ankai

I'm Reminding You of Who Your Enemy Is...the Enemy.

2008-08-08T02:15:35Z

Today is the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. To mark the occasion, the first military trial at Guantanamo Bay has sentenced Bin Laden's former driver to 66 months in prison.

Herosexual

2008-08-03T20:58:52Z

You can see his butt in the clip below. If you want to see it, you had better hurry before the youtube mods take it down.

Chris Nolan talks too much

2008-08-01T23:22:06Z

I was driving to work on the highway yesterday afternoon and one of the drivers behind me started to tailgate me…really badly. And I was already going between 80 and 90 miles-per-hour. As soon as we passed the car that had been next to me, the driver behind me changed to the right lane, sped past me, and snuck between me and the car that had been in front of him for those two seconds that he was in the right lane.

I may have gotten annoyed, but I was more amused to see the Connecticut license plate. Apparently, the dude thought that being in Massachusetts gave him the right to drive like a madman. And it did not do him much good as the cars in front of both of us were going slowly comparatively speaking…so I repeatedly ended up right behind him…not tailgating, of course.

At one point there was this pickup truck on the right lane next to him. There was a ladder at the back which tipped over and almost smashed the roof of Mr. Connecticar. Mr. Connecticar swerved off to the edge of the road and kept on speeding by as the pickup truck stopped at the side of the road. I instantly reevaluated my opinion on his driving, figuring that I would not have been able to avoid that ladder so well. Basically, Mr. Connecticar prevented me from getting seriously injured and prevented my car from getting more dented than it already is.

Eventually, Mr. Connecticut went so fast that I almost lost sight of him. It turned out not to be the case, as he ended up entering the town where I work and I ended up right behind him yet again. In fact, it was not until I turned onto the road where my workplace is located that I stopped driving directly behind him. He might have thought that I was following him.

Hot Diggity Dog

2008-07-27T19:17:09Z

Well, compared with some silly things that some of the library patrons have done, I suppose that my little cooking mishap yesterday makes up for it. I put the cooking oil in the pan and stepped away from the kitchen area for a little longer than I should have before putting the food on. Long story short, I almost burned down the entire apartment. I suppose that some quick thinking, namely throwing the food onto the fire, calmed it down...so that the only the pan and the food got burnt. The whole apartment reeked of smoke and it still kind of smells, though not as bad. I was unharmed, but my eyes were pretty not good and my nose was runny. I am okay now.

Additionally, my attempt to make ice tea by putting the teapot in the freeze led to a broken teapot...and a little cut at the base of one of my fingers that about six different bandages could not stick to.

Well, at least I did try to open the door of an airplane while in mid-flight.

Sweet Mother of Preston Tucker

2008-07-25T01:47:16Z

One of the library regulars called today, asking if we had the DVD for The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She was a bit disappointed when I told her that we did not have it. And no, we do not have it upstairs either. And given that the first season of the show has not finished airing, the chances of any library having it is pretty slim. And, no, we cannot order it for you. And, no, we do not have it. And is that show really appropriate for an eight-year-old anyways? Or for anyone? I heard that it sucks. If there is one television show on ABC Family that you should watch, it is The Middleman, which airs Mondays at 10:00 PM. That's right, The Middleman. Watch it. No, I am not going to give you a reason. Just watch it.

That is The Middleman. Mondays at 10:00 PM on ABC Family. Watch it.

Song for the Summer

2008-07-16T23:18:47Z

I know that I posted a link to this...like maybe a year ago, but here it is again. It is Since I Left You by the Avalanches, one of the funnest albums that I have. It was released in November of 2000, which is like the May of Australia. Basically, it is an album of the summer. The tracks on this album are combinations of hundreds of samples from works that you might recognise if you really really tried to listen for them. I would not advise doing that, since trying to do so might distract you from the dense, complex, and beautiful melodies that the combination of samples become.

If you want pop, this is probably as pop as it gets. Oh, sure, it may tend to push aside the verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure in favour of repetition of certain phrases, but it is easy to get used to. Besides, even when the repetition starts to strain, you can always start to listen to the sheer density of each track...that is, if you are not too busy dancing.

Since there is no way that I am going to let you simply sample it, I am giving you the whole thing at once. It may take longer, but it is better this way. This is most likely a slightly different version from the one available at the store, so it is still a good idea to buy the album...provided that you like it, of course.

Summer Television

2008-07-13T14:37:44Z

THIEF THIEF THIEF THIEF THIEF THIEF

2008-07-09T22:26:37Z

Colorado library borrower who tried to sell books sentenced to 10 years prison

A man accused of checking out hundreds of books and DVDs from libraries around the Denver area and then trying to sell them will be doing all his library borrowing from now on behind bars. Denver prosecutors say 34-year-old Thomas Pilaar was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $53,549 in restitution. He pleaded guilty in May.

Authorities have recovered about 500 of the estimated 1,400 books and DVDs Pilaar borrowed from area libraries. The Denver Public Library estimates it has lost $35,000, while Douglas County says it had $11,000 worth of overdue items.

Authorities were tipped off by a woman who recently bought books through an online listing site and noticed the library identification stamps.

I don't know if I would have given him ten years, but sheesh. $53,549?

My library has a limit of fifty items, and a five-DVD limit. That would be a maximum of maybe $1,500 stolen from us on one account. Unfortunately, it would be three weeks before we notice anything wrong (one week if a thief took out DVDs) and a few more weeks before we block that person's account. That leaves several weeks for the thief to steal from other libraries. And if the thief got a hold on someone else's card or account information, that could be another $1,500 stolen from us. I read elsewhere that he used false names; here, that would mean fake IDs. How many fake driver's licenses can one have before screwing up? Even if Denver libraries allowed people to take out 300 items (ridiculous), I am amazed that he had gotten away with over $50,000 and I am wondering how he would have been able to get away with much more than that before having to move on to somewhere else.

