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Obama promised government transparency. I don't remember Bush promising that, which, to me, for this one issue, makes Obama the bigger liar.
Between the ridiculous war waged against Wikileaks (truth is treason!) and Obama's general treatment of whistleblowers, to hear this is simply an additional slap in the face.
And I didn't even vote for the man (no I'm not stupid enough to vote for McCain either!). I gotta wonder how much more that slap stings when received by someone who swallowed his bullshit enough to vote for him.
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Yessss! More remix comics!!! Garfield Minus Garfield, watch out!
March 2011
Monthly Archive
March 30, 2011
March 30, 2011
VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Superman & Batman: Public Enemies (2009)
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video[2] Comments
[IMDB link] [Netflix link] A new Batman/Superman animated movie? Awesome!
PEOPLE: A lot of the same people who have been involved in all animated depictions of Batman & Superman since 1990, such as producer Bruce Timm. Kevin Conroy voices Batman for the 19th year or so, and Tim Daly from Wings picks up the Superman role he’s been playing for a good 15 yrs. This is the so called “Timm-verse”, which is really the “verse” that has been putting out the best DC-based superhero animation for the past 20 years. Including recent movies we’ve watched, like Green Lantern:First Flight, Superman:Doomsday, etc.
Clancy Brown is Lex Luthor — just like he’s been for quite some time in the animated Batman/Superman universe. We also have LeVar Burton (Giordi from Star Trek:TNG), Xander Berkeley (George Mason from 24 Season 1-2, and a minor role in Gargoyles), Michael Dorn (Worf from Star Trek:TNG), Jennifer Hale (well-known voice actor from 200+ endeavors), Allison Mack (Chloe from Smallville), John C. McGinley (Office Space, Puff Puff Pass, Se7en, Platoon), Robert Patrick (the T-1000 in Terminator 2, Bridge To Terabithia, Last Action Hero, Die Hard 2), Hector Elizondo (Beverly Hills Cop 3, and a ton of cartoons), Grey DeLisle (Mandy from The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy, Azula from Avatar:The Last Airbender, Spiral from Wolverine & The X-Men, Sally from The Spectacular Spider-Man, Debbie from Harvey Birdman:Attorney At Law, Asajj from Star Wars:Clone Wars, and tons of other cartoons. Also she has an orgasm in the videogame Vampires Bloodline.)
QUIRKS: Based on a graphic novel.
No holds barred. They say bitch. They say hell. They imply shit but cut it off. As the superhero based cartoons on television seem to become more and more juvenile (such as Batman The Brave And The Bold, Legion Of Superheroes, Superhero Squad, Iron Man: Armored Adventures), it seems the comic companies are starting to aim their higher-caliber adult-oriented superhero animation (such as the 1990s Batman & Superman cartoons, and the 2000s Justice League) to direct-to-DVD releases. This means fewer episodes, but higher quality — as well as no need to go through a specific channel’s standards and practices censorship.
This takes place in the present. They open up with a news barrage talking about the bad economy, and an obvious Jon Stewart making politically-relevant comedic remarks about various current events. Lex Luthor is president now — and everybody hero-worships him, even when he does something wrong. (Kind of like Obama.)
Oh, and an asteroid made of kryptonite is going to hit the earth in 7 days, like in the movie Armageddon.
Oh, and also: There’s a $1 billion bounty on Superman and Batman, for being non-government-sanctioned vigilantes.
With this combination of factors, you know things are going to get interesting.
VISUALS: Great animation! The characters look somewhat like they do in the Timm-verse, but more buff and ragged.
BAD STUFF: Very short. Precisely 3 22-minute TV episodes in length: 66 minutes.
And surely they could have [highlight for spoilers]→ used the wormhole to simply move the asteroid, rather than using it to move nukes to the asteroid? One explanation is that maybe we couldn’t make wormholes big enough.
A lot of people say this was lacking on story. Personally, I think superhero action works with or without a great story. Good action without a good story still makes for good visual entertainment. But of course a better story makes everything better! Some people like this better than the graphic novel, due to a change in how the public is turned against Superman.
CONCLUSION: Despite what some people feel are a few plot flaws, we absolutely loved this. This is one of the most superior animated incarnations of both Batman AND Superman, and the style seemed to be edgier, more modern, and more “realistic” (which is admittedly kind of an oxymoron with Superhero sci-fi).
RATINGS: Netflix: 5/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10.
RECOMMENDATION: Didja like Justice League? Then you better go check this out.
