American Beauty, with Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening and Thora Birch. I'll be honest, I rented this movie solely because of Thora Birch, but the filler in between wasn't half bad either. Normally I'd be wary of a film with an explicit moral to the story, but I have to make an exception in this case. The movie seemed like a darker twist on 'Office Space' with regard to escaping the soul crushing monotony of one's job. All of the characters were pretty stereotypical, which I guess was the point, but they pulled it off as believeable, reflecting the origins of the stereotypes themselves rather than some cliche. Except Mena Suvari's character. Seeing 'Not Another Teen Movie' before I saw this also helped tone down what might have been a real gloomy film. Oh, I don't care what a tortured soul that kid with the camera is, he's so creepy!

Weeds in Bloom by Robert Newton Peck. A very pleasant quick read. Has that sort of simple joy like fresh baked blueberry muffins. This guy has had an interesting life, or at least ran into his fair share of interesting people. The lack of a plot is rather refreshing, like if your friend was just telling you a series of anecdotes. One particular story got me thinking though: is the feeling of guilt the reason for people to adhere to a specific moral code? To be more specific, when you are confronted with an opportunity to act counter to what your beliefs tell you is a morally right decision, is it a remembered feeling of guilt from a previous breaking of your moral code that keeps you from doing it? In the book, Peck and his friend try to cheat money from a store owner. Peck knows that this is wrong but through coaxing of his friend goes through with it anyway. Afterwards both are faced with the tremendous guilt at their attempt at deception and are unable to take the money. So did he do it because of the simple weak will of a little kid or because he had never really experienced guilt before?

Apparantly this blind kid is an expert at video games. Sort of a modern day Pinball Wizard. Keith and Jenn suspect there's more to this story, after all sound effects aren't enough to play a game like Tetris. Perhaps there's some sort of 'House of Flying Daggers' twist...?