It is not necessarily the best plan to steal unless the person has a well-thought-out escape plan. While we pretty much get rid of any patron's borrowing information if the patron does not trouble us, if that patron starts to not rack up fines past $200, it eventually becomes a legal issue. And it is quite easy to reach $200 in fines if one is not careful. And we have that person's name and contact information. Still, it is interesting to note how many telephone numbers are no longer in service. Maybe some people would rather move house than pay $400 in lost books.

And why steal from the library? It is not as if we can easily get the money back. And already we have to deal with vandalism. All the gripes about paying taxes does not make up for us getting funding cuts. And we provide free programs and whatever. If people want to sell something that we gave to them for free, they can sell the snacks that they ungraciously and ungratefully horded during our special events; we don't want that stuff back.

ETA: I have read some online comments comparing his 10-year sentence with the supposedly shorter sentences that child-molesters get. I wonder if these people would be complaining if this guy had robbed a bank.

For the Children: Supergrass
Mansized Rooster
Mama & Papa
Sometimes I Make You Sad
Grace

Signed: Tommy's Mommy

2008-07-06T21:26:46Z

As I had said in a previous post, I have never really had any of my extended family live close to me, with the exception of my paternal grandmother. My father's sister lives eight hours away by car, and his cousin lives nine hours away by car. So it is pretty much a rarity when a relative comes to visit or when we go to visit a relative. There are people who have grown up with so many uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews, grandparents, and great-grandparents that it can drive them to exasperation. I am not one of them. The branches of the clans are clustered elsewhere.

On Wednesday, my cousin, who is currently studying in Montreal, e-mailed my mother to tell say that her younger sister had flew in from France to visit and they wanted to come down here for a few days before the sister went back to France. The older cousin came to visit for about a month back in 2002. As for the younger cousin, I had seen her when I went to visit France 13 years ago, but I do not believe that anyone in my immediate family had met her before. But, come on, they are family from far away. Of course, they are welcome, and my father called me immediately to ask if I could extend my Fourth of July holiday until Monday. My boss gave me the okay and all was set.

They were supposed to come early this afternoon, go touring around for a couple days and then leave on Wednesday. They were supposed to, but they did not. They learned, while trying to board the bus, that 16-year-olds need written consent from their parents in order to cross the US/Canada border. They did not have this, their mother was asleep in France, and there was no real access to a computer in the bus line.

On the one hand, it was their responsibility to learn about border-crossing rules before doing something like this. That they contacted my mother merely five days before they had planned on coming suggests to me that they did not think this all of the way through. We are a getting a bit paranoid in this country regarding security, and child-trafficking is a serious issue. On the other hand, my cousins are from France, where there have been suburban riots, subway bombings, and the ETA on the border. As I understand it, they do not even need a passport to travel across Europe. So, why would they suspect that we, a nation that has not had a major terrorist attack or riot in years, would require something like a permission slip from mommsy?

And what kind of insurance is that anyways? At best, it sounds like one of those bureaucratic tactics to cover one's posterior. At slightly less best, it sounds like a tactic to instill a false sense of security within the minds of the citizens of the United States and Canada. I do that too where I work, but I require written parental consent so that the parents cannot yell at me, not to ensure that a 23-year-old French girl is not part of an international child-smuggling ring. There is no way to authenticate a letter of consent at the bus station. If my cousins had learned about it anytime between the time when they ordered the tickets (why no one told them then is a different matter) and the time that they got in line for the bus, they might have been able to forge a note.

Regardless, they gave up and stayed in Canada. The younger cousin, who had apparently had no problems traveling by airplane from France to Canada, will be returning to France on Wednesday. The older cousin might be coming to visit at the end of the month, but on her own. As for me, my disappointment turned to irritation and anger. I cut my holiday at home short and drove back to my apartment. Am I going back to work tomorrow, instead of Tuesday? Absolutely; I am still upset about this whole thing and I do not want to take it out on the kids. I am taking my extra vacation day to unwind from all of this.

For the Children: The White Stripes
Little People
Sister, Do You Know My Name
Black Math
We're Gonna Be Friends

Meme

2008-07-01T00:03:55Z

Well, I got tagged, so I suppose that I have to do it...well, at least the first part; why make this like a chain letter?

A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
~~B. Tag seven people to do the same.~~
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag "whoever wants to do it."

Do these have to be things you all don't already know about me?

HABIT: Before I go to sleep at night in my apartment, I tend to check the locks to the front and back door using my mobile phone as a light.

HABIT: I have somewhat specific rules for brushing my teeth. It does not necessarily make them look less yellow, but it is pretty much how it is.

HABIT: I loved trains when I was a child and would count the carriages whenever I saw them. While time and my experiences with Massachusetts public transportation has soured my opinion on trains, I still have the compulsion to count carriages when I see a train and to look for a train whenever I hear one.

FACT: After years of not getting it, I learned to use chopsticks from the diagrams on a chopsticks wrapper at a Chinese restaurant when I was eight. Only with my right hand, though. Someday, I will learn to use them with my left hand as well.

QUIRK: Ever since I heard on television that sandwiches are an American staple, I put pretty much everything solid that I cook for myself between two pieces of bread as opposed to on rice.

FACT: In high school, I took a Peter Pan/Greyhound bus to New York City in order to catch up with a class field trip that I thought that I had just missed when it turns out that the class never went. In order to not get in trouble for essentially playing skipping out on a group project (that I knew would be a hilarious failure) for another class, I wrote a ten-page report on my trip to New York City. I got an A-.

