clearing out the trunk

Colbert quotes from the episode which featured the author of the book, "Enemies of the People". I think it was a woman whose parents were ...investigated or smeared or something because they were accused of being (Soviet?) spies...but definitely weren't. It was an interesting but VERY eerie life story to get a glimpse of.

1) Don't remember the context but it's just beautiful:
"Listen, I don't think that proved anything but I enjoyed saying it."

2) While insisting that journalists and spies are not so different after all...
"What is a journalist but someone who spies on the truth and tells the secrets to everyone?"

3) On the legislation that some people (NRA members?) were lobbying for which allowed infants/children to have gun licences. Colbert said you shouldn't stop there but go one step further and they showed an ultrasound photo of a fetus with a Glock. The audience laughed in that, "this is so wrong yet so bizarre and I can't help myself," kind of way which The Report is actually really good at eliciting. Then while he waited he pretended he was being held up and put his hands in the air and contorted so he was directly in the path of where the gun was pointing. He had a half-smile on his face that was like, "is this really my job? am I really doing this right now?" After a brief rant, he concludes:
"You can have my embryo's gun when you pry it from his cold, unformed arm-buds."

4) Regarding the iPhone app with sounds to intimidate bears:
"You no longer need to [travel with] bulky bells, whistles or slow, delicious travel companions."

if I lived in PST I would skip church to watch the game tomorrow

another thing to add to the list of stuff I need to do before I die:

make something as "from scratch" as possible.
I'd like to be able to mill my own wheat, milk the cow, etc. etc. for one food item. just some day. some day before I die.

triet II

cartoon character I have recently become OK with admitting I have a crush on: Hank Hill from Arlen, Texas (c/o King of the Hill).

cartoon voice actor who I enjoy thoroughly, continually, and practically compoundingly: Hank Azaria as featured on The Simpsons.

cartoon I woke up early for twice this week and makes me ridiculously overwhelmed with joyful nostalgia: The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show.

Korman excerpt

"All I wanted was for him to leave so I could get out of this awful place. I wouldn't even let him drive me to the Donnellys'. I needed to walk there in the fresh air, just to get the smell of banking out of my nose" (119).

These are the kind of things that used to make me L out L when I was a kid reading Gordon Korman books. Every now and then I still do laugh out lout but usually it's just a chuckle to myself or a mental note ("that is funny") or an involuntary scrunching of the nose.

Korman, Gordon. Schooled. Scholastic Canada Ltd.: Toronto, 2007.

TCM 31 Days of Oscar

The Turner Classic Movie channel is having a campaign(?) called "The Thirty-One Days of Oscar" during which they show Oscar-nominated films for a month and a bit. Now, I don't know enough about it to say they're showing EVERY winning film since the Academy's founding but that is possible considering they just show film after film with no commercial breaks and no end to their broadcast day. Well I guess it would be all the full-length and non-foreign films. Anyways, I had the pleasure of watching both Saturday Night Fever (1976) and Kramer vs. Krameri (1979) last night.

The first one I had to do it because who hasn't seen that film. The second one I figured I'd give it a shot. I was intrigued by the cast and then by the plot as they explained it in the lil intro. I think it's cool that they have a host (like the Masterpiece Theatre dude, probably) who tells you historical facts and whatever other points of interest. Even between films sometimes, they run little mini-documentaries - basically like a special feature on a DVD - and that makes me understand how committed this network is to the appreciation of film.

Saturday Night Fever was disappointing. I was relieved to know it wasn't a cheesy feel-good film but I was disappointed that the plot felt so slow and almost uneventful -- though I do get it. One thing I appreciate about it is that it made me realize that I've never really competed for something with strangers and a prize or title. I've given many performances, I've been part of concerts, I play competitive games but nothing like a baseball tournament, art contest, dance-off, bowling tourney...all those things in the movies - and all those things in many people's real lives. I feel like I've missed out on some important formative thing in my life. Thankfully my life's not over yet. :)

5/10

Kramer vs. Kramer blew me away. (Slowly by slowly, I am starting to understand why people think of Meryl Streep as they do.) It looks like it was a kind of pace-setter for this kind of film though later ones have infused much more comedy and have a harder time showing the tragedy. I never thought I would say this but it was a smack in the face by the horrible reality of divorce. I'm starting to see what other Christians have been telling me or how they formed their standpoint on divorce. They seem to see it as a special taboo in a class AAALLL its own. Me I have a hard time with that because marriage is hard and complicated and no one but the couple knows what's going on in that relationship. Essentially I'm saying, who are we to judge?
But the other side - the non-judgmental almost objective side - I see how it's just SO bad and someone (if not everyone) always gets hurt irreparably that if you can avoid it, do WHATEVER YOU CAN to avoid it.
Just fascinating. And touching. I call it a remarkable film. I see how the little kid in it is the youngest actor to date nominated for an Oscar. (He was eight at the time.) I highly recommend it.

10/10

on the North American education system for boys:

"That should have been though for me. It always had been before. The word of Zach Powers. He was the guy who convinced me I wasn't as stupid as I thihnk I probably am. Before Zach, school was pure torture for me. Imagine spending 180 days a year in a place hat's designed to take everything you're not good at and make it important" (153).

Korman, Gordon. Schooled. Scholastic Canada Ltd.: Toronto, 2007.

The Time Traveller's Wife (2009)

Very interesting and well coupled with the only special feature the rental DVD offered. I like how the screenwriter, director and main actors were all so familiar with the book and held it in the respect they did. I also liked how the screenwriter made it clear why it wouldn't work to copy the book directly and how the film needed to be a separate thing. It's OK to emulate and imitate! Why did we ever forget that?? I say it's allowed. I wish I had more to say on the subject.

