The Beckman Blog

Ever since I had the (not-so)bright idea to launch a family website, http://www.beckmanfamily.net/, over a year ago, I envisioned it as being a place where Cassia and I (and our children, eventually) could post pictures, files, and maintain a blog to interact with the world.

Well . . . things haven’t exactly turned out the way we thought it would. I bought a book on PHP last spring (2005), and had hoped to learn it over the summer, but time hasn’t been kind to that particular hope. And, now that I’m a graduate student spending 10+ hours on campus five days a week (a few hours less on Saturdays), I doubt I’ll get to realize that dream anytime soon.

But darn it, I want a blog, man!! I just know that the whole world is simply dying to hear what we think about everything. There’s a need that’s gone unfulfilled for far too long now, and that time has now come to an end. HERE WE ARE, WORLD!

(Is the hubris palpable yet?)

Anyway, we’ll see how this goes. I plan on using this blog to update all interested parties (yes, both of you) on things going on in the world, our family, and basically anything else I feel like commenting about – which, knowing the range of my interests, could be practically anything.

One recent idea I had was to publish a semi-regular newsletter with my musings about recent movies I’ve seen. Some people have suggested that I consider a job as a movie critic. That’s all well and good, except for two major caveats: (1) I’d have to watch just about every movie coming to theaters, which, aside from being a bit of a crimp on a married student’s budget, would also require me to see a lot of (personally) offensive movies; and (2) I’d have to watch a lot of garbage, and not just the R-rated kind. If I were a movie critic, I’d want to review only the movies that I felt like watching, which admittedly is more than a little self-serving. So . . . I’ll just set my own rules about what I will and won’t watch by posting my thoughts to this blog! Brilliant!

My movie reviews will be as long or as short as I feel like making them, though films that I feel strongly about (good or bad) will probably receive a more in-depth treatment than others. I think I’ll refrain from adopting a star system or a letter-grade assignment for how I feel about these films for now; people are always hungry for rankings, when in reality they’re incredibly subjective and rarely useful. Trust me: if I’m really passionate about a particular film, you’ll know about it. I’ve considered doing a light content analysis for each film as a service to sensitive viewers, but I’m not sure about that idea, especially since there are terrific sites like http://www.screenit.com/ and http://www.kids-in-mind.com/ which provide that service already. We’ll see. After all, this is our blog, so I can change the rules to fit whatever I feel like doing. Isn’t freedom wonderful?I think I’ll start off with a review of Mad Hot Ballroom, which Cassia and I watched last night. Watch for that soon.

Your feedback is always welcome, except if you have anything negative to say. We don’t tolerate that around here. (Just kidding. All we ask is that you keep the tone of your remarks civil.)

Have a great day, and welcome to the Beckman Blog!