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Movie: Black Robe
A bitter tale of the devastating effects French Catholic missionaries had on the Algonquin and Huron tribes along the St. Lawrence river. Beautiful scenery is the only respite in a spiteful, if accurate, story.
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Name the flowering tree
These blossoming trees have brightened the streets of Fort Collins lately, like a message that Spring has officially opened. I had no idea what they were, but there were clearly two varieties: white and rose. They intrigued me enough to tote the camera to work with me and identify them. I usually have little interest…
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Movie: Dog Day Afternoon
I had no idea what I was in for with this movie. It starts with a true story that took place in Brooklyn in 1972, and proceeds to hit you from all directions with the oddities of human behavior. Economic hardship, the influence of mass media, gay marriage, mob psychology, hostage psychology, transgender operations, geographic…
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Contemplations, Switched Plans, and Golden Cliffs
Our plan was to head back to Vedauwoo today, and we told many people that we’d be there for an overnight trip. But even though we’re very excited to spend more time at Vedauwoo, there is another idea stewing in our heads, and this morning our conversation turned to it. Ann and I have been…
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CDT Anniversary
Ann reminded me that this week a year passed since we set off from the Mexico border to hike the Continental Divide Trail. I feel a little guilty that the day slipped by without snapping me out of my busy work week to recognize it. It’s still very emotional thinking back to that first day…
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Movie: Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
This movie compares mental illness and drug addiction to love, and has fun doing it. I wouldn’t usually root for a violent, thieving stalker as a hero, but what if such tactics are the only ones that would ever get through to the self-loathing, drug-addicted object of his obsession? The dangerous presumption is that his…
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Antics at Vedauwoo
At last, my old childhood stomping ground is melted off and climbable! We headed up to Vedauwoo with our friend Alan to introduce him to climbing, and I eased back onto the lead on Easy Friction, 5.4. We all had a ball on this familiar slab, Easy Lieback 5.5, Cold Fingers 5.7, and Dropzone 5.9.…
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Movie: Bottle Rocket
I thought this was a refreshing, satirical break from the “crime movie” genre. The characters and the setup are ridiculous on one level, and very real on another. It’s light entertainment that, if you think about it, asks difficult questions about the nature of crime, justice, mental illness, love, friendsip, and cultural clashes.
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Movie: Heathers
This movie has only gotten better, and maybe more disturbing, since it was released in 1989. Since then Columbine and other high school killings have made this kind of satire even more taboo. And it is unnerving to wonder if the perpetrators of those attrocities found inspiration in the trenchcoat-clad Christian Slater character. Still, the…
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CCB website goes live with TYPO3
After sitting on it for a while, the Center for Computational Biology at the University of Colorado has gone live with the website I built for them. I reused the graphics from their previous website, but migrated the whole thing to the TYPO3 content management system, adding WYSIWYG editing, user registration, a multiple mailing list…