QUIRK: Ever since my semester abroad in Australia, I have used some UK/Australian words and spelling, and have used phrases, such as "no worries" in conversation. I even said "no worries" instead of "you're welcome" to someone over the phone at work today. It was not until I hung up that I realised that it was probably not the most professional thing to say.

For the Children: The Brilliant Green
Baby London Star
愛の＿愛の星
Rainy Days Never Stays
Hello Another Way -それぞれの場所-

At least they did not burn down any police stations, right?

2008-06-29T19:27:18Z

Fla. vandals tag 60 cars with anti-Obama messages

ORLANDO, Fla.—Vandals have spray-painted 60 city vehicles in Orlando, Fla., some with messages against Sen. Barack Obama. The cars were parked across from city hall late Saturday night. Investigators say the culprits tagged notes such as "Obama smokes crack" and a racial epithet. They even left business cards on each vehicle.

Mike Lowe, a videographer working for The Associated Press, first told police about the damage. He saw three cars with anti-Obama messages, while the others were just heavily painted. The business cards disparage both Obama and Sen. John McCain but have messages of support for Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Police also found that many of the vehicles had open gas tanks. Orlando police are investigating.

Could we have found a solution to the high gas prices? Open gas tanks for everyone!

For the Children: Blur
Magic America
Sunday Sunday
You're So Great
Gene By Gene

ankai @ 2008-06-23T18:07:00

2008-06-23T22:13:31Z

The "J" stands for "Jenius"

2008-06-22T17:55:52Z

A little late to comment, but I quite like the album by Drip that catatonia00 had provided. I downloaded it a while ago, but I only just listened to it. Some of it is not my cup of tea, but most of it is good stuff. At the moment, "Identity Theft" is my favourite song of the bunch.

Anyways, I watched a few shows during the whatever. One is new, one is from elsewhere, and one is not here yet. No real spoilers here; just a few words.

Middleman
I watched the pilot. Good silly fun program about a girl who is recruited into a...well, there is a weird Dudley Do-Right guy and a robot woman. I like the detached and somewhat deadpan style to the absurdist story; it gives it sort of a dreamlike feel. The self-conscious aspect may grate after a while, or it may become charming. I am not sure whether it can sustain its appeal for me after a few episodes; I suppose that I shall find out on tomorrow.

Capadocia
The trials and tribulations of a privately run woman's prison in Mexico City. You can take a wild guess as to why I chose to watch this and you would probably be pretty close to right, but it was a good series anyways. I managed to acquire the thirteen episodes of the first season and watched them over the past couple of weeks. While I could understand maybe half of what the people were saying, the mini-recaps in the TWOP thread made it easier to follow. I wished that they kept some of the non-prison subplots to a minimum, and the finale was disappointing, but it was pretty good overall. Maybe I can use it to improve my Spanish. Or not.

Fringe
What can I say about this one? Well, not much, particularly since it is probably not the finished product. So, I will just post fifty choice lines and verbal exchanges, in alphabetical order, from the episode that I acquired.

"Believe me, I would know."
"Brains run in the family."
"But there’s still a whole lot more we have to talk about."
"Didn’t I mention…?"
"Don’t tell me what I’m suffering from."
"Hey…be careful."
"I don’t wanna know."
"I hope your guy is worth it."
"I just pissed myself." "Excellent." "Just a squirt."
"I just wanna go back to before."
"I knew someone would come…eventually."
"I know why you’re here."
"I need you to promise me you’ll do whatever you can." "Of course. You know that."
"I only have a few minutes."
"I picked that up reading books. You should try it sometime, it’s fun."
"I swear to God."
"I was just thinking about you."
"I will come after you."
"I would say this to my own daughter: Be careful…and good luck."
"I-I was desperate."
"I’m going to beg you as one human being to another."
"It was hardly my idea, any of it."
"Job isn’t what it was ten years ago."
"Let me save you the time."
"Look around. You see all these people going about their lives…no idea what’s happening around them; what they’re in the middle of?"
"Say no more. We’ll meet you out front."
"Should be any minute now."
"Simple really; like making taffy."
"So, do you wanna talk to me?"
"So, how is that even possible?"
"So much…so much happened here. And so much is about to…"
"So what do we do now?" "Now we wait."
"So, you’re telling me…what…?"
"Somewhat." "Well, somewhat doesn’t sound good."
"Thanks, sweetheart. I really appreciate it."
"There are so many things you lose in a place like that."
"This is—this is unbelievable. This is insane. He is insane and you’re insane for following him."
"Wake up. It’s gone."
"We can’t keep doing this…sneaking around."
"We need to get him back immediately."
"Whatever punishment you think I deserve, I swear I have already endured it."
"Yeah, honey. Would you mind?"
"Yeah, sure; no problem. That sounds like fun."
"Yeah, well I could see that you were in trouble; anyone could see that."
"You and I got off on the wrong foot."
"You know what’s great about that is that it’s completely insane."
"You must not have heard me; I said stop."
"You should know what you’re getting into."
"You’re threatening me?"
"You’ve done some solid work here."

I also have that Carrier reality show from a few months ago to watch.

For the Children: Polysics
A.D.S.R.M!
New Wave Jacket (Reform)
Black Out Fall Out
Each Life Each End

Mash Pit

2008-06-18T13:09:20Z

So, my fears over having a lot of work to do over the summer has not stopped me from making mashups. In fact, it probably is what caused me to do so. So I turned these four out during the past week. I have not gotten any better at making them, I just got quicker.

