Sleepy Hollow
I never stay up to date.
And this is actually intentional.
One of the most important things a friend pointed me to in college was something C.S. Lewis said: For every new book he read, he also read an old one.
For many years I practiced that very thing, well, really I mostly only read the classics. These days I read things all over the map. Classics like Sophocles, Dante, Oscar Wilde, Stephen King all the way to the modern stuff: J. K. Rowling.
Well, so much to say: I rarely go see a movie while it is fresh. I figure if it is worth seeing today, it will be worth seeing tomorrow also. In fact, if it is worth seeing at all it will be just as worth it today as 20 years from now.
So, I've just come around to seeing Sleepy Hollow. I've been a big Johnny Depp fan since the first Pirates move came out. And now I've become a fan of his great stuff back to Edward Scissorhands and Benny and Joon. In fact, I've even come to notice little things like when he makes little references to previous movies like he did with the raisins in the last Pirates move.
Anyway, what a great movie! I love horror, but I don't think I've every seen a horror movie I liked this much: even to the point of watching all the extras on the DVD. It's got a superb all-star cast (well, I won't tell you everyone in it but check that out on IMDB if you are so inclined.)
It's really cool to see three Harry Potter stars, two great Star Wars stars, along with the impeccably artistic Mr. Depp and the gorgeously talented Christina Ricci in this, yet one more great Tim Burton classic. I highly recommend it (if you can manage horror) and as Michael Gambon says: hang onto your head!
Cheers!
Basil
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Friday, August 31, 2007
Reinventing Myself
Why don't I blog more? This question taunts me constantly. Well, really the question is: why don't I write more?
I could blame my temporary impairment on the fact that I broke a finger two weeks ago, and now, in addition to my normal impairment of carpal-tunnel symptoms in my hand (sore joints, wrist, sometimes pain all the way to my elbow), well now, in addition to that problem, I've a sprained finger, a broken finger, and a third really sore finger that was nearly sprained. So, I'm typing with my hand in a cast and only three fingers (including my thumb) to type with there (right hand). Yes, I can think of excuses.
But I know what my real problem is: how to say what I really want to say without drawing negative attention to myself.
Well, I've decided to "turn over a new leaf" - I'm just going to spew it all out, and I'm going to spew it all out here in this one blog, devoted to... well, devoted to the art of spewing it all out I guess.
So, I daily have things to say, but I worry myself too much over saying them right.
Take for instance my GRIPE. I was thinking of starting a whole separate blog devoted to complaining about Microsoft. But I don't want people to get the impression that I'm a crabby old man, or that I have something personally against them. And also there's the question: what if I someday want to work for them? (Got forbid!) But being that I'm in the Software Quality Assurance industry - do I really want to burn that bridge - I mean if someone were to find me complaining constantly about Microsoft....
Well, I can't take it any longer. The idiots employ the largest workforce in the State of Washington, they rake in the money, and they can't even write a !@$#!@#$# operating system that actually works!
I find myself spending between 40 and 60% of my work time overcoming the obstacles Microsoft puts in our way to get our work done. Excel crashing when you try to really use it, hotmail breaking up links on emails making it impossible for my less-than-computer-savvy friends to click on them and get to the link (or even figure out how to split up multiple lines), the O/S keeping me from moving my files when I want to... the list simply goes on and on.
So, anyway, I'm not going to hold back any longer.
Of course there are other things I can complain about too, like the fact that firefox runs your computer out of memory and eventually crashes every time there is an update available that you've been postponing. Or the fact that NVue still has an annoying bug in it that has been there since it was called netscape composer 1.0.
Linux is not without it's problems either, but I've finally resorted to having two separate primary work computers, one linux of the Gentoo flavor, and one XP (don't give me that VISTA crap!) just so that I can always get my work done...
.. speaking of getting my work done. Got to go.
Basil
Why don't I blog more? This question taunts me constantly. Well, really the question is: why don't I write more?