8/10

triet

people that will never be out of a job: psychologists
(EVERYBODY IS F*ED UP)

people that are amazing: Engineers
(pulleys are a beautiful thing)

instrument that has more divine input than any other: the cello
(there are countless examples of this but try Clara Schumann's "Piano Trio" Opus 17, the third movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umOXLxWGh94 , particularly at 3:07 for about 40 seconds)

email forward of cool.

USING ONLY ONE WORD...

Not as easy as you might think! Now forward, change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers. Be sure to send back to the person you received it from!

Where is your cell phone? close

Your hair? temperamental

Your mother? strange

Your father? stranger

Your favorite thing? cherished

Your dream last night? forgotten

Your favorite drink? water

Your dream/goal? fruitfulness

What room are you in? mine

Your hobby? energizing

Your fear? assimilation

Where do you want to be in 6 years? aligned

Where were you last night? Laura's

Something that you aren't? done

Muffins? carrot

Wish list item? iPod

Last thing you did? emailed

What are you wearing? pyjamas

TV? scapegoat

Your pets? hypocrisy

Friends? indispensable

Your life? His

Your mood? pff

Missing someone? bittersweet

Drinking? deliberate

Smoking? never

Your car? milestone

Something you're not wearing? necktie

Your favorite store? irrelevant

Your favorite color? none

When is the last time you cried? defeat

Who will resend this? sender

Where do you go to over and over? solitude

Five people who email me regularly? appreciated

My favorite place to eat? snug

Favorite place I'd like to be at right now? grace

Four people I think will respond? females

today a stranger told me I should write a book. (what's that all about?)

I don't know how else to say it: I LOVE LOVE LOVE my stitched pyjama bottoms.

I liked them when I bought them x number of years ago (at least 2.5) because of the price, the fit and the pattern. I still quite enjoy the fit (the cut?) but the pattern is winteresque so sometimes I feel weirdly about them at different times of the year but it doesn't bother me.

Two days in close succession I managed to hook my pocket onto the handle of my computer chair and in sitting down, produced a tear maybe an inch long. I left it for a while just so I could pay homage to the adage, a stitch, in time, saves nine. Whoever said that knew what they were talking about. I have a tendency to let torn garments sit for a long time, probably because sewing is a task that doesn't double up very well. I can't do it while watching TV because I need to look down too much. I can't do it while doing ANYTHING else with my hands (so that precludes typing, cooking, cleaning which are typically good doublers). It would be good paired with a telephone call because that only needs a tilted head and raised shoulder...but I can't always plan or predict long telephonius conversations.

Strangely, however, when I get into it, I don't mind it and the time passes as it passes. (I understand why people knit and crochet on the bus or in waiting rooms or even in lectures.) Fortunately stitching (darning?) clothes is different from other put-off-able tasks because if I didn't need the garment, I'd be tossing it, 'stead of fixing.

So after probably three days, I had made the hole about two-and-a-half to three inches long and so I decided enough was enough. (a) I'd be saving thread and time to do it sooner and (b) I might actually lose enough of the structure after a certain point that stitching wouldn't take.

Then, the very next day, I did the same thing with my left pocket but it started out at about five-and-a-half inches. This time I set to sewing right away.

A few weeks later, I somehow ended up with a tear in my left lower thigh. It was a weird place for a tear and even weirder that it had been wrought overnight. I didn't notice it until I felt a weird upon weird draft in the first few steps upon rising. I foolishly let it go for another day and the thing trebled in size. It got BIG'R. You must understand that I wear pyjamas for up to four or five hours before I actually sleep so regular movement like sitting, squatting, reclining, ascending stairs, etc still happens in the pjs. Certain bending was aggravating the tear. It got ridiculous.

I set to it and stitched 'er up. I think there was a problem a few days later (just with the way it tore, it wasn't easy to get a good seam so I had to redo some but now she's right as rain. I don't know how else to say it: I LOVE MY STITCHED PJS.

I think it's important that this has come at a time when I've been thinking and trying to learn a lot about saving, scrimping, necessity, excess and alternatives/substitutions. These bottoms seem to epitomize for me the beauty - and, more important, the possibility - of making do. Whenever they catch my eye, I run my finger along the stitches like it's a battle wound. I'm sure that sounds funny but it's what I do. It's meaningful to me and I'm happy about it. I thank God for how He can fuse meaning into whatever He pleases. (50)

The Hurt Locker (2009): actually really cool (said with a light, arching optimistic tone). I'm surprized I liked it and even MORE surprized that my enjoyment was torqued up in the closing 20 minutes. I find with films like this, my enjoyment tends to plummet in the closing minutes. I'm...really impressed. I'm impressed that I was able to sincerely LIKE a film like this. I rented it because it's been nominated for nine Academy Awards and I'm trying to get my research on, in advance of March the 7th.


Hmmm. One of the main characters, SFC William James, he really got under my skin which I appreciated. I appreciate when a film makes me talk back to it, without even realizing it.

Like many critically acclaimed war movies, this one gave me a slightly new perspective on war. It mercifully gave me a kind of insiders' perspective (if I trust Hollywood to be accurate -- which I think they are held to on pain of death when it comes to depicting the troops) and managed to be unmanipulative. I feel like I really GOT it, and I say that fully open to being told, "Nope, you didn't get it at all, and you never will."


I liked it and I don't know what else to say about it. About an hour in, I wondered what a respectable Canadian citizen is supposed to do to support the troops. I donno how it works.

I'd watch it again/buy it. Maybe I can say it had good "character development". That phrase has been misused... so I am trying not to be flippant but there was some depth and interplay there which I thought was fantastic.
Anyways...I'm saying nothing right now so let's end it.

8.7/10