Fyrsta Ain't So On "Go On Girl" by Ne-Yo, "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer, and "Fyrsta" by Sigur Ros.
The guitars in "Go On Girl", like in "With You", sounded to me really watered down. So I decided to water it down further by juxtaposing it with two of the more White and Harmless bands that I have in my collection. I was originally just going to use a Sigur Ros song, but it seemed to empty. After using the Weezer sample, I considered just dumping the Sigur Ros part, but figured that the song would be too repetitive without it. I switched the starting beat with "Say It Ain't So" because I thought that the chords matched up better. It may be difficult to hear, though.

Graf Thing "One Thing" by Amerie and "Gantz Graf" by Autechre.
I guess that the minimal bursts of the guitar chords from the Amerie song reminded me of the bursts of synth chords in the Autechre piece, and everything came together from there. They even share the same pitch at the end, though I had to speed up Amerie's vocals so that it may sound like she is racing to keep up with the beat that is sometimes hard to pin down. I suppose that, where some people may look for the many differences between the two songs, I noticed a few similarities and pounced.

Don't Stop 2 Months "Don't Stop the Music" by Rihanna and "Two Months Off".
So the first thumpity thump remix that I did with a Rihanna song may have been a stretch, but when I first heard "Don't Stop the Music", it reminded me of "Two Months Off". That is all there is to it.

Make It Be Love "Make Love in This Club" by Usher and "Let It Be" by The Beatles.
I would not be surprised if someone else did something like this already. The first time that I heard "Make Love in This Club" while driving home from work, I could not help but start singing "Let It Be", and I am not even that fond of that Beatles song. Perhaps my lack of attachment to the song may have made it easier to use it in such a manner than other songs by The Beatles. In any case, this is probably one of the less musically interesting than the others, but I suppose that that is how it is with anthems. This was actually harder to do than I had believed it would be, primarily because "Let It Be" does not keep the same tempo throughout, so I had to tweak the samples a lot, and the beat may still sound off unless one makes an effort to not listen for it.

People's Justice

2008-06-11T23:19:09Z

Sudoku-playing jurors halt trial

A drugs trial has been abandoned in Australia after several jurors admitted they had spent much of their time playing Sudoku in the courtroom. Judge Peter Zahra aborted proceedings after the jury forewoman admitted she and four others had been playing the popular puzzles to fight off boredom. The problem was discovered when some of the jurors were observed writing notes vertically rather than horizontally.

Sudoku involves completing a grid of numbers in the correct sequence.

The three-month trial had cost taxpayers more than A$1m (US$945,000) and the two accused men faced possible life sentences.

One of the jurors explained that the puzzle had helped keep her "mind busy" as she listened to repeated testimonies from the witness box. "Some of the evidence is rather drawn out, and I find it difficult to maintain my attention the whole time," the juror told the Australian Associated Press.

Lawyers had presumed the scribbling they could see jurors doing was note-taking. "We actually all thought they were quite a diligent jury," lawyer Robyn Hakelis told ABC local radio. "The judge had made many comments about what a good jury they were, how they were taking copious amounts of notes."

There is no legal action that can be taken against jurors for doing puzzles during a trial, so they will face no penalty for their behaviour. A fresh trial is expected to begin in a few weeks, once a new jury has been called.

For the Children: Boredoms
Milky Way
Bubblepop Shot
Super Are You
Circle

It's Over: Nobody Listens to Techno

2008-06-07T14:42:20Z

Well, these pieces may not technically be techno anyways, but they go under the banner of electronic music. Some of them are pretty good for dancing; others just to listen to in contemplation. Some are fast, some are slow, some are noisy, some are melodic. None of them employ the autopilot poundy thump thump drums, at least not for a sustained amount of time. If you want the constant thump drum, I hear that the new Coldplay song is pretty good. Otherwise, here are sixty-six minutes of electronic music.

1) Grandma: He Near Krxern. The percussion is mostly frenetic pops and what may be fax machine noises to offset the more relaxed mood of the guitar, bass, and keyboard. 4:51

2) µ-ziq: Hasty Boom Alert. It has a melody, sort of, coming out of what seems to me like a 1980s version of a synth organ. The drums move back and forth between mid-tempo and fast. 5:17

3) Coloma: Coat of Senses. Sparse, relaxed, and with actual lyrics. The beat proper does not come in until about a quarter of the way through, and then changes halfway through so that it briefly seems as if the song is speeding up. 6:09

4) Midwest Product: Still in Love in the Midwest. This one sounds like it almost has actual drums in it to go with the guitars. Maybe it is more like those pop-rock songs that employ electronic elements. 5:18

5) The Books: Be Good to Them Always. An acoustic guitar, samples of cellos (or some sort of stringed instrument) and quotes from old recordings over what seems to be someone tapping on a desk while bouncing a basketball. The quotes kind of constitute lyrics. 4:51

6) Venetian Snares: Második Galamb. Part of an attempt to incorporate elements of Hungarian classical music in an electronic album, though it sort of discards it towards the end. Fast and hard. Just try to dance to it. 6:01

7) Aphex Twin: Mt. Saint Michel Mix+St. Michaels Mount. Another fast one, but more danceable. The style of beat changes a lot. It starts kind of hard, but mellows out a little when melody comes in a quarter of the way through. 8:10

8) Autechre: Iera. It starts out just a relaxed piece with a low-key dance beat beat. As more musical elements creep their way into the piece, the rhythm starts to fall apart and begins to sound like popcorn until a new beat comes in during the last minute. 4:55

9) Dntel: Danny Loves Experimental Electronics. Kind of bridging the gap between Hip-Hop and Jungle (or something), the beat drums move back and forth between mid-tempo and fast. Unlike in Hasty Boom Alert, the melody is fleeting and pushed to the background. 3:59

