Isn’t it strange how things are intertwined?

Last week, I made two stuffed animals for two different people’s birthdays. I mailed them through FedEx. The guy at FedEx saw them and offered to pay me to make one for him grand-niece. I had a huge group project and didn’t finish the commission until yesterday. Today, I went to give it to him. I earned $15. My bf and I went to the movies to see The Box. The tickets cost $17. With the student discount the price was cut down to $15.

The stuffed animal I made paid for the movie~ What if I had finished it last week and already been paid? Would I have already spent the money? What if I had decided not to hand-make the birthday presents? What if I had gone to UPS instead? What if what if what if!

And that’s the weird, convoluted sort of thing I expected from The Box. Well, it was convoluted alright. But it didn’t have that punch-in-the-face that Donnie Darko had (same director). It was just, “oh, I guess that’s been explained now…. sorta”. I won’t say I’m disappointed. I’m just processing it still.

Hm.

BTW, where have you been lately, Kevin?? Update much??

Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
★★ / ★★★★

Joel Coen directs this story about a gold-digger (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and a divorce lawyer’s (George Clooney) mind games. The two seemingly like each other despite their bickering but it is really difficult to define their relationship because they always have something up their sleeves (sometimes with the aid of lucky coincidences). I did enjoy the first half of this picture because it was silly and it embraced its screwball nature. However, somewhere in the second half, I grew tired of it mainly because the once astute two lead characters became simple caricatures not worth liking. I kept trying to convince myself there was something more about them other than their scamming ways but I was disappointed that there wasn’t. I know that the Coen brothers have a proclivity for irony but there is such a thing as too much irony. This film is a fine example of the latter so it became convoluted instead of focused, smug instead of welcoming, unfunny instead of dryly funny. I did, however, enjoy the supporting actors such as Cedric the Entertainer, Edward Herrmann, Richard Jenkins, Billy Bob Thornton and Geoffrey Rush. But their presence alone did not save this heavy-handed movie about two bickering infantile adults who have nothing better to do than to make each other’s lives miserable. I liked Zeta-Jones and Clooney’s acting during the first half because it was easy to tell that they were having fun with their characters. However, in the second half, I believe they crossed the line between being funny and trying too hard to be funny but actually failing at it. In the end, I wondered what happened to the power the Coen brothers usually had in their films. But I suppose great directors have their failures as well. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad movie. It’s simply a mediocre product given the expectations that usually come in a Coen brothers picture. It was too quirky for its own good when it really should have been working on its substance.

Louis Malle's Black Moon (1975)

 

Black Moon, a surreal 1975 film directed by Louis Malle, was the winner of two French César Awards (for sound and cinematography). Shown at the 1975 New York Film Festival, it was distributed in the United States by 20th Century Fox.

Buy this Title on DVD

The free-flowing narrative pivots around a confused teenager (Cathryn Harrison) who witnesses a war between the sexes and finds herself involved in numerous dream-like situations at a country estate. An underlying subtext offers a convoluted commentary on the women’s movement of the 1970s.

Also in the cast are Joe Dallesandro, Therese Giehse and Alexandra Stewart. The film was shot in Malle’s own 200-year-old manor house and Malle’s surrounding 225-acre (0.91 km²) estate in the lush, wild Dordogne valley in Quercy, near Cahors.

Tagline: An apocalyptic Alice in Wonderland!

Hollow Drones proffer the application of increased assets to mitigate suffering among their heedless narcissistic numbers and proclaim, “Let excess among the accomplished be alleviated in favor of the righteous cause”.

Originally posted on TROE 3/17/09

- The rain falls fast and heavy on my shoulders. The beautiful starlit sky is only a dream this night, masked by the dark and spiteful clouds. So twisted and convoluted their dark masses cover the sky, and with a brutal unrelenting efficiency they cover everything that lay below. Standing amidst the downpour I look skyward, trying to gaze past the furious fall of water hoping for a glimpse into what lay beyond. What little hope I have left quickly fades as the rain covers my face. Not unlike the clouds, my soul twists and rages, uneasy. A growing dispair washes over me as effortless as the rain, fueling my uneasy spirit. Strong emotions of pain and suffering reach the surface of my being. I am like the rain. Each drop I feel upon my shoulders brings me ever closer to unfathomable sorrow. Like a tangled mess of black vines slowly growing in different directions, creeping ever outward, my soul is trying to break free. I can feel in my eyes when the last fleeting bit of happiness escapes my being. I wonder to myself if the rain brings out this in all of us. Not really knowing why anymore, I once again look to the sky, as the rain perfectly masks the tears rolling down my face.

