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"The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit." — Wade Davis

OCC-Orchard Ridge is starting to be a little scary.  Just rec'd e-mail alert of a criminal attack at the campus, the 2nd since I officially returned to school over the summer.  Part of the problem is that the campus is large and there are long walks from parking to class buildings with multi-level outdoor patios and corridors.  I'm going to have one class there next semester & the Paralegal program is based there.

I was at the local BGLT Community Center today doing homework (English Inquiry Paper on School Prayer) and one of the kids plunked out a few notes of Windmills of Your Mind on the piano. So I had to go out and find it to get it out of my own little mind. Here is Alyson Moyet's rendition, with stirngs and a glass harmonica! Hope you like it as much as I did:

This popped up on another blog and was interesting and informative. It's in the comments section lower middle part of the webpage (I used "find" Randomnoise's entry)

I AM AN AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE

this morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy.
I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility.

After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the national institute of standards and technology and the US naval observatory, I get into my national highway traffic safety administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the environmental protection agency, using legal tender issed by the federal reserve bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US postal service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the department of labor and the occupational safety and health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to ny house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it's valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right

Several centuries ago, the Pope decreed that all the Jews had to convert to Catholicism or leave Italy . There was a huge outcry from the Jewish community, so the Pope offered a deal.

He'd have a religious debate with the leader of the Jewish community. If the Jews won, they could stay in Italy ; if the Pope won, they'd have to convert or leave.

The Jewish people met and picked an aged and wise rabbi to represent them in the debate. However, as the rabbi spoke no Italian, and the Pope spoke no Yiddish, they agreed that it would be a 'silent' debate.

On the chosen day the Pope and rabbi sat opposite each other

The Pope raised his hand and showed three fingers.

The rabbi looked back and raised one finger.

Next, the Pope waved his finger around his head.

The rabbi pointed to the ground where he sat.

The Pope brought out a communion wafer and a chalice of wine.

The rabbi pulled out an apple.

With that, the Pope stood up and declared himself beaten and said that the rabbi was too clever. The Jews could stay in Italy .

Later the cardinals met with the Pope and asked him what had happened.

The Pope said, 'First I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity. He responded by holding up a single finger to remind me there is still only one God common to both our beliefs.

'Then, I waved my finger around my head to show him that God was all around us. He responded by pointing to the ground to show that God was also right here with us

'I pulled out the wine and wafer to show that God absolves us of all our sins. He pulled out an apple to remind me of the original sin.

'He bested me at every move and I could not continue.'

Meanwhile, the Jewish community gathered to ask the rabbi how he'd won.

'I haven't a clue' the rabbi said. 'First, he told me that we had three days to get out of Italy , so I gave him the finger.

'Then he tells me that the whole country would be cleared of Jews and I told him that we were staying right here.'

'And then what?' asked a woman.

'Who knows?' said the rabbi. 'He took out his lunch, so I took out mine.'

I go by this place on Woodward (home of the Woodward Dream Cruise) all the time. Next time I have money I'll have to stop in. Buy Local: Al’s Famous Deli does right by buying Detroit

To write a paper on an absurd idea (a la A Modest Proposal by Swift). Came across the following idea from 2003 by googling "modest proposal ideas."

mb.sparknotes.com (MarsGirl200):We have this same assignment in my class. I'm writing mine right now. Someone in my class is doing this idea: You could write it about prisoners.. Take all the prisoners on death row and put them on a "Survivor" like show, only the person voted out of the tribe gets killed.. I thought it was a good idea. lol :-)

I heard this somewhere (forget where) and thought I'd share it. This is as accurate a description as I've ever heard of my understanding of human nature. Others have commented on missing attributes to either wolf...this is a parable, if something's missing we should be able to deduce which wolf it would end up with.

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said: ‘My son, the battle is between ‘two wolves’ inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.’

The grandson thought about it for a minute, and then asked his grandfather: ‘Which wolf wins?’

The old Cherokee simply replied: ‘The one you feed.’

The assignment is to choose 3 ad's and identify which techniques (reviewed in class) they use. Here's four (I may not use the Nintendo ad).
( Christmas Cheese / Benefiber / Paula Deen / Nintendo )

They've released the track list for the anniversary edition of Erasure's "The Innocents" album. Now I'm interested in buying it for the bonus tracks (including "The Good The Bad and the Ugly [The Dangerous Remix]")!!

SF doesn't always have to make sense, but these two entries are hilarious!! For space sake, he limited ST to just the movies. But he still missed my personal peeve: The bridge is in a tactically vulnerable position out front and top for no reason.

Death Star
An unshielded exhaust port leading directly to the central reactor? Really? And when you rebuild it, your solution to this problem is four paths into the central core so large that you can literally fly a spaceship through them? Brilliant. Note to the Emperor: Someone on your Death Star design staff is in the pay of Rebel forces. Oh, right, you can't get the memo because someone threw you down a huge exposed shaft in your Death Star throne room.