10) Soft Pink Truth: In School. A short piece that is basically a bunch of samples from songs of other pieced together to make some sort of theme. 1:07

11) Moderat: Mode2. More fast fax machine percussion with a bit of bass. Lots of tiny vocal and musical samples fill out the piece. 5:13

12) Rechenzentrum: Radian. Slow and quiet. There is some low-key jazz-like percussion and bass. Basically, it sounds like an old leaky building. 3:54

13) Limp: Night Clouds. Sort of a quiet and dreamlike ambient number with more fax machine drums. I feel that, unlike with He Near Krxern, the percussion fits in with the rest of the music. Halfway through, actual drums kick in. 6:15

Cats and Ketchup

2008-06-04T15:02:07Z

I was driving home from work yesterday evening, thinking about how the summer project is stressing me out, and I said to myself: "Oil prices be damned, I am going for a leisurely drive through the nearby town before going home". So I did. I did not know the town very well, but it was nice. At one point, I saw a cute gray and white kitty on the side of the road. Now I do not remember whether I had slowed down to get a better look or was going below the speed limit. All I remember was that the cat decided to run underneath my car while I was still driving. I slammed on my brakes and freaked. I JUST KILLED A CAT!!! Actually, the cat ran out the other side of the car and up the little hill, so I will assume that it was fine. Still, that shook me up and I decided to find my way back home.

I got home and noticed that the paper bag of paper stuffs was still in my recycling bin, even though the recycling was supposed to get picked up yesterday morning (bags for paper are supposed to be strapped on top of the bin here for some reason). Well, turns out that the recycling people rejected it because sometime between the night before and the time when they came, someone put several items in the bin.

A) Napkins.
B) Pieces of a styrofoam cup.
C) A coffee filter with those coffee crystal bits.
D) A capless ketchup bottle.
E) Ketchup.

Somehow, the ketchup got on several of the paper items (including the bag), the bin, and several of the plastic items in the bin. I spent a good amount of time cleaning out everything and throwing several paper items in the trash. Fortunately, my trash bag got picked up. I don't know whether the person sliced a hole in it or anything.

Was this pro-active payback (Payfront? Paying forward?) for almost killing a cat? Car-related karma? In any case, I learned a few lessons from yesterday's incident.

1) Do not put your recycling bin out until the morning.
2) Wasting petrol will end up wasting other things. No more pointless driving.
3) Recycling is for chumps.

Why all of the secrecy?

2008-06-02T23:30:55Z

So, 4 1/2 months late and I finally saw Cloverfield. I had never intended to ever watch it, but my father had offered me a copy (ahem) of a DVD and I figured, what the hey.

The film was fine, I guess. I really appreciated the special effects and stuff. It was like Forrest Gump in that I usually had trouble telling what was real and what was fake. Even after watching the featurettes, I found it difficult. The handicam work did not bother me much. It did not seem any worse than Irreversible, anyways. However, since I saw neither film in the cinema, I may have lost out on the more sickening visual factors. On the other hand, if it was meant to be a video tape, then it was meant to be seen on television. So...there.

The story was meh. I tried to not step back and think of it as a movie, otherwise those tape overlay things would get really annoying. The acting was fine for what it was. I did not really care much for the characters. They were likeable, but I did not really need a 74-minute movie to have a 17-minute introduction that, really is a bare-bones hackneyed story, that, I guess frames the rest of the movie or some nonsense. And the 10 minutes of closing credits? Fuggedaboudit.

Some of the stuff on the featurettes was interesting. I learned a bit about the monster that only kind of came across in the film, though they did not explain why there seemed to be a size discrepency.

I am not sure I bought Abrams' inspiration for a monster movie. He went to Japan, saw Godzilla everywhere, and thought of making an American version of Godzilla? I have not seen Godzilla in a while, but I had thought that, at least the original, was supposed to be a symbol for nuclear power, American might, Japanese aggression, Japan as victim, and those two atomic bombs that blew up a couple of Japanese cities nine years before the movie came out. Or something like that. That is pretty unique to Japan, and something that I imagine I could never fully understand or appreciate.

So, what is the American equivalent of Godzilla? A big scared baby? Is that supposed to mean anything? Is it us? The still young country weilding a lot of power that is scared for its freedom, lonely and apprehensive, prone to violence and lashing out, defensive, unappreciative of the fears and dreams and feelings of the little people whose lives and livelihood it destroys? Eh...I dunno. The people on the featurette did not go that far; they just called it scared, so whatever. From the way the people talked, I doubt that there was meant to be much depth to the story anyways. Godzilla may have been scared too.

I am not sure if there are that many real parallels to 9/11, though I suppose that there were elements that were meant to evoke the feelings of 9/11. The monster, however, was pretty much aimlessly destroying whatever parts of the city was in its path for hours, which was quite different from what the 9/11 attackers did. The aim, the method of attack, and the timeframe were totally different. Cloverfield did not really provide any notion of what the fallout was, except for one hint at the very beginning that New York City would no longer exist as New York City. Perhaps that is what it may have felt that day, but New York City is still here and as feisty as ever. I guess that I might feel different if I were a native of New York City, but I have trouble making that emotional connection.

I heard that there has been thoughts of a sequel. Personally, I would not do a retread of what was going on. How about a story of what happens afterwards? Someone could smuggle a small video camera into...someplace. Like making an actual documentary.

On a related note, eleven years late and I finally saw Donnie Brasco. Funny, cool, and ultimately kind of depressing. There were most likely a bunch of creative liberties on the part of the movie makers, but it was good anyways.

