July 2007 Archives

Yesterday we were having fun with the whole Simpsonize Me website. Some of the characters looked pretty typical and others looked a lot like my kids.

For example, Berylla Moss:

I was tagged by Alicia.

1. How long have you had a cell phone? (If you don't have one, why not? What would prompt you to get one?)
I had a cell phone for a while in 1997 and dropped the subscription. I got a new one in 2002 and have had one since then.

2. How much do you use it?
Maybe once every couple of days.

3. Do you get jittery without it?
No. But I probably should, or at least feel its absence, in case the school nurse is trying to reach me or something like that.

Computers

1. How many computers in your house? One.

2. How much time do you spend on the computer in a day?
Varies. If it's a work day, between work and home I'm probably on the computer seven or eight hours.

3. How does the time break down?
Home computer use: One part personal email, one part home business, two parts blogs/ blogging/ surfing.

4. If your computer malfunctions, do you-
1. Log in as root and fix the problem in a few swift keystrokes?
Who's root?

2. Get some online help and fix it yourself with slightly slower keystrokes?
Once in a while, mostly if my connection is acting up.

3. Enlist outside help? from whom? How does he or she respond when you ask for assistance?
Nope.

4. Opt for the wishful thinking computer repair strategy, also known as the reboot-with-fingers-crossed strategy?
I do this before I turn to option 2.

Meta

1. What techno-gadget would you most like to own?
A DSLR.

2. Of those you own (including PDA, iPod, etc.), which would you miss most acutely if you dropped it in the lake accidentally while canoeing?
My digital camera (I have a point-and-shoot right now.)

3. What's something you'll never buy?

Gigantic television.

Vacuuming? Check.

Swimming lessons? Check.

Dinner? Check.

Receive and read the book?

CHECK.

Started reading at 3:50 PM; finished around 10:30. (I did take breaks to for dinner, bedtime stories, etc.)

Much to think about; much to discuss. But I just have to say...

1. Vacuum the family room.

2. Take Hambet to swimming lessons.

3. Make dinner (bratwurst on the grill.)

4. Wait for the THUMP on the doorstep that means the UPS man's brought my book:
.

Drop everything and start reading, remembering to take it slowly.

5. Kick myself for not having plugged this book when I read it in May:

I wish I'd had this book in college just as a general reference. The chapters on alchemy were fascinating, and the chapters on post-modernism were enormously helpful (and jargon-free.) I'm going to try to get my husband to read it, even though he will probably never open a Potter book, for its explanation of how symbols really work (as opposed to the this-equals-this "code" approach.

I understand that Granger will update the book post-Deathly Hallows. It will be well worth reading, both as a guide to Potter and a friendly guide to reading in general.

I'll leave the robots to Pansy and just blog all-Ratatouille all the time. I'd love to write a long, leisurely review but Happy Catholic Julie wrote a good one, so I'll just link to it and say, "what she said":

When "Fin" came up on the screen, I suppressed an impulse to applaud. No need. The audience around me, without my reservations, burst into applause anyway.

There was applause when I saw it, too.

Two themes I want to tie together at some point. Julie quotes Juila Child:

Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.

I want to pull out Pieper's Leisure: The Basis of Culture

and consider that idea in the light of Pieper's comments on sacrifice.

OK to invade and remove Mugabe, Ncube tells Brits

Saying that he is prepared to lead the overthrow of President Robert Mugabe but that the people are not ready, Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube has told reporters that Britain would be justified in invading Zimbabwe.

The Courier-Mail reports that Archbishop Ncube told London's Sunday Times the deepening destitution in his country, including millions going hungry and the world's highest inflation rate, meant Britain would be right to act.

"I think it is justified for Britain to raid Zimbabwe and remove Mugabe," he said.

"We should do it ourselves but there's too much fear. I'm ready to lead the people, guns blazing, but the people are not ready."

Archbishop Ncube said the president was squandering money while the people starved and had just spent $US2 million ($A2.37 million) on surveillance equipment while most people struggled along on $US2 ($A2.37) a week.

"How can you expect people to rise up when even our church services are attended by state intelligence people?" the archbishop said.