SIMILAR MOVIES: Superman & Batman last teamed up in the Timm-verse in the “World’s Finest” movie, which also had them both independently figuring out the other’s secret identity: One of my favorite Timm-verse moments EVER.
MOVIE QUOTE: “God bless America. God bless me!” -President Lex Luthor
(more…)
March 29, 2011
JOURNAL: YARD SALES: 20110327: 2011 Expedition #1: one sale on the way to (and from) doing our taxes
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Hobbies & Activities, People, Yard Sales[4] Comments
Busy extended weekend. Company thursday night. Party friday. Tax preparation saturday afternoon. Party saturday night. Potluck party sunday. Parents+grandparent visit monday. So when I got up pretty early (for me) Saturday, I chose not to go to yardsaleing.
Eventually we went to our 1PM tax appointment, but realized we were running 10 minutes early or so. We decided we’d stop at one sale if we saw one. We tried 2 different ones. The one we went to had signs that were very poor, wrapped roundly around telephone polls so you weren’t really sure which plane tangent to the pole the arrow is supposed to exist on. Eventually, despite 3 signs, we found the yard sale. This was after missing another sale that used paper plates.
PRO TIP:
Paper plate signs are *BAD*. It means it’s 90% likely the sale is utterly useless; peoples’ stuff is often exactly as classy as their signage, and if they had to use paper plates for their yard sale signs, they probably lack enough class to have junk worth buying. *Confusing* signs, however, are a good thing. It means that people who tried to go to the sale failed, which decreases your competition and increases your odds of finding something good. *Obsolete* signs are the worst. You bring me all the way down a street for nothing, I’m beeping all the way back up. If you don’t like it, get on your neighbors to take their invalid signs down. You’re wasting my gas, time, and effort!
Anyway, despite their confusing signage, we managed to find the sale. These people wanted prices that seemed quite high for yard sale stuff. They were still good prices, though. Just not the steal we’re normally used to. And they at least pretended to only speak Spanish, so bargaining was gonna be hard. Their stuff was a mix of garbage and expensive things. It seemed like they spent themselves crazy, spent themselves out of their house, and now were losing everything. On sale included HUGE video projectors (could I even carry it?), drums, many TVs, 2-3 XBOX 360s, other consoles, toys that hadn’t even been opened, or were opened but never used. Tons of stuff.
They even had a duplicate of one of Carolyn’s cat tents for $1, but she opted not to get it. I thought someone wanted one, though, so that might have been a mistake.
We spent about 10 minutes there, were 5 minutes late to our taxes, and stopped at it again on our way back (after calling up Mark I to solicit advice on whether to buy a bass drum or not, and then not listening to his advice when he gave it).
Because the sale was on the way, we really only spent about ~25 minutes total on yardsaleing, and at most a mile of extra driving. Already on the way somewhere == LOW OVERHEAD!
Total spent was $38.35 plus ~$0.12 gas for 1 mile of driving, for a total cost of $38.47.
We bought 7 items – for a total estimated value of $163, leading to a profit of $124.53. To earn that much after taxes you’d really have to earn $180; money saved (by not having to spend it) is actually worth more than we realize when the government’s cut is taken into consideration.
Anyway, this works out to a “wage” of $298/.87hr as a couple or $149.44/hr per person. Really high because it was a quick stop with no overhead and more expensive stuff than we usually buy at yardsales.
$15.00: LiteOn LVW-1105HC video capture DVD recorder / MPG4 DVD player. 11″ x 10.6″ x 2.0x”/ 6.2lbs. Our first DVD player! (Not counting PS2s.) Remote missing, but I am planning on using this primarily for converting, not watching dvds, so that will not be an inconvenience.
This will let us convert VHS to DVD, plus it’s really small, so we can take it to places that don’t have dvd players.
It can also play MPG4 files; no clue if that means Divx AVI, or if MKV support is included (guessing no).
It also automatically pauses dvd recording when you hit the end of a vhs tape you’re recording.
Apparantly you can also program it to record shows; some people use it like a DVR, but with with DVD-RWs instead of a harddrive.
Let’s hope it works!