I could blame my temporary impairment on the fact that I broke a finger two weeks ago, and now, in addition to my normal impairment of carpal-tunnel symptoms in my hand (sore joints, wrist, sometimes pain all the way to my elbow), well now, in addition to that problem, I've a sprained finger, a broken finger, and a third really sore finger that was nearly sprained. So, I'm typing with my hand in a cast and only three fingers (including my thumb) to type with there (right hand). Yes, I can think of excuses.
But I know what my real problem is: how to say what I really want to say without drawing negative attention to myself.
Well, I've decided to "turn over a new leaf" - I'm just going to spew it all out, and I'm going to spew it all out here in this one blog, devoted to... well, devoted to the art of spewing it all out I guess.
So, I daily have things to say, but I worry myself too much over saying them right.
Take for instance my GRIPE. I was thinking of starting a whole separate blog devoted to complaining about Microsoft. But I don't want people to get the impression that I'm a crabby old man, or that I have something personally against them. And also there's the question: what if I someday want to work for them? (Got forbid!) But being that I'm in the Software Quality Assurance industry - do I really want to burn that bridge - I mean if someone were to find me complaining constantly about Microsoft....
Well, I can't take it any longer. The idiots employ the largest workforce in the State of Washington, they rake in the money, and they can't even write a !@$#!@#$# operating system that actually works!
I find myself spending between 40 and 60% of my work time overcoming the obstacles Microsoft puts in our way to get our work done. Excel crashing when you try to really use it, hotmail breaking up links on emails making it impossible for my less-than-computer-savvy friends to click on them and get to the link (or even figure out how to split up multiple lines), the O/S keeping me from moving my files when I want to... the list simply goes on and on.
So, anyway, I'm not going to hold back any longer.
Of course there are other things I can complain about too, like the fact that firefox runs your computer out of memory and eventually crashes every time there is an update available that you've been postponing. Or the fact that NVue still has an annoying bug in it that has been there since it was called netscape composer 1.0.
Linux is not without it's problems either, but I've finally resorted to having two separate primary work computers, one linux of the Gentoo flavor, and one XP (don't give me that VISTA crap!) just so that I can always get my work done...
.. speaking of getting my work done. Got to go.
Basil
Designated Driver?
Somehow, I don't think this is what they meant when they told you to bring along a designated driver:
Woman Allows 5-year-old Son To Drive
It is a strange world.
Regards,
Basil
Somehow, I don't think this is what they meant when they told you to bring along a designated driver:
Woman Allows 5-year-old Son To Drive
It is a strange world.
Regards,
Basil
Saturday, August 25, 2007
A tale of North America
Let us say for example that some fascist dictator down south decides to make war. He sweeps up from S. America and invades Central America all the way up to Mexico.
The Mexicans are proud and fight off this tyrant vigorously for a time, but in the end they ask for U.S support.
The U.S invades Mexico, heads south and pushes the tyrant all the way back to his homeland, where eventually he is defeated by a combination of freedom fighters from within, and armies fro sympathetic nations around.
In the aftermath Mexico has a great deal of turmoil re-establishing it's own government, and in the opts for joining with the U.S. in something of a North American Union, in which the U.S. has some controlling interest in the Mexican state.
Let's say for the next 90 years or so many U.S. citizens immigrate to Mexico, just as many Mexicans immigrate northward. Let us even go so far as to say that the U.S government creates a sponsorship program whereby U.S. citizens willing to immigrate south and start anew life in helping to rebuild Mexico are given great incentives.
So after 90 years, lets say, you have about 40% of the population of Mexico as Anglo-Saxon whites who have made this their home. The new generations of whites have never known any other home. In fact, by now even their grandparents who came here have passed on.
Let's say that the new generations of ethnically Hispanic Mexicans don't remember the war. The society they have rebuilt is far removed from any trace of the former period of captivity, except for a hand full of war memorials.
Let's say that many of the younger generation start persecuting the Anglo-Saxons (AS) who live here, because they don't feel it is right for all those people to live in their land. Let's say that the persecution also instigates back-lash fro the AS crowd who feel they've plenty of right to live there as they've lived there their whole lives.