Today’s WOTD is:

Convoluted

adj. Twisted, coiled

Example: “The convolutions of your intestine add more surface space for nutrient absorption”.

This word just sounds intelligent. I know many of you may never get to use it… but if you get the chance… take it.

- Lost in the wilderness I feel trapped. This forest is so convoluted, every direction looks the same. In despair my mind begins to give up, relenquishing myself to wander aimlessly. I am alone. No one is coming to save me and point the way. I must do this myself. What am I searching for? A purpose or direction in this twisted mangled existance? But why? What if our purpose is not about finding our way? What if our purpose is to simply exist? Nothing more, nothing less. The harder I try to understand and strive for happiness, the more I get tangled in the branches and bushes. They pull me deeper and eeper into the growing darkness of the forest. I scratch and twist and tear in futile attempts to escape. Only when I realize my efforts are in vain do I feel their grip loosen. Was this the key? One by one the branches clear. Exhausted and frightened I fall to my knees, gasping for air. Drawing a full breath of the clean sharp air, I rise to my feet, ready now to face whatever may come across my path. Maybe the point was to know who I am and be satisfied with that one simple fact. If i Know who I am, the path does not matter. My happiness and direction will come in time. For now, I must be content with where I am. A new sun rises between the trees and warms my face through the cold crisp air. I am still alone, but as I take my first steps of the new day, I realize that wasn’t something to struggle with. My path will be whatever direction I choose to go, and regardless of its outcome, it will be worth the journey. -

February 2009

A captivating video of a real-life Rube Goldberg Machine, my all-time favorite demonstration of the Theory of Conservation of Energy.

[via PopSci]

My brain woke up shortly after I posted earlier, so I actually got around and went out today, making it to K-Mart before closing time.

There wasn’t much baseball to choose from unfortunately.  No Goudey or Heroes anymore, though there was a fresh supply of ‘08 Masterpieces.  The only other thing was regular Upper Deck Series 2 and the USA version of Series 2.

They had Hot Prospects basketball and Icons football, and enough Hockey to choke a moose, if anybody wanted to get other sports involved.  They probably had regular Upper Deck basketball and football too, but I forgot my list, so I can’t say for sure.

If the choices are lacking, it’s possible I can check back at Shopko sometime. Never know how long the random Hobby boxes and unopened retail boxes will hold out, but the boxes they had when I got mine would have been the same price as ten blasters for two of them.  It was all 2006 stuff, but it was some of the nicest that year had to offer in Flair Showcase and Ovation (and something else on their smexy looking upper-low end level that I can’t remember).  They’d have less cards than ten blasters even if it’s heavy on the Masterpieces, but unless the Masterpieces hold some hits (I’m 0 for probably 12 or so in K-Marts non-guaranteed hit discount blasters since they were marked down late last fall, so I’m not hopeful…), those boxes would would give up more hits, one or two being autographs.

There’s a lot of ways we can go with this, assuming it there is enough interest to actually make it happen.  We can always mix and match and replace a couple or four discount ones with more desirable regular price blasters like ‘08 Allen & Ginter or this year’s Heritage or Spectrum (ha!) from elsewhere.

It’s getting a little convoluted, but I’m still down if the interest is there.  If you like the idea, leave a comment or send an e-mail.  And if you have an idea on how to make it all work, by all means, let me know.  I’d love to have the chance to be master of ceremonies for a group break for y’all, however we may decide to do it.

Thanks again for your consideration.  Did you all have a funderful day?

.::~Outtro~::.

Offense: Cretin-Derham Hall | It

I was talking with a good friend today, and the topic of the common practice by major newspaper Web sites of scrapping smaller news sites for their content and including it on their own pages.

He showed me an article that tells of one particular news outlet now suing a larger outlet, stating that they didn’t ask permission to use the content, and that the bigger news outlet had no right to place the content on their site, including the advertising.

Not to mention that the entire web is predicated on this practice, it struck me that this was a perfect example of the methods for success in the digital economy clashing with the old paradigms and conventions that are the basis for the news media business model.

The assumption is that those paradigms and conventions can be applied to the Web. Think of those paradigms and conventions as ‘the box’ or ‘the way we’ve always done it’.