Get a job, Hippie

2008-05-09T16:44:09Z

Don't worry; this is not another plug for The Wire. This is, instead, a comment about work, lack of work, and figures of speech. Of course, I am guessing that most of you have already passed on reading this regardless of what I am about to say, especially since it is so long. It would, thus, be pointless of me to ask for you to express your opinion on this matter--whether I am being too sensitive or overly-PC on this matter--even if you have never seen the show or have any idea about the people whom I will be talking about. But I just did, so here goes.

A few days ago, I read this comment from sportswriter Bill Simmons:
To Kima's lesbian ex-girlfriend on "The Wire" who now plays a housewife in those commercials for the new Viera televisions. Am I the only one who feels like nobody from "The Wire" should ever be allowed to work again? I feel like all of the "Wire" characters were real people -- I can't handle seeing Kima's ex or Murray the lawyer or Clay Davis in 30-second ads. I just can't.

If you wonder whether I am taking that quote out of context, you can read it again here near the bottom of the page.

I am not a big sports fan, so I know of Bill Simmons only through the Wire forums on TWOP and from a couple of local radio DJs who have a fairly negative opinion of him (to be fair, I do not always agree with their opinions on a lot of things). I hear that he has been a big fan of The Wire and may have been responsible for expanding the show's viewership. Regardless, that comment of his really ticked me off.

I made a couple of short posts on the TWOP boards that may have hinted that I thought that he was racist and living in a fantasy world. Perhaps, as other TWOP had stated, I was being too harsh on the man. His comments came from a place of "enthusiastic affection" towards the characters and the show, not some actual wish for a bump in unemployment. It would be like saying to a child, "You're so sweet, I could just eat you up!" Aside from the fact that I have a hard time imagining small children not being somewhat freaked out at the prospect of an adult eating them, there are two reasons why I have trouble accepting that line of thought.

The first reason is because one of the main themes of the show is the need for work. The show displayed a world where people had to make due with being rejected and ignored by mainstream society for decades. Unemployment, the threat of unemployment, and the lack of work during employment, were things that caused many of the characters to turn to lives of crime, drugs, and violence. They had to create their own economy and their own capitalist enterprises, often to the detriment of their neighbours. They had no choice, or they were never allowed to realise that they had a choice. There were a few signs of hope when a couple of characters were able to break out of the downtrodden life and make their way into society, but it was a nearly impossible task and the majority of those characters had to go through very dark times before reaching their paths towards a more mainstream-style redemption. There were hundreds of others whose moral victories would have to remain within the confines of crime. That was all that they had. Even if they tried to enter society, they would never "be allowed to work" in it.

The second big reason is because, for all the talk about its realism, The Wire is a fictional television show. None of the characters on the show are real. Many of them are based on real people; a few of them are even played by their real-life counterparts. None of the characters are real. The people who play those characters are real. Acting on The Wire was a job for them. Most of them showed lots of talent while on the show and I hope for the best for them in all of their future endeavors. What I do not wish is for any of them--even the few actors who did not perform so well--to be not allowed to work again. Sure, I would rather Idris Elba not take part in so many lame movies or have Anwan and Felicia have cameos in that stupid Rick Ross video. But, if that is what they need to do, then that is what they need to do. And if that is what they want to do, then that is what they want to do. Who am I to despair? They are given work while many in this country are unemployed. Is my ability to maintain the integrity of the characters on a television show really worth depriving hundreds of talented people of jobs? Is this what nostalgia does to people?

Many have hailed The Wire for having so many African Americans (and one Black Briton) in its cast. Others have criticised the show for perpetuating the stereotypes of African Americans as violent drug dealers. Well, how many opportunities are there in the television industry for Black actors? How many legal opportunities are there in general? Many of the Black actors on the show were professionals. For some, the show was their big break; for others it was a really good thing to have on their long resumes. For quite a few of the actors, though, it was their first and maybe only opportunity to act. A few of them are in other fields: directing, writing, politics, law enforcement, journalism, music, education, social work, religious work, etc. Others were convicts, former criminals, or simply people off of the street. I would not be surprised if the show provided the only type of legal employment that a few of them had ever had. The Wire was a chance for them to show to the general public how they lived and what they saw every day. The poverty, the despair, the joy, the dreams, the fear, the distrust, the circle of life. The show may have given these people an opportunity outside of the world that they had previously been allowed to know. Some were able to take that opportunity and took it. Others may have gone back to the life that they had lived before, either because they were unable to take the opportunity, because they to stay how they were, or because others had persuaded them to stay. I cannot pretend that I understand how they each think, just because I watched a television show. The show was a show, but their lives are their lives. These are real people. Bill Simmons did not say that he wished that these people never had the need to work again; he said that he wished that they would never be allowed to work again.

How is that a sign of affection?

What?

2008-04-20T19:30:11Z

So, I somehow caught a few seconds of the Doctor Who show the other evening. I had never really watched it much, so maybe I missed several of the more subtle elements of it. Personally, it seemed to me to be a combination of a children's sitcom, a high school play, and a Christmas adventure movie with special effects worthy of a Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie.

For the Children (sort of): Mr. Bungle
Golemn II - The Bionic Vapour Boy
Desert Search for Techno Allah
Carousel
Stubb (a dub)

Farsighted Television

2008-04-02T22:39:48Z

As a bunch of shows have had their season finales, I started watching the show Jon & Kate + 8 on TLC. For those of you who do not know what it is about, it is about a family with twins and sextuplets. Apparently, they go on a bunch of trips and mother Kate gets exhausted a lot. I am not sure why I watch it, but I find the kids to be adorable and I have this interest in multiples that I do not quite understand myself...and it might be for the best that I not to try to understand it. And if they start crying, I can turn down the volume.