Let's say the government now steps in: but far from stepping in so as to diffuse the situation, on the contrary makes it deliberately hard for English speakers to conduct business, and starts taking steps (which it says are in the interest of the AS crowd) to ban English in public, and so on. Business signs must be in Spanish, all business and legal documents must be in Spanish, and so on.
Lets say they also decide to remove all war memorials to U.S. soldiers who died liberating their country: why, because it shows "U.S. Aggression".
Let's say that the U.S gov protests against this move by Mexico, but that the Mexicans basically say "screw you" to the U.S. gov. We are an independent state and you cannot boss us around.
Well, leaving aside the politics for a moment between U.S. and Mexico in this scenario, let us discuss "right and wrong" - that is to say morals.
How can it possibly be "right" what the Mexicans are doing in my pretend scenario here?
And yet, I am not speaking of U.S. and Mexico here, but rather of Russia and the Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The above is precisely what has happened in the Baltic countries, and yet for some reason (I believe only because they are brainwashed by the official U.S. news media that casts everything it can in an anti-Russian slant).. for some reason my friends try to convince me that the U.S is the one who is morally wrong in the example I've provided here. Well, that is to say, they consider Russian to be in the wrong.
You see how the tables are turned when we are talking about the U.S. instead of Russia?
Clearly, it is the Baltic governments who are morally in the wrong by encouraging anti-Russian racism in their laws, and police crackdowns.
Regards!
Basil
Let us say for example that some fascist dictator down south decides to make war. He sweeps up from S. America and invades Central America all the way up to Mexico.
The Mexicans are proud and fight off this tyrant vigorously for a time, but in the end they ask for U.S support.
The U.S invades Mexico, heads south and pushes the tyrant all the way back to his homeland, where eventually he is defeated by a combination of freedom fighters from within, and armies fro sympathetic nations around.
In the aftermath Mexico has a great deal of turmoil re-establishing it's own government, and in the opts for joining with the U.S. in something of a North American Union, in which the U.S. has some controlling interest in the Mexican state.
Let's say for the next 90 years or so many U.S. citizens immigrate to Mexico, just as many Mexicans immigrate northward. Let us even go so far as to say that the U.S government creates a sponsorship program whereby U.S. citizens willing to immigrate south and start anew life in helping to rebuild Mexico are given great incentives.
So after 90 years, lets say, you have about 40% of the population of Mexico as Anglo-Saxon whites who have made this their home. The new generations of whites have never known any other home. In fact, by now even their grandparents who came here have passed on.
Let's say that the new generations of ethnically Hispanic Mexicans don't remember the war. The society they have rebuilt is far removed from any trace of the former period of captivity, except for a hand full of war memorials.
Let's say that many of the younger generation start persecuting the Anglo-Saxons (AS) who live here, because they don't feel it is right for all those people to live in their land. Let's say that the persecution also instigates back-lash fro the AS crowd who feel they've plenty of right to live there as they've lived there their whole lives.
Let's say the government now steps in: but far from stepping in so as to diffuse the situation, on the contrary makes it deliberately hard for English speakers to conduct business, and starts taking steps (which it says are in the interest of the AS crowd) to ban English in public, and so on. Business signs must be in Spanish, all business and legal documents must be in Spanish, and so on.
Lets say they also decide to remove all war memorials to U.S. soldiers who died liberating their country: why, because it shows "U.S. Aggression".
Let's say that the U.S gov protests against this move by Mexico, but that the Mexicans basically say "screw you" to the U.S. gov. We are an independent state and you cannot boss us around.
Well, leaving aside the politics for a moment between U.S. and Mexico in this scenario, let us discuss "right and wrong" - that is to say morals.
How can it possibly be "right" what the Mexicans are doing in my pretend scenario here?
