saw that this person had an interesting story – he disappeared.
Ambrose Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist. He was born in 1842 and earned himself the nickname “Bitter Bierce” primarily because of his motto ‘nothing matters’.
In 1913 the then elderly writer traveled to Mexico to gain a firsthand perspective of the country’s ongoing revolution. According to Wikipedia:

“In October 1913 Bierce, then in his seventies, departed Washington, D.C., for a tour of his old Civil War battlefields. By December he had proceeded through Louisiana and Texas, crossing by way of El Paso into Mexico, which was in the throes of revolution. In Ciudad Juárez he joined Pancho Villa's army as an observer, and in that role he witnessed the Battle of Tierra Blanca.

Bierce is known to have accompanied Villa's army as far as the city of Chihuahua. His last known communication with the world was a letter he wrote there to Blanche Partington, a close friend, dated December 26, 1913. After closing this letter by saying, "As to me, I leave here tomorrow for an unknown destination," he vanished without a trace, becoming one of the most famous disappearances in American literary history.

Oral tradition in Sierra Mojada, Coahuila, documented by the priest James Lienert, states that Bierce was executed by a firing squad in the town cemetery there. However, all investigations into his fate have proven fruitless, and despite an abundance of theories his end remains shrouded in mystery.”

I don’t know much more than what is in the Wikipedia link, but thought it was rather interesting and wanted to share it with you.

My Sins

A while back, Dave and I watched the movie Se7en starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. It is a good movie, but incredibly graphic and quite gorey. But still a pretty good movie with a couple twists and an interesting plot. This post however, is not a review of the movie.

The Seven Deadly Sins (hereafter called the 7) are also known as the Capital Vices and are 'a classification of the most objectionable vices that has been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning immoral fallen humanity's tendencies to sin'.

Every time I hear about the 7 I think about how they relate to me (is that pride?). In other words, which of them am I the most guilty of. So I decided to rank them and give some kind of justification as to the ranking...

1. Gluttony - I think my explanation to this one is pretty self-explanatory. I have a love-affair with food and eat way too much of it.


2. Envy - I am quite a jealous person. I know envy and jealousy are not exactly the same as jealousy normally has to do with materials goods, but whether you call it envious or jealous both can describe me.


3. Sloth - defined as the spiritual or emotional apathy, Sloth can also have to do with waste of talent or ability. It is the second part of this that I feel is relevant to me. I am good at many things, some of which I use on a daily basis but the greatest of which I neglect or overlook completely.


4. Pride - This is considered the original sin - the source from which the others arise. Though I do not feel it as relevant to me as other sins. It is identified as the desire to be more important or desired than others. I often think others are better than me at most things (in terms of appearances or abilities) though I suppose I do desire to be better, though I do not think I want to be the best. Either way, I have ranked it mid way in my list.


5. Greed - Also a sin of excess, greed is mid to low ranked for me as I feel that though I can tend to be a greedy person, I am capable of overcoming this tendency much easier than others.


6. Wrath - This sin has to do with anger (though I am sure few needed this explained to them). I am not a very angry person usually. I can get angry of course, but have become much better at dealing with and portraying this anger to those around me and I therefore have ranked this sin rather low.


7. Lust - I have ranked this rather low as I do not find myself to be a lustful person. I do not rank sex or sexual thoughts/feelings above people or other emotions.

As a sidenote, one of my favourite images depecting the seven deadly sins is below. It is from the show America's Next Top Model and I think it was done really well (though Gluttony looks like she hates that food rather than loves it and eats lots of it).

(image found through Google - originally taken on America's Next Top Model, Cycle Four)

Brittany Murphy

Brittany Murphy died yesterday (December 20, 2009) at age 32 apparently from cardiac arrest. An autopsy is being performed to determine if this was indeed the cause of death.
She starred in a couple classic teen movies such as Clueless, but also more serious dramas like Girl, Interrupted. She also had some face time on the tabloids when she was dating Ashton Kutcher in 2002. Brittany Murphy dabbled in music as well when she sang with Paul Oaklenfold and also in the movie Happy Feet.
She seemed to have a good career going for her, and on the more quiet side of Hollywood to boot. I really hope her death is confirmed to be natural and the tabloids let her rest in peace.

John Hughes

John Hughes, Jr - February 18, 1950 - August 6, 2009

John Hughes made some of the most memorable (and successful) movies of the 1980s and 90s. He was the writer and director of cult classics like National Lampoon's Vacation, Uncle Buck, Sixteen Candles and Home Alone. He understood the American teenager like no other filmmaker in the industry at the time, or arguably ever since.

My personal favourites of his films are Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Uncle Buck, Pretty in Pink and of course, The Breakfast Club. I can remember watching these movies on my VCR and then time and time again whenever they appeared on television - which was quite often. For a full listing of his films visit either Wikipedia or IMDB. He has not made a movie since 1991, but really, when your resume holds classics such as his, do you really need to give into Hollywood's new movie standards?

I really like the following article entitled 8 Things in John Hughes Movies You Won’t See in Today’s Teen Movies. All the points mentioned here are why Hughes' movies are such classics that can no longer be duplicated or remade to be any better than they already are.

Okapi

"The Okapi (Okapia johnstoni) is a giraffid artiodactyl mammal native to the Ituri Rainforest, located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in central Africa. Although the Okapi bears striped markings reminiscent of the zebra, it is most closely related to the giraffe. There are approximately 10,000 - 20,000 in the wild and only 40 different worldwide institutions display them." Wikipedia.I first came across Okapis in the Endangered Species expansion pack to Zoo Tycoon 2 (a truly great game in its own right made even better my introducing the endangered species I love so much). Your zoo had to be pretty darn famous to even get the option of adopting one, and when you did, they were darn hard to breed since they seemed to be rather peculiar animals. I found the above image on Cute Overload this morning, and realized that though they are odd looking, they are simply adorable.
The feature that makes these animals so odd looking, is also the one that seems the most appealing when young. The stripes on their legs not only provide camouflage in their natural habitat but are also thought to assist young Okapis follow their mothers through the dense rain forest foliage. Another extremely interesting feature of the Okapi is its blue tongue. It is similar to the tongue of a giraffe in colour and the fact that it is quite long but the Okapi has the uncanny ability to clean its own ears inside and out, with its tongue. It is the only animal that has the ability to lick its own ears! Okapis are technically not endangered, but they are listed as threatened (Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species includes threatened species as well but that name isn't nearly as catchy) by habitat destruction and poaching.