Anyways, I watch it and enjoy it and do not put much thought into what I am watching. Apparently, though, other people do. Apparently, mother Kate is a hypocritical, narcissistic, abusive, racist bitch with a martyr complex. Father Jon is a pathetic, lazy, lying, immature, homophobic stoner. 7-year-old Mady is a attention-starved drama queen, 3-year-old Hannah is spoiled, and 3-year-old Joel is gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay. The kids have it worse off than kids who get locked in the basement, since those kids do not get exposed to the general public.

After reading stuff about the show, I think that I have realised something. While some people get so into shows that they may delude themselves into thinking that the characters are real, I have trouble seeing the parents and kids on that show as being real people. Regardless of how the people act when the cameras are on them or how the producers like to spin things, the people on screen are still actual people. Since I do not watch much "reality television", my ability and willingness to think about the people as people with lives off-screen is highly limited.

I guess that I am just not that passionate about television shows with two possible exceptions. I loathed Lost as it was wrapping up its first season, and it was the only show that I voluntarily continued to watch after I realised that I had found no enjoyment out of watching it other than criticising and snarking upon it. I do not do that with other shows, as there are plenty of opportunities for that in living life and in reading the news. I caught a few moments of the fourth season here and there, though, and felt nothing for it, so the passion was gone. In terms of more positive emotions, The Wire comes closest to a show that really has taken me. It is certainly the only one that I have purposefully mentioned on a near-regular basis to my family and pressed upon my father to watch (he has watched a few episodes of the third season, even though I had given him only the first two seasons). Other than that, nothing. I have really enjoyed certain recent shows like Battlestar Galactica, Breaking Bad, The Chaser's War on Everything, The Colbert Report, and Veronica Mars, but the passion that other people may feel for those shows simply is not there for me.

There are shows that I have watched without feeling any particular attachment to, shows that I have enjoyed without really understanding why they appealed to me, and shows that I really really like, but there has not been one that I felt so in love with since I was eight-years-old, and I do not even remember what particular shows those were. I am sad when shows end, particularly before their time, but I do not mourn for Veronica Mars, Jericho, or even The Wire. I have looked at on piece of fanfic in my life and I ship no one with no one. I have made a couple of fanmade videos, but did not particularly put much effort into them. I have made bunches of "motivator" pictures for The Wire and The Chaser's War on Everything, but those do not take much effort. I certainly do not start drooling and thinking "guh" whenever I remember seeing a particular character with wet hair leaning against a car while holding a gun and wearing a flak jacket over a tight tank-top.

I suppose that perhaps I just watch too much television to not be passionate about it.

For the Children: Super Furry Animals
Bad Behaviour
Northern Lites
Hello Sunshine
Lazer Beam

Harold and Kumar 2: Escape from Guantanamo Bay

2008-03-21T01:44:35Z

Uighur inmate in Guantanamo plea

A rare letter has been published from a Guantanamo Bay detainee, belonging to the Uighur ethnic group in China, outlining harsh conditions. Abdulghappar Turkistani, 35, is one of a group of 17 Chinese Muslims who have been held at the US camp for six years.

Lawyers for the group say they have been approved for release by the US authorities but cannot return to China for fear of persecution. Efforts to find a country to take the group have so far come to nothing.

The Uighurs, who are ethnic Turkic Muslims, come from Xinjiang province, where China meets Central Asia. Uighur activists are seeking autonomy from China and there are sporadic outbreaks of violence in the province. Beijing accuses the activists of links to international terrorism networks.

Mr Turkistani wrote the letter on behalf of his fellow Uighurs in December. US authorities recently cleared it for release. In it he described the small, window-less cells where inmates were kept at the detention centre's Camp Six. "Being away from family, away from our homeland... being forbidden from the natural sunlight, natural air, being surrounded with a metal box all around, is not suitable for a human being," he said. He had developed rheumatism and another Uighur was being force-fed twice a day after joining a hunger strike, he said.

Mr Turkistani said that the group - who were told that they would be freed by US military authorities in 2004 and 2005 - did not know why they were still being held. "We fail to know why we are still in jail here," he said. "We are still in hope that the US government will free us soon and send us to a safe place."

His lawyer, Seema Saifee, said that the group were seeking resettlement in the US or Europe. n the meantime, she said, they were being held in solitary confinement for 22 hours per day, with "hardly any means of communicating with each other".

A spokesman for the detention centre defended conditions at Camp Six, calling it a "a state-of-the-market detention facility".

Five Uighurs were freed from Guantanamo Bay in mid-2006 and sent to Albania. About 275 inmates remain at the detention camp in Cuba.

For the Children: Cat Power
Free
I Found a Reason
In This Hole
He Turns Down

Life Begins at 40

2008-03-16T14:07:29Z

My Lai Marks Massacre's 40th Anniversary

MY LAI, Vietnam (AP) -- Lawrence Colburn returned to My Lai on Saturday and found hope at the site of one of the most notorious chapters of the Vietnam War. On the 40th anniversary of the massacre of up to 500 unarmed Vietnamese villagers, the former helicopter gunner was reunited with a young man he rescued from rampaging U.S. soldiers.

On March 16, 1968, Colburn found 8-year-old Do Ba clinging to his mother's corpse in a ditch full of blood and the bodies of more than 100 people who had been mowed down. Nearly all the victims were unarmed women, children and elderly.

"Today I see Do Ba with a wife and a baby," said Colburn, a member of a three-man Army helicopter crew that landed in the midst of the massacre and intervened to stop the killing. "He's transformed himself from being a broken, lonely man. Now he's complete. He's a perfect example of the human spirit, of the will to survive."