And yet, I am not speaking of U.S. and Mexico here, but rather of Russia and the Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The above is precisely what has happened in the Baltic countries, and yet for some reason (I believe only because they are brainwashed by the official U.S. news media that casts everything it can in an anti-Russian slant).. for some reason my friends try to convince me that the U.S is the one who is morally wrong in the example I've provided here. Well, that is to say, they consider Russian to be in the wrong.
You see how the tables are turned when we are talking about the U.S. instead of Russia?
Clearly, it is the Baltic governments who are morally in the wrong by encouraging anti-Russian racism in their laws, and police crackdowns.
Regards!
Basil
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Angelina, In Memory of Her Brief Life With Us
I wrote a little blurb this evening, with many photos, about the short time we had our cat Angelina.
Check it out.
This is something I wanted to blog about, and yet post a lot of photos at the same time. So, I found the form of a web page with downloadable photos to better suit the purpose.
~ Basil
Friday, May 25, 2007
The Arts and Pop Culture
This was an interesting article:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/315862_joel16.html?source=mypi
a particular phrase:
"The arts don't live in the media. ... Our society has chosen not to
make arts part of our public culture." By contrast, pop culture is
glorified. Our schoolchildren can name NBA stars and contestants on
"American Idol." But, asked Gioia: "Can they name a living American
poet, a famous architect, a classical musician, a philosopher or a
theologian?"
Well, what made this article so interesting to me was I surprised myself by finding I disagree. The main problem here is the contrast between "the arts" and "popular
culture." There is no such contrast. It takes the same collaborative
effort of many artists to create a great movie, or a rock concert, as it
does to create a ballet performance, or a performance of the opera. The
problem is not an unbreachable divide between "the arts" and "pop
culture" - the problem is "no sense of history."
The more traditional (historic) arts (like a ballet or opera performance) need to be taught in our schools alongside the newer arts. It can take work to enjoy an opera or a ballet. It can also take work to enjoy a good movie. Our main problem is that as a society we really don't like things that aren't easy.
So, in that respect, movies, literature, music and other elements of the arts that "aren't easy" are also good for us. They challenge us to think at the same time that they entertain us.
Do you folks know that Socrates (the original) actually took part as an actor in Athenian plays. He sometimes played the roll of god (which ever one was needed in the particular play) by being let down in a great basket above the stage where he made sagacious pronouncements. He sometimes did this and made a great buffoon of himself, much to the enjoyment of the audience.
Let us not be so quick to divorce the "true arts" from pop culture.
Even in history we see the sage playing the part of the fool in order to entertain the crowds - even to make them laugh.
Cheers!
Basilfly
This was an interesting article:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/315862_joel16.html?source=mypi
a particular phrase:
"The arts don't live in the media. ... Our society has chosen not to
make arts part of our public culture." By contrast, pop culture is
glorified. Our schoolchildren can name NBA stars and contestants on
"American Idol." But, asked Gioia: "Can they name a living American
poet, a famous architect, a classical musician, a philosopher or a
theologian?"
Well, what made this article so interesting to me was I surprised myself by finding I disagree. The main problem here is the contrast between "the arts" and "popular
culture." There is no such contrast. It takes the same collaborative
effort of many artists to create a great movie, or a rock concert, as it
does to create a ballet performance, or a performance of the opera. The
problem is not an unbreachable divide between "the arts" and "pop
culture" - the problem is "no sense of history."
The more traditional (historic) arts (like a ballet or opera performance) need to be taught in our schools alongside the newer arts. It can take work to enjoy an opera or a ballet. It can also take work to enjoy a good movie. Our main problem is that as a society we really don't like things that aren't easy.
So, in that respect, movies, literature, music and other elements of the arts that "aren't easy" are also good for us. They challenge us to think at the same time that they entertain us.
Do you folks know that Socrates (the original) actually took part as an actor in Athenian plays. He sometimes played the roll of god (which ever one was needed in the particular play) by being let down in a great basket above the stage where he made sagacious pronouncements. He sometimes did this and made a great buffoon of himself, much to the enjoyment of the audience.
