Green Oasis

I didn’t get the punchline of this confession of why this ex-Mormon was excommunicated until it was mentioned in the comments. D’oh!

De-conversion has an excellent summary of existentialism and how it contrasts with religious fundamentalism. The world is a different place when you try to strip away fantasy and live as true to your experience as possible.

This JibJab video about the 2008 campaign for the U.S. president just about sums up my feelings. Call me cynical.

I was recently reminded of the Tetris effect whereby a person who plays Tetris a lot starts to imagine how real world objects would fit together or imagine tetrominoes falling from the sky. In other words, the rules of the game become a mental habit.

I’ve recently started to notice the same effect with Go. I’ve begun to evaluate the tactical strength of any series of dots. I’ve also started to dream about Go positions. Odd.

X-Men: The Last Stand

This is a fun, visually interesting movie. Not being a hardcore X-Men fan, it felt kind of like starting in the middle of a soap opera. Even though I knew most of the characters, I didn’t really care as much as I felt I was expected to.

Georgia Rule

I didn’t expect much from this film featuring Lindsay Lohan among others. This might be the secret to enjoying what turns out to be a reasonably human look at sex, love, and truth. I might reconsider my low esteem for Lindsay. Bonus: “the Mormons” have a central—if comical—part.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

The obvious thing to say is the narrator’s voice is unique: an autistic teenager tells of his investigation which starts with a dog’s murder and ends in family secrets. While probably not truly authentic, that voice provided a window into what it might be like to be autistic.