Is Jumper a Time Travel Movie?

Jumper looks like an exciting sci-fi/fantasy movie, and I'm looking forward to seeing it. For the most part, I like sci-fi/fantasy overall, and I love time travel movies. Whether it's Back to the Future, Planet of the Apes, or The Butterfly Effect, I'll watch them over and over. In fact, a friend of mine told me the other day that he wished that he could go back and tell his earlier self to learn Mandarin, and I mentioned that he couldn't do that because it violated the second rule of time travel.

I've been thinking about Jumper since I first saw a trailer several weeks ago. Strictly by chance, I was in a discount bookstore two or three years ago and purchased a paperback edition of Stephen Gould's Jumper for 2 or 3 dollars. It was a fun book to read. I'm looking forward to watching the movie, but I have some trepidation because the reviews I've seen have not been good, and I'm one of those who thinks that films, in general, don't live up to their books.

But I'm not sure whether Jumper is a time-travel movie, even though the space-time continuum is implicated. The guy visualizes a place and wills himself there, whether across the street or across the country, and he instantly ends up at that place. I think it may be a time travel movie because his leaps consumes no time. But it can't be a time travel movie to the extent that he travels neither to the past nor to the future. Jumper will be categorized as a general sci-fi/fantasy film, but I don't think that it would be a stretch to tag it a time travel movie as well. Time travel fans would probably appreciate it.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. to lecture at IHS

from the Indiana Historical Society press release (www.indianahistory.org)
June 30, 2008

Renowned African American historian Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., widely acknowledged for taking African-American studies beyond the ideological bent of the black power movement and into a scholarly sphere, will appear as part of the History Makers: IHS Distinguished Speakers Series. The presentation will take place Wednesday, July 23, at 7 p.m. in the Frank and Katrina Basile theater at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, located at 450 W. Ohio St. in downtown Indianapolis.

Dr. Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, both at Harvard University. Dr. Gates and fellow Harvard professor Kwame Anthony Appiah created _Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience_.

Perhaps best known are his documentaries, all of which have aired on PBS. In 2006, he wrote and produced _African American Lives_--the first documentary series devoted to providing an understanding of black history through genealogy and science--that included tracing the lineage of several celebrities. His 2007 documentary _Finding Oprah's Roots_ was followed in 2008 by _African American Lives 2_.

"Earlier this year, the IHS explored the topic of immigration in our Indiana Town Hall series, and the focus of those discussions was on people who choose, legally or not, to come to America," says Erin Kelley, coordinator of IHS public programs. "I think Dr. Gates will help provide a powerful counterbalance to the discussion by addressing the history of those who left their homelands by force--not choice."

Dr. Gates has also authored several books, including _Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man_, _The Signifying Monkey_, _Figures in Black_, and _Colored People: A Memoir_, which traces his childhood experiences in a small West Virginia town in the 1950s and 1960s. He authenticated and facilitated the publication of _The Bondwoman's Narrative_ by Hannah Crafts, the only known novel by a female African American slave and possibly the first novel by an African-American woman. He is also the co-author, with Cornel West, of _The Future of the Race_.

This event is presented by Morgan Keegan. Tickets are $25 for the general public and $20 for IHS Members. Advance purchase is encouraged, as seating is limited. To purchase tickets, call (317) 232-1882 or (800) 447-1830. Information on this and other IHS programs is also available at www.indianahistory.org.

Moll Flanders: Missundazstood

Was Moll Flanders all that bad? She certainly was no angel, and she knew this. She was quite an intriguing woman. During her early adulthood, she used her fortunate upbringing to her advantage, manipulating those with whom she came into contact. This made her well-off financially, at the cost of true relationships. The lack of friendships did not seem to affect her too much. This was not so much shallowness but independence. Moll was the model of self-sufficiency. She was married more than several times, most of them legitimately, although rarely for love. It seems that she partnered up more for practical reasons, such as economic survival, than for companionship. This should not have taken me as aback as it did. In her era, people's life spans were shorter than they are now. I suppose it wasn't so unusual for a person to be married two or three or more times, which is one comparison that can be made to today's culture, but rather than divorce, people in the seventeenth century usually remarried after being widowed. Moll lived at least until her mid-fifties or sixties, so her having so many husbands should be no surprise. What also was somewhat shocking was the number of children she had, children she took no part in raising or even contacting during her lifetime. She couldn't have known whether her children lived or died after leaving her care. For this, I fault her, but, again, her self-created circumstances dictated her familial relations.

Of course, we will never know her real name. Moll Flanders was given to her by her peers later in life. The significance of the name, I'm not sure. It appears to have something to do with her profession at the time, pickpocket, although that label does not do her limited thievery justice. Pickpocket/shoplifter/embezzler may be more accurate. She liked to steal silk, which may be the origin of the name Flanders.

I am curious, though, of the notion of virtue in seventeenth-century Britain. Moll appears to have no religious leanings of significance, and such tenants do not guide her in any respect. Again, this does not bother her. Today, we know that atheists and agnostics, for the most part, live virtuous lives. Was that true then? Was she an unidentified atheist? Even if she was, she cannot be said to have lived a virtuous life. In fact, her existence is markedly unvirtuous without being evil. No, Moll Flanders lived an unvirtuous but fulfilling life, the type of life that perhaps more people live than I had previously considered.

3 Steps to A Clutter-Free Home

Many of us combat clutter in our homes. For me, it's a maddening exercise. But I'm starting to win the battle. There's nothing like walking into a clutter-free home after work. It lifts my spirits to return to the sanctuary of my home after a chaotic day at work.

Clutter is easy to accumulate, though, and once it starts, it snowballs. I've started trying to reduce it by employing a few simple tools:

1. Put a small wastepaper basket in every room in the house. Small wastepaper baskets are just a few dollars apiece, and they can be easily placed at the end of the couch or under the nightstand. I use them to toss package materials and other things in, and I use them as carriers for items I don't want to get rid of but just want to move to another room.

2. Buy a package of plastic trash bags for every room of the house. These can be stored in a drawer or under the sink, and they, too, can be used not only for trash, but for transporting things to other rooms.

3. Designate a table by the door to place your stuff on when you walk in. Don't make this your dining room or kitchen table -- make it another one. You want to have tables clear of mail, receipts, and change. Buy a special stuff table, and if it has drawers, even better.

These are just a few ideas for clutter-free living. The most important thing is to actually use the items that you buy lest they become clutter too.