Let us not be so quick to divorce the "true arts" from pop culture.
Even in history we see the sage playing the part of the fool in order to entertain the crowds - even to make them laugh.
Cheers!
Basilfly
Thursday, May 24, 2007
To Blog or Not To Blog
I don't blog very much. At least not 1/10th of the time that I email myself some grand new idea that I want to blog about.
By the time I get home and re-read my email I'm no longer interested.
Now, today's idea "Osama Wears A Burqa" was really a short story, and not a typical blog post. It may end up on my blog, because I loath the commercial publishing industry and don't really want to send my stories and poetry I write to commercial publishers. Or it may end up on my blog because I think it is too funny, too interesting, and too poignant to wait around for somebody else to publish.
Either way you go, I'm not ready to write it. It takes some time.
Now, other stories, thoughts, ideas: they pop into my head, and by the time I get home from work at night I am weary of them.
Take for example this blog post here...
(insert link)
.. I was all hot about the topic when I first read that article... but the heat subsided, and by the time I was at my home computer, it wasn't interesting any more.
Now today's idea, I'll tell you, is really more of an anecdote than a traditional "blog post":
I was in the break room at work fixing some green tea. A co-worker comes along... now this guy is really into hiking - I mean serious hiking, for weeks in the wilderness, that sort of thing. But as far as I know he doesn't have any vices, like drinking bourbon, smoking cigars, or drinking green tea.
Anyway, I'm fixing my green tea. And mentions the fact that we've got a large assortment of teas stacked up there. (I sense you aren't getting it... so some background is necessary here: our company provides food and beverage all day long..) Okay, so he's looking at the huge pile of teas. I mean there's about 30 or 40 different kinds of tea. "Well," I say, "many of them are here because folks like to bring in their own tea that they like a lot. Or maybe their own tea that they don't like."
(He laughs.)
And then I say, "Well most of the white teas are here because Bill is on a white tea fling right now and keeps bringing them in to keep it stocked up at work." Then I explain what white tea is all about, how it has (possibly) even more antioxidants than green tea, and how that has more that black, and so on.
"You see," I say, "you keep pumping your blood stream full of antioxidants, and you'll live forever."
(He chuckles.)
And, I'm thinking, yeah it's funny, but I know people who really live their lives like they think that.
"Well, forever is a long time..." he says.
(I'm on a roll with the "forever" thing). "Yeah, you become immortal like a vampire: all those antioxidants rushing through your blood veins."
(he laughs again)
Then he says: "Yeah, you live forever, but then you get old and your bones are brittle, and your body breaks down..." (here now I'm feeling self conscious because I'm all out of shape) "... and pretty soon someone is feeding you through a tube...."
"If I can't enjoy life," he concludes, "I don't want to live life any longer at all."
And I'm left with that thought. And, really, I think it is a profound life. I think of someone I know who is obsessed with living forever, and yet never goes out of his house. What's the point?
I think I'm on the other extreme. I enjoy life so much that it is probably slowing me down. I have so many different interests that I cannot possibly feed them all. I have so many hobbies, pursuits, ideas... that I cannot possibly write them all.
And so I'm back to the blog... and thinking: why don't I blog more?
Blogging, the experts now tell us, is a form of journalism. Where the heck did all these !#@$#@!$@ experts come from. Where were they back when blogging was invented? Where were they when the internet began? Well, I was there. I remember it.
I am a Poet, and to heck with blogging journalists. Literature is an art form, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A journalist is someone who reports the facts, but a Poet is someone who makes you feel them. What on earth makes these idiots think that to give someone who blogs the title of "journalist" somehow elevates them? No thank you: do not sink us that low.
They are a bunch of idiots, the blogging journalists. It's just a ploy by the newspapers, by the traditional media, to pull in the net and see if it can catch some fish. You see, we all know that people are reading less and less. Yet at the same time, more people are reading and writing blogs. So, what does it end up amounting to? Fewer and fewer people are reading commercial literature of any sort. So, the commercial literature giants are going after the little guys - in hopes for a "piece of the action."