When you take a look at the Web through a true Web 2.0 lens, the old conventions don’t work on the Web at all. Therefore, as I said, there simply is no ‘box’ to think outside of because the Web 2.0 models are entirely new; we’ve never seen these models in the history of man. In the words of Marshall McLuhan, we can’t successfully fit these new developing ‘extensions of man’ into the existing media categories, or the old ‘extensions’. To do so would be to remove their new power, fresh functionality and revolutionary usefulness.

The kicker in this whole convoluted law suit is that by this practice of scrapping content, along with the advertising I might add, the larger news entity is actually increasing the number of impressions for the smaller outlet, thereby making them a much more valuable resource for their content developers and their advertisers. Not to mention that under normal circumstances, few people would ever actually find the smaller news site in the first place.

So this all begs the question; is there a downside to the practice for the smaller firm bringing the suit? And if not, what are they thinking?

I found this commentary on the IMDB.com TDK board.  I can’t seem to find the details of the original post, but it matches my own assessment pretty well, so I share it here as-is and unedited:

“
If I understand it correctly, Gordon faked his own death (even though it’s edited to make it look like he got shot for real) to protect his family. Batman then decides to announce who he is but Dent takes his place. The Joker intercepts the Dent convoy but is himself intercepted by Batman. Carnage ensues including the destruction of large parts of the Gotham road system and various buildings and, seemingly by fortune, Batman, the Joker and, the driver of the convoy who is, of course, Gordon, reach a point at which the Joker is captured. Unfortunately for them that’s what he wanted all along.

So: doesn’t make very little sense when you try and add it up from characters’ POV. Why would Gordon legitimise such a ridiculous plan: there’s no guarantee it would work and he’s placing the lives of his men and Dent in very real jeopardy because he knows the Joker is coming for them. Batman may suffer from incredible pride but there’s no way he could have planned, forseen or even imagained such a successful scenario as him flipping the Joker’s truck, faking his defeat and Gordon’s reappearance because it all happened just metres away from his vehicle. The Joker needs Dent for phase 2 of this particular plan os his attempt at killing him is self serving. He needs to be caught AND he needs the guy with the phone in his stomach to make it with him otherwise he’s got no way to get Lao or the money. He surely should have walked into the station with his men a la Se7en!

I put this to a friend and he suggested the whole ‘agent of chaos’ angle which doesn’t work for me because Dent, Gordon and Batman ren’t agents of chaos and that’s the force they’re fighting against. If the Joker had initiated this then, yes, I could agree. But this is their party which the Joker crashes.

(I also have another one which is a little smaller and more of a quibble. But all of the Joker’s plans are well prepared, well researched and devoted entirely to a double aim in which everyone looks one way while he goes the other. The only case that’s not true for is the boats. There’s nothing the Gotham PD can do OTHER THAN look for him. That does seem a) out of character (this is supposedly the beginning of ‘the game’… he doesn’t seem to have prepared particularly well) amd b) a writer’s convenience. The end of the Joker Batman story comes again through circumstance. Not sure on this one but thought I’d mention it while I’m writing).span>

But am I wrong? Maybe I missed something? Thoghts comments and flames wanted and expected…!
”

Lots of salient points in there.

Old and young aren’t as different as I had thought, as recent personal observation attests.

Some members of a local veteran band cool down with some late-night eating after each weekly practice. Because I just joined the band this week, they didn’t know me well enough to not invite me — ha, ha —  but invited me they did.

At least a full quarter of this band voted against Wendell Wilkie in 1944, another third has seen more than three times my 21 years and most of the rest hit puberty before my parents met. In other words, the band skews between relatively old and hellaold. Yet had their conversations been transcribed and rearranged, tonight’s dinner could have been credibly performed by a representative mix of teenagers.

The subject of the evening: We were kicked out of our rehearsal hall when the President of some association with control over it walked calmly in during practice and told our director that we had been reminded several times that we were not allowed to park in the alley because of the potential fire hazard.

As with teenagers, there was unrealistic whining bolstered by insight into the band that only a band member would have.

Why did Mr. President approach our director? He isn’t the head of our organization.

As with teenagers, there was fallacy.

This doesn’t make any sense. We aren’t the only ones who park in that alley.

As with teenagers, there was cattiness.

Well, actually, he didn’t yell at us. He kept his voice down, and I could tell by the way he announced that he was in AUSA, also, that it was all he could do not to cry.

As with teenagers, there was gossip.

I heard that in the letter they gave us, it says that someone asked one of our members had been asked to move his car, and that person said back, “Tow me.”