My teenage daughter desperately wants this skirt. I told her there is no way anyone is spending $38 on that. She wants to use her own money, but her father (and I agree with him) believes $38 on that is still ridiculous.

So I suggested this pattern with a Hello Kitty! applique. You would have thought I suggested burlap as a feasible alternative. First she tried almost graciously to say "you, um, shouldn't have..." Then she said "can you make that skirt look punk?"

I cannot believe how old I am.

Anywho, she I think will give in, but if anyone can give advice on how to sew the skirt with "more punk" in it I would be much obliged. She wants to wear the skirt with this T-shirt (if they have it girl-cut of course).

WASHINGTON (June 30) - What to do now? School officials around the country are asking that question following a Supreme Court decision rejecting racial integration plans in Seattle and Louisville, Ky.

The 5-4 ruling prohibited those district plans but didn't entirely shut the door on using race as a factor when making decisions about what schools should look like.

The ruling brought complaints that it allegedly betrayed the Supreme Court's most acclaimed ruling - the 53-year-old Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawing segregated schools.

I don't know, up-down, in or out, black or white. My mother said it best in regards to this article:

Some scary times we live in. Whoever is trying to mandate this nonsense forgets that there are those of us who find slavery and segregation untenable. It always gets back the question of who decides. We have to be most wary of those who jump forward to make those decisions. Black and White. The US should have solved its racial problems generations ago.

Archbishop Mataca says democracy is not an end in itself but a means to higher goals which he says are freedom, good government, just laws and happy homes.

He says whatever the systems of governance, democracy in its various forms or socialism, it must be at the service of humanity.

Archbishop Mataca says if any of these causes people to oppress, discriminate and racially divide societies, they need to be reformed so happy homes become a reality for Fiji’s people.

Thanks to my brother Ed for the HT.

It is worth noting, by the way, that the most sentimental people, who are loudest against the right to wage a just war, to execute a criminal, are just the people who are most likely to be in favour of ‘putting incurables out of their pain,’ which the commandment against murder most emphatically forbids.--Hilaire Belloc, via "The Daily Eudemon", via TSO

"You can be very caring and still be extremely dangerous." -- S., one of my instructors in nursing school

Anthony Esolen on sentimentality

We saw The Transfomers last night and it sucked. OK, it was slightly better that I expected so let's get the good part out.

Optimus, who was voiced by the original Optimus, Peter Cullen, recited the above line and Rosey Posey said she thought she saw my eyes tear up. That was cool albeit totally pointless and a bone thrown at us nostaligic Transformer fans. The sell-out I am, I happily took the bone.

The other plus was the action scenes were really, really good.

So the negatives? It was mostly Shia LeBeaouf and his antics with his car, and getting the attention of a girl for like an hour before any action set in. There were lots of stupid little sex jokes that could have been dropped to make the movie more kid-friendly. On that same line of thinking, the violence could have been toned down a bit without any loss to the movie to give it a PG rating. I hated the sex humor although The audience laughed hysterically at it while I just rolled my eyes. So what do I know?

There also tghe usual mini-public service announcements strung throughout taking pokes at our government and Bush and what-not. Yawn.

The story was terrible, boring and incoherent. Many of the situations could have been resolved with common sense. For example, there is one action scene that ensues because instead of putting Sam and his Lady Friend inside his cab and driving away with the rest of the Autobots, Optimus decides to put them on his shoulder and climb under a bridge...and drops them. Why? What for? No one knows.

The robots looked kind of icky. Michael Bay's attempt to recreate this alien-robotic-life form and thought the boxy Transformers looked "unrealistic". OK I got that. But um, there is nothing realistic about Transformers to begin with (why must we take everything so seriously lately?) He should have established some middle grown and made them look slightly more like the guys we remember. They were literally confusing to look at-just jumbles of metallic spikes. Rosey Posey was kavetching for two hours afterwards about why did they feel the need to give Megatron pointy teeth: "To show how evil he is while he eats small bunnies?"

Mostly, something was seriously missing with the Optimus character. I am still not sure what it was. He seemed slightly ditzy and silly or something.

The movie is obviously a set-up for a sequel.

I give it a C-.