Cheers!
Basilfly
I don't blog very much. At least not 1/10th of the time that I email myself some grand new idea that I want to blog about.
By the time I get home and re-read my email I'm no longer interested.
Now, today's idea "Osama Wears A Burqa" was really a short story, and not a typical blog post. It may end up on my blog, because I loath the commercial publishing industry and don't really want to send my stories and poetry I write to commercial publishers. Or it may end up on my blog because I think it is too funny, too interesting, and too poignant to wait around for somebody else to publish.
Either way you go, I'm not ready to write it. It takes some time.
Now, other stories, thoughts, ideas: they pop into my head, and by the time I get home from work at night I am weary of them.
Take for example this blog post here...
(insert link)
.. I was all hot about the topic when I first read that article... but the heat subsided, and by the time I was at my home computer, it wasn't interesting any more.
Now today's idea, I'll tell you, is really more of an anecdote than a traditional "blog post":
I was in the break room at work fixing some green tea. A co-worker comes along... now this guy is really into hiking - I mean serious hiking, for weeks in the wilderness, that sort of thing. But as far as I know he doesn't have any vices, like drinking bourbon, smoking cigars, or drinking green tea.
Anyway, I'm fixing my green tea. And mentions the fact that we've got a large assortment of teas stacked up there. (I sense you aren't getting it... so some background is necessary here: our company provides food and beverage all day long..) Okay, so he's looking at the huge pile of teas. I mean there's about 30 or 40 different kinds of tea. "Well," I say, "many of them are here because folks like to bring in their own tea that they like a lot. Or maybe their own tea that they don't like."
(He laughs.)
And then I say, "Well most of the white teas are here because Bill is on a white tea fling right now and keeps bringing them in to keep it stocked up at work." Then I explain what white tea is all about, how it has (possibly) even more antioxidants than green tea, and how that has more that black, and so on.
"You see," I say, "you keep pumping your blood stream full of antioxidants, and you'll live forever."
(He chuckles.)
And, I'm thinking, yeah it's funny, but I know people who really live their lives like they think that.
"Well, forever is a long time..." he says.
(I'm on a roll with the "forever" thing). "Yeah, you become immortal like a vampire: all those antioxidants rushing through your blood veins."
(he laughs again)
Then he says: "Yeah, you live forever, but then you get old and your bones are brittle, and your body breaks down..." (here now I'm feeling self conscious because I'm all out of shape) "... and pretty soon someone is feeding you through a tube...."
"If I can't enjoy life," he concludes, "I don't want to live life any longer at all."
And I'm left with that thought. And, really, I think it is a profound life. I think of someone I know who is obsessed with living forever, and yet never goes out of his house. What's the point?
I think I'm on the other extreme. I enjoy life so much that it is probably slowing me down. I have so many different interests that I cannot possibly feed them all. I have so many hobbies, pursuits, ideas... that I cannot possibly write them all.
And so I'm back to the blog... and thinking: why don't I blog more?
Blogging, the experts now tell us, is a form of journalism. Where the heck did all these !#@$#@!$@ experts come from. Where were they back when blogging was invented? Where were they when the internet began? Well, I was there. I remember it.
I am a Poet, and to heck with blogging journalists. Literature is an art form, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A journalist is someone who reports the facts, but a Poet is someone who makes you feel them. What on earth makes these idiots think that to give someone who blogs the title of "journalist" somehow elevates them? No thank you: do not sink us that low.
They are a bunch of idiots, the blogging journalists. It's just a ploy by the newspapers, by the traditional media, to pull in the net and see if it can catch some fish. You see, we all know that people are reading less and less. Yet at the same time, more people are reading and writing blogs. So, what does it end up amounting to? Fewer and fewer people are reading commercial literature of any sort. So, the commercial literature giants are going after the little guys - in hopes for a "piece of the action."
Cheers!
Basilfly
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