"John Scalzi's Guide to the Most Epic FAILs in Star Wars Design"
<blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scan...r-wars.php>

and "John Scalzi's Guide to Epic SciFi Design FAILs - Star Trek Edition"
<blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scan...r-trek.php>

Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.
- Fran Lebowitz

Constantine Giannaris: The Short Films (1991) represent two hours fifteen minutes of my life that I can’t get back for what comes across as a low budget DVD. Giannaris introduces and explains his intent for the three short movies: "Caught Looking," "North of Vortex," and "A Place in the Sun." It would have been a better “extra feature” than part of the regular show.

Caught Looking comes across as little more than a soft core porn romp through long gone eras. The main character views and interacts with scenes like an 1940’s era male brothel or 1970’s English “cottaging.” That it was visionary in that it foretold the creation of online X-Rated content is probably the only good point.

North of Vortex: It’s unusual for me to do any significant fast forwarding through movies being afraid of missing something important or interesting. With little to no dialogue or interaction between the characters, and infrequent voiceover there was little to miss by reducing the playing time on this one. The cinematography was great and just as nice in fast motion.

A Place in the Sun: The best of the three, even with the dialogue being in Greek (I think!). It’s the only one with some characters and real interaction between them. Description: “[It] explores an affair between a 35-year-old Greek man and an 18-year-old Albanian boy.” There wasn’t much in this part that grabbed my attention. There was some mental abuse, financial use, and in general just a dysfunctional relationship that wasn’t very interesting.

Two stars and eminently missable, unless you like experimental art films

Woofer: The 1400 Character Anti-Twitter

Tired of paring down to 140 characters? How do you feel about a 1400 character minimum? This Twitter-like site could be for your Dicken's wannabes. Woofertime.com

Good morning. I know that there are many people opposed to the current effort to reform health care in the US. It is important that health care be passed and live up to the principles that Pres. Obama has laid out. Reform without the public option is no real reform. The public option is important to bring real competition to this industry.

Please do not support health care reform without the public option. Be open to compromising with the other side of the aisle on any other issue.

Thank you,
Alex

Mom wants to go see Harry Potter, what an adventure this turns out to be. The AMC / Star theatres aren't listed anymore, they're two of the closest that I know outside of a suburban downtown (Birmingham) location. So I went to Yahoo Movies and located it at two AMC's and Birmingham Palladium. Then there's pricing!! Warning, I'm cheap and one of the "I remember when movies were $2" crowd. AMC/Star John R-15 prices are $9.50 (no matinee pricing); AMC/Star Southfield-20 is $10 (no matinee's); Birmingham Palladium 12 is $9.50 (matinee pricing is indicated but unspecified).

Which leads into my other, regularly scheduled, rant: News reports about "highest grossing movie of all time" are indicitive OF NOT A GOSH DARN THING!!! Per Wikipedia (the only reference I could locate on the web quickly) which took the information from Box Office Mojo the top 20 highest grossing movies, adjusted for inflation are listed below. The only 2009 to appear on the list of the top 100 of all time (adjusted for inflation) was Transformers:Revenge of the Fallen (at number 70 from number 9 on the unadjusted list).


Film list (adjusted for inflation)

1. Gone with the Wind (1939)
2. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
3. The Sound of Music (1965)
4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
5. The Ten Commandments (1956)
6. Titanic (1997)
7. Jaws (1975)
8. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
9. The Exorcist (1973)
10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
11. One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
12. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
13. Ben-Hur (1959)
14. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
15. The Sting (1973)
16. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Indiana Jones) (1981)
17. Jurassic Park (1993)
18. The Graduate (1967)
19. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
20. Fantasia (1941)

The advantage of the older films is multiple releases, particularly the Disney anitmated films. While the friend of newer films is inflation and greater numbers of moviegoers and theatres.

Today was the BWMT “Games Day” picnic at Tom’s house. Even though it was hot probably about a dozen people showed up. Plenty of shade and the occasional breeze in the backyard made for a good place to hang out and catch up with friends and acquaintances. The only game that was played was a round of croquet, otherwise it was BWMT-Detroit doing what we do best: Socializing!

This week I turn 42. “Another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter don't call me 'cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store.”

This week I will meet with the interim minister. She wants to talk for 45 minutes to an hour. Talking that long isn’t likely to be a problem, but staying on topic may be.

Henry Louis Gate’s program about Abraham Lincoln was repeated last night. He, Mr. Lincoln, probably suffered from depression, but since it wasn’t a diagnosis there wasn’t a medication for it. He coped by telling funny jokes & stories and by reading sad poetry. According to one comment it was like “the blues” a catharsis. Leading, of course, to my ever present observation that medication isn’t always the best option and sometimes people need to learn to cope with the personalities we are given.

Two weeks until school starts…I hope the bookstore has the books in finally. If not, I wonder if my caseworker can write two vouchers when the rest come in?


0908.17 edit: Corrected quoted lyrics

I saw parts of three interesting programs on the History channel today…instead of doing my school-prep work, bathroom cleaning.

• Tectonic plates, the San Andreas Fault specifically;


• Green energy: Wind turbines, solar panels, “green switches” to thwart the electric vampires, a ice based AC unit in Arizona / New Mexico (it freezes water in the cooling unit at night then uses it to cool the library during the day);


• Krakatoa;

It was a better use of daytime TV than network talk shows.