Colburn, 58, now runs a medical supplies business north of Atlanta. He, Ba and hundreds of others are gathering this weekend to remember the My Lai massacre, a grim milestone that shocked Americans and undermined support for the war, which ended in 1975 with the fall of Saigon to communist troops.

Buddhist monks in saffron robes led the mourners in prayer Saturday outside a museum that has been erected to remember the dead. An official memorial program will be held on Sunday.

Among those coming to pray was Ha Thi Quy, 83, a My Lai survivor who suffers from anger and depression four decades after the slaughter. Soldiers from the Army's Charlie Company shot her in the leg and killed her mother, her 16-year-old daughter and her 6-year-old son. Her husband later died of injuries from the massacre and another son had to have an arm and a leg amputated after suffering gunshot wounds that day. Quy only survived because she was shielded beneath a pile of dead bodies.

"The American government should stop waging wars like they waged in Vietnam," Quy said. "My children were innocent, but those American soldiers killed them."

Seymour Hersh, the journalist who exposed the massacre, said he sees parallels between My Lai and a more recent story that he has he reported on, the 2005 images of torture from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But he says the public furor unleashed by My Lai was far greater. "It's stunning how much impact My Lai had and how little impact Abu Ghraib had," Hersh said by telephone from Washington. "We'll have to leave it to historians to figure out why."

On that morning 40 years ago, Colburn flew over My Lai on a reconnaissance mission with pilot Hugh Thompson and crew chief Glenn Andreotta. After several runs over the area, they realized that unarmed civilians were being slaughtered by U.S. troops on the ground. The members of Charlie Company were a "search and destroy" mission, trying to track down elusive Vietcong guerrillas, whose tactics had depleted the company's ranks.

The company's soldiers began shooting in My Lai that day even though they hadn't come under attack. It quickly escalated into an orgy of killing. Thompson landed the helicopter between the villagers and the marauding troops. While Colburn and Andreotta covered him, Thompson persuaded the members of Charlie Company to stop shooting. The angry and frustrated troops had found themselves in a bewildering war where it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe, said Stanley Karnow, an American historian who wrote "Vietnam: A History."

Their actions shocked the American public, who had preferred to think of U.S. troops as heroes making the world safe for democracy, Karnow said.

Colburn and Andreotta, who died later in the war, found Do Ba after the shooting stopped. "He was still clinging to his mother," Colburn said.

Ba's aunt raised him in My Lai. When he turned 18, he moved to the former Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, where he is married with a 14-month-old daughter and works at an electronics factory.

He and Colburn were first reunited at the 2001 dedication of a new school in the village. At that time, Ba was single, haunted by memories of My Lai and eager to start a family. So much has changed since the day they first met, Ba said. The United States and Vietnam, former enemies, have become allies and developed a booming trade relationship. "I'm glad the United States and Vietnam have become friends," Ba said. "But I still feel hatred for the soldiers who killed my mother, my brother and my sister."

For the Children: Low
Shame
Tonight
Condescend
In Metal

"I though that this was a library"

2008-03-14T02:00:40Z

While there is a sadistic joy to be had in making those damn kids shut the hell up, there comes a time where one has to accept that there will be speaking to be spoken in the children’s room of a public library. Not even my boss or coworkers whisper in my library when talking, so one could hardly expect such behaviour of the 10-year-old kids who frequent this place. If one wants quiet when one’s kids are doing homework in the children’s room, then I will enforce the quiet, and not without some of the sadistic joy that I had mentioned before.

If one disapproves of kids whispering quietly in the children’s room, then one will encounter problems…or one already has problems. The kids are not going to be totally silent and it is completely unfair to expect them to be. One will just have to deal with the fact that this is the 21st century and that not all of the stereotypes about a library apply anymore. Here, quiet is not a given in the children's room and silence is not going to happen. I will get the kids as quiet as I can get them and order them to leave the library if they misbehave. Until we figure out how to manufacture children who can be completely silent when ordered to be, then one might have to accept the fact that one's precious child will be exposed to a little chatter.

For the Children: Sigur Rós
Von
Ba Ba
Andvari
Ágætis Byrjun

Let's Go Home

2008-03-10T02:49:19Z

So that is it.

After sixty episodes spanning almost seven years, the show is over. It was a love letter to a city, written by someone who has been there during the darkest of times. I suppose that what was said could be said of many other cities across the United States and other countries, but few other shows have done anything like it.

Barring a few little bits that seemed a little contrived and hamfisted to me, the last episode was a fitting end to the show. It was a little more relaxed than I would have expected, but that is fine. Maybe a couple of episodes could have made it better, I don’t know. Most storylines were wrapped up, while others seemed to transition into the unknown. And life goes on. I will not say much else beyond that.

I had heard about the show for a few years, but did not give much notice. I finally started watching sometime in January of 2007. It was kind of a dare on my part, I suppose. A few people were vehemently promoting the show. I heard that it was slow and complicated and dark in both tone and skin tone, but rewarding in ways that put other shows to shame. I figured: oh yeah? I watched the first couple of episodes and was very disappointed…but I had bought the DVD set, so I might as well watch the rest of it. Gradually, I became less disappointed. About eight episodes in, I was hooked, both intellectually and emotionally. A few months later, I became one of those people promoting the show to anyone.

Fourteen months later, it is over. A few of the actors have found roles on more popular shows or films, while others may not be able to find notable for years if ever again. Whatever happens with them, it will not be quite the same as what they had with this show.

I guess that the only thing to do is to watch the whole thing again from the beginning.

For the Children: eels
Friendly Ghost
I Like Birds
Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living)
Manchild