As with teenagers, there was implausible denial.

“Tow me?” That doesn’t sound like any of our people.

By my count, and from one practice, I could tell that “Tow me,” is the exactly the statement that at least four band members — one first trumpet, two clarinet, one tenor sax — in that band room would have said.

More over, getting kicked out of the veteran’s hall was a convoluted situation, and nobody really understood it, but they would only admit to it in their dramatic and accusatory tones of voice. Just like teenagers.

However much perspective changes over time, and whatever it is that experience adds to the human equation, just about everyone past adolescence has a teenage personality.

Young Fine Gael poster on UCC campus

Originally uploaded by Pat and Amy’s pics

Yesterday, the Irish voted to preserve democracy in Europe for a little longer. By a margin of over 100,000 votes, Irish voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty, which would have significantly altered the structure of the European Union (EU). The three major parties of Ireland all backed the treaty, but voters didn’t care.

There are differences of opinion about just what the treaty would have done, and why voters rejected it, but here’s a quick summary. Backers of the treaty point out that the structure of the European Union hasn’t changed as it should have to stay viable as it continued to grow and add more and more member states from Eastern Europe. Currently, the EU has a bit of a confusing structure, with an executive branch called the European Commission which has a President of the Commission; the European Parliament, which is one half of the legislative branch and has a President of the European Parliament; and the Council of the European Union, which is the other half of the legislative branch and has a President of the Council of the European Union (sometimes just called the EU Presidency) which rotates between member states every six months. The EU Presidency is not really assumed by an individual but by the entire national government which has the presidency for that half-year.

This sometimes weak and convoluted structure was felt by many to be limiting the EU’s ability to deal with economic threats such as an exploding Chinese economy, and unable to effectively deal with issues closer to home such as the war in Bosnia. In light of this, leaders of the member states have been working for years to radically change the structure of the EU.

The Treaty of Nice was negotiated in 2001 and meant to be a European constitution that would replace all other treaties that had been negotiated over the years, but the treaty was never ratified because it was rejected by voters in both France and The Netherlands. So, the Lisbon Treaty was, in effect, a second try but this treaty would simply amend earlier treaties rather than replace them. To get around those pesky voters who might have once again rejected this new treaty, 26 of the 27 member states decided to ratify the treaty through their legislatures rather than with a vote of the people. But the treaty needed ratification by all 27 members, and what would the 27th state, Ireland, do? Ireland sent the voters a referendum, and the voters made it clear yesterday they wanted nothing to do with the treaty.

After the Irish rejected the treaty yesterday, there was outrage among many European leaders who couldn’t believe that the whole thing would be derailed by a vote of a country with less than 2% of the population of Europe. Apparently, for them, the solution would have been not to enlarge the democratic process so more citizens voted, but rather to eliminate the only vote of the people that actually took place. And many of those other European leaders are expressing their hope that somehow the “No” vote can be “made right.” In effect, they’re asking for the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, Brian Cowan, who vehemently supported the treaty, to find some way to ignore the voters. This is being held up by opponents of the treaty as evidence that Europe never really would listen to smaller countries like Ireland, which is one reason why the Irish voters rejected it in the first place.

So, how exactly would this treaty have rolled back democracy in Europe? The treaty would have limited representation on the European Commission for each member state to 10 of every 15 years, so one-third of the time each country would have no representative on the Commission. Even when a country did have a representative on the Commission, she would not have been elected by the people, or even by the member states’ elected legislatures. Each country could “suggest” who their representative would be, but not actually choose her.

Because the treaty also contained language that would have ensured that the laws of the EU would have superseded those of any national constitution, it really would have created a structure a bit like the federal system of the U.S. but without the representative democracy we expect. Okay, used to expect before the Bush years.

It didn’t help the “Yes” campaign that the Taoiseach and many of his government ministers who were backing the treaty admitted they hadn’t read it. Its language is so confusing that one minister supporting the treaty tried at a press conference to explain to reporters how the treaty would work and gave a small snippet of the treaty language to support his claim. When pressed by reporters, though, he admitted he didn’t understand the language he’d just quoted. The Taoiseach seemed unable to grasp that opponents of the treaty could have an honest difference of opinion on the matter, declaring before the election that those vocally opposing the treaty either didn’t understand it or were misrepresenting it. I, for one, think voters did know just enough to decide they didn’t like it. No one knows for sure what will happen now that Ireland has said “No,” but we’ll keep you informed if there are any developments.

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