(500) Days of Summer released to Saint Louis theatres yesterday. We drove out to Landmark Theatres’ Plaza Frontenac cinema in Saint Louis to catch this film. A couple weeks ago Jessica and I heard an interview with the director, Marc Webb, on NPR that built our excitement for this film into near-frenzy. See, we rarely go see films on opening night. This one was different.

The way Webb described their method in making the film, was to try and convey the emotions a young male goes through when falling in love. And they wanted to communicate that through music and song choices. So, right off the bat, the soundtrack is fantastic. It’s up there with a Cameron Crowe soundtrack, I think; especially so when combined with the sort of story this is.

We’re warned at the start that this is not a love story. And it certainly isn’t. Witty to melancholy, hilarity to downright despair, (500) Days of Summer puts the viewer in the middle of the thrilling uncertainty that comes with infatuation. And it does so with such exacting precision that you feel each elated moment and every painful word.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (one of my favourite actors) and Zooey Deschanel were cast very well. Interestingly enough, Deschanel, in my mind, seemed to become less attractive over the course of the movie — an oddity when you consider most guys find her really attractive. I’m not sure if that was done purposefully using visuals, or if it was just my mental and emotional involvement in the characters. The acting from the leads was superb, creating an effortless chemistry that was entirely consuming, while the supporting cast was cohesive enough to create a believable world.

Definitely go see this movie. But be warned, it’s not all happy and feel-good. If your life and sensibilities are at all similar to mine, you’ll connect to this movie on a level that truly affects you. It will bring forgotten memories back to the surface and make you appreciate devotion.

Yesterday we probably had the best July 4th in a long time. Well, the best July 4th in the USA at least. Last year we were in Portugal on our holiday and I’ve been in both Mexico and in the air on the way to Hungary on 04 July in the past. But since Jess and I have been married we haven’t really done the whole fireworks “thing”.

The summer we lived with my in-laws we had a fun time on the fourth. We let off our own firecrackers and sparklers and whatnot. Growing up in California, firecrackers were illegal. So we settled for watching the professional shows on 04 July.

Last night we met up with my friend Ryan and his new wife Laura and grabbed dinner before heading out to the Arch for the fireworks show over the Mississippi. Special bonus: Train was playing a concert there. Which was cool.

In any case we braved the crowd and watched the fireworks under the Arch. It was pretty cool. In the 7 years I’ve been in the St Louis Metro-East, we’ve never been out to the city for the fireworks display.

This past year I’ve begun, through a lot of reading and research, to appreciate more the United States and its history. I’ve never been particularly patriotic. I’ve always worn Union Jacks and such as a tongue-in-cheek expression of … whatever. But this 4th felt a little more meaningful to me. Despite how I feel about our current leadership and policies coming into play, this national holiday felt different.

Not that I don’t still want to live in England or practically anywhere else in the world. Because I do. But for a few minutes last night it was good to be an American, I suppose.

Wow. What a couple of weeks it’s been.

First, we launched the new site at work. And overall the response was good, until it got bad. So my “team” and I had to hustle to get more content up and certain features working. There was a lot more drama than that, and if you work in Higher Education you’ll understand the true weight of that statement. But in the end, it’s up and we’re really close to being content complete. Once that happens we can put our focus on developing features that are on deck. Check out the site here.

That’s taken up the bulk of my life. But, with the stress and all, I managed to take a day off in the middle of it for some sweet mental respite. Jess and I went to Six Flags St Louis (I got cheap tickets over Twitter) and had a great time. It’s a small park but has some fun coasters. It seemed kind of like a miniature Magic Mountain (SoCal). My favourite Six Flags coaster, Batman: The Ride, has a version at St Louis — in fact, it seems to have all the same features, it’s just slower and smaller and shorter. Six Flags St Louis also has a ride called Ninja (not the same as the Magic Mountain Ninja) which is a miniature Viper. Same elements just on a smaller scale. It’s also, again, slower but just as jerky and rough as Viper. Overall we had a great time though and even were able to go get me a new pair of trousers for work as well as a new polo shirt.

It was a great break for me and left me a bit more energized and ready to get back into the site.

This weekend — a long weekend due to Independence Day — we’ve been trying to relax a bit. I got a haircut and shaved my beard today. The results:

Shaved and Cut

And I’m happy with it this time. Figured, my hair is short enough, it’s effing hot outside… might as well shave the beard. So I did. Last time I wasn’t so happy with the shave.

I made chicken tacos for dinner and we are watching Leatherheads. I also have been working on a new design for a church I’m working with here in town. You can take a look at their current site and then look at what I’m putting together and make your judgement. So far I think I’m pretty happy with the new design. And I think they will be too.

The goal is to get the design done this weekend and to start the coding for the site. Huzzah.

And for the Fourth we are going to hang out with some friends and watch the fireworks in St Louis. Should be a lot of fun.

What have you been up to? Anything fun? Any good barbecues planned?

This is my last weekend of being ridiculously stressed out. I am taking the GRE on Monday morning. Early. It’s the second time I’ve taken the test. The first time around I didn’t do so well… maybe okay for the program I’m applying to, but not good enough for myself.

My plans are to study all day today (after studying all week already) and as much of tomorrow as possible. Then Monday I’ll wake up really early, drive to SLU and take the test. I’m actually feeling more confident than I felt at the beginning of the week – which is a good thing.

I will feel an incredible sense of release when it’s over. I won’t have to do study anymore. Next week I’ll finish up my application and get it submitted. Early. I really need to get into this program.

And now that this new design is up, I probably need to finish the Résumé page, fix my letterhead for résumés and cover letters and my CV, and then nip and tuck the rest of the blog template issues.

I’d appreciate any comments (or bug reports) on the new design. Let me know what you think! I’m pretty sure I’ll be submitting it (minus the moving cloud – probably) to themes.wordpress.org in the near future. That, along with the Rock Out Loud (AgapeFest 2009) template – which should be going live on agapefest.com next week (fingers crossed).

After a wonderful day of other academic departments assuming I am going to do things for them before they actually talk to me about said things, listening to staff bicker about how they don’t think the school likes them as much the faculty, taking photos after dinner and then promptly having to fix a COMPLETELY flat tire…

I have finally re-templated this site. The design is in beta. There’s a lot to fix. A few things to style. But hopefully you can still enjoy it!

…is going by SO slowly. What is the deal? Maybe it’s because summer is ending and people are showing up on campus. It’s probably more closely related to the fact that I am waiting for people to answer me.

I lost my iPod Touch. I’m not sure how, but I know when. Monday. It has to be in the house someplace. Absolutely has to be. See, I got home. I remember seeing it where I had set it down and grabbing it because it wasn’t supposed to be there. I went upstairs, did some GRE studying, ate dinner, went back upstairs to do some more, came downstairs and Jessica took me to Dairy Queen (drive-thru) to cheer me up.

Got back, watched TV. We haven’t gone anywhere. And I haven’t been able to find it since Tuesday morning. It’s super-annoying. I hope I find it soon.

We got a cucumber today from our garden. And we ate it. Well, half of it. In a chicken salad. It’s really good.

I am really stressed about the GRE. I need to get a better score on it this time so that I can get into the school i want. Hopefully this Kaplan stuff will pay off. But it doesn’t seem to be yet. And I take the test next tuesday.

Please pray for me.

Sometimes I feel like this…

Fields: Exit

that GRE prep is kicking my butt. I wish I had kept myself in practice for the Quantitative (read: math) parts of the test. Hopefully I can get some strategies out of all this.

If you pray, please add me to the list. I need a good GRE score because I need to go to grad school next summer, because I need to get out of Greenville.

Thank you.