Amélie (Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain)

Amélie est la personnification de la joie de vivre. Le directeur Jeunet est un expert sur la représentation de la jeunesse. Normalement, on recule à la simple description - deux heures de temps, de dialogue minimal, de film étranger sous-titré... Pourtant, dès le générique d'ouverture, qui montrent les pitreries d'un adorable jeune Amélie au jeu, à voir l'esprit imaginatif de l'adulte Amélie au jeu, ce film tout à fait rivets et sans effort charmes. C'est un must!

Rating: 5 / 5

Never chase love, affection, or attention.

Never chase love, affection, or attention. If it isn't given freely by another person, it isn't worth having.

A Pre-Boarding Announcement from the Steve Harvey School of Practicality

Welcome to Think Like A Man Airlines, flight 24/7.

Prior to boarding, please make sure to check your baggage, as there is no space on board for skeletons in the closet. All eligible, non-crazy bachelors are now welcome to line up on the right-hand side for pre-screening.

There are two exits on this aircraft: one friendly, the other, not so much. All passengers seated in an exit row must be over the age of 18, be willing and able to assist in the event of a real or non- emergency, and must do so in a drama-free manner. Smoking, drugs, and violence are strictly prohibited in the cabin. Any individual who violates proper treatment code will be immediately ejected from the aircraft.

We ask you now to turn off all Blackberry's, blueberries, strawberries, and any other electronic device that may or may not get in the way of date night conversation. In compliance with relationship regulations, I will now demonstrate the following safety briefing while we invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight to Happy Coupledom, USA!

Camping in Trees in Germany

tell me this doesn't look like the coolest...

XTERRA Malibu Creek Trail

Runners are a friendly crew, especially to other runners. We may be crazy in doing what we do, but we take pride in caring for our own. And never have I realized this more than today.

This morning, I competed in the XTERRA Malibu Creek Trail run, and after all that hard work of climbing up and over the mountain, I sprinted perhaps a little too fast down the other side. Right at the 2-mile marker on a hairpin turn, I mis-stepped and sprained my left ankle. Story of my life. Up until then, I was on pace (or so I thought) to win my age group. "Wow, maybe I will actually finish dead last for the first time ever," I thought. I was wrong. Turns out, I wouldn't finish at all. A mile and a half later of limping down the single-track path, I had to be lifted out by the paramedics.

What really amazed me, though, was the camaraderie and caring shown today by my fellow canyon climbers. After I fell, almost every person who passed me slowed to give a slap on the back or words of encouragement. Several even offered to stop their own race and walk with me to get help. The shooting pain in my ankle might have had something to do with it, but their collective gesture moved me to tears.

Yes, it sucks that I'm going to have to rehab for awhile. "Maybe it's a sign," a friend suggests in consolation. "Maybe that race wasn't meant to be." At first, I wondered how it could be possible that I wasn't meant to compete well today, given how prepared I was both physically and mentally. But then, I thought, "maybe it is a sign. I've put in a lot of miles over the past few months, and maybe I do need a breather." In any case, I've gained a renewed appreciation for the sport and for those who participate in the sport, and am ever more excited to get back and fit and ready to race! (Mental note - this one's definitely getting stored in my training arsenal as firepower.)

Philly Marathon, beware. Come November, you're going down.

"Smart" TVs

in a world of phones that talk back, it may be possible that one day soon, our TV sets will be able to do the same. never having had to stream through the internet, I recently connected through to Crackle and Hulu on my PS3 for the first time, as I've decided to cancel cable due to the fact that I'm never home. while the content streamed quickly and with few glitches, I was unaccustomed to the standard definition, as HD has now become the default choice for most. notwithstanding, it served my purpose of content surfing, and for no cost, I certainly couldn't beat the price.

which leads me to wonder - with only 14 million or so American households now connected (Parks Associates, market research), at what point will the value proposition of "smart" TVs be more attractive to consumers (on the whole) than what they currently use/have?

Behavioral Economics & Michael Lewis

humans, at the individual level, are behaviorally inconsistent. to a certain extent, such individual inconsistencies are smoothed out when aggregated. traditional economics, whether micro or macro, seeks to explain market dynamics driven by behavior at this aggregated level. for such inconsistencies that aren't explained in classical theory, behavioral economics seeks to explain the discrepancy between actual opportunity cost and its (psychological) perception based on the framing of alternatives.

what makes michael lewis an effective writer is not his subject matter expertise, but rather his framing of the particular stories he chooses to tell. what's fascinating in moneyball, the big short, and liar's poker, namely, is that his exploration of the idea of value seeks to bring light not only to various characters and their inconsistent actions in imperfect markets, but also to the psychological motivations of the players. as such, lewis is a master chronicler of behavioral economics. to paraphrase joan didion, he writes entirely to find out what he is thinking, what he is looking at, what he sees and what it means.