[Amazon page] [CNet review] [TechRader review]
(EV:$80-$150 new, $250 at launch, so we’ll say $40 now)
- $8.00: drum, bass drum, Pacific CX Series 14334, 23″ head, 21″ deep, brown/wood color, with Aquarium Super Kick 1 head ($70) (needed tightening, and sounded MUCH deeper once I spent 20 minutes tightening all the drum head bolts), Gibraltar Click Pad – part of this $900 set (EV:we’ll call it $100 depreciated to $75)
unfortunately, just the bass drum :)
- $5.00: drum, tom-tom, FirstAct Discovery Designer Jr., 14″ head (damaged with a crease that does not affect the drumming), 10″ deep, blue – part of this $200 set (EV:we’ll call it $40 depreciated to $30)
unfortunately, just the tom-tom :)
- $5.00: dustbuster, Trisonic TS-VM300, still in box – our FOUR OR FIVE dustbusters we got for our wedding in 2000 are finally almost all dead. Great that we ran into one right when we were soon going to need one. ($12.50 price sticker on it) (EV:$10)
$2.50: puzzle, 3’x2′ floor puzzle, 48-piece, solar system, Melissa & Doug brand, brand new and verified complete (3’x2′), new condition ($$7)- $2.50: flying saucer, remote control, still in box – for our cats, X-Day, or both – in box (49mHz frequency model) (suggested retail price:$40, and it was brand new/unused, so I am EV this at $40, not the $75 Amazon is selling it for) – okay, this saucer doesn’t really fly that high actually. No good for X-Day, barely good for the cats.
- $0.35: yarn, huge lump, looks new, pink/purple/green/blue (for darning socks) (EV:$1)
Click here for other Yard Sale-related postings.
* EV stands for “Estimated Value”, which I estimate by looking things up in Google Shopping/Google/Amazon/Ebay. I don’t always deduct for an item being used, unless it’s actually in worse condition in a way that matters. For example, I estimate books at the cover value. I also try to only count shipping if it’s the type of thing that would need to be shipped, and only if the price isn’t “fixed” (i.e. 1 cent items that cost $10 to ship would not be $10 in person). (more…)
March 29, 2011
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Many people have told me that if the Arabs simply surrendered and became Israeli citizens, that they could have escaped their suffering at the hands of the oppressive illegal Israel government.
Not true.
Nevermind the 19 or so years of martial law those Arab-Israeli citizens had to suffer, or the discrimination that goes on until today.
Even today, the government is still oppressing those who may question its existence, or the fact that it's specifically a Jewish state with racist policies.
The american equivalent of this law would be de-funding my state college (Virginia Tech) if they dared question that America be a Christian nation, or that the revolutionary war might not have been necessary.
That shit wouldn't fly in America. Let's not pretend Israel is some great democracy with freedom for all. It isn't. This is state-sponsored revisionism. (Forced conscription sucks too.)
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True capitalism should mean a duality of markets – those protected by licenses and certifications, and those who do not want such protection. Such protection should not be forced on us. If I want to buy a cookie from a girl on her lawn, I should be able to. If I want to let someone pay me to drive them somewhere, I should be able to. If I want to pay you to defend me in court, even though you have no license to practice law, I should be able to. This shit shouldn't be forced on us.
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Intellectual property laws are out of control. You gotta love how Marilyn Monroe and Elvis come into play in the history of these laws. If you have money, you get the system to change for you.
Smells like aristocracy in here.
March 27, 2011
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John The Canadien's summary of the various things we watched Thursday night.
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The Twitter account for Fox's latest adult primetime cartoon, Bob's Burgers.
The show is great — though it is more low key comedy (like most shows from that production company – Home Movies for example) than Seth MacFarlane cartoons (Family Guy, American Dad).
It's definitely better than King Of The Hill — but perhaps not as lovable to most people.
March 26, 2011
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It's scary how good Cracked has become!
March 25, 2011
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Nevermind that the person was a diabetic who had lost control of their faculties.
Nevermind that it was a FAMILY MEMBER who called 911 (thus resulting in his death).
Nevermind that even deliberate drunk driving is not a capitol offense that can receive the death penalty.
Nevermind that the victim did not resist.
Nope. Cops can simply shoot you to death if they feel like it.
Want to bet there will be zero discipline of the public servant (Officer Louis "Law" Jones) who shot this man to death?
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Pretty similar to my experiences.
Ubuntu in 2005 couldn't recognize a card from a 1999 computer? They had 6 years to come up with a driver!
Another unix fanboy informed me that my hardware was *TOO OLD*, and the linux community votes on which drivers to stop supporting in order to keep kernel size down.
If I wanted a group of people voting on what I can support with my software — then I'd buy an Apple, lol.
Who's left? Windows.
March 24, 2011
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What could possibly go wrong? LOTS.
I don't really care for crime-drama as a genre — and I prefer crime-drama movies to TV series.
But I LOOOOVE fantasy.
So the fantasy element might make me enjoy something I don't normally like — sort of like how vampires and werewolves make it so I can sit through a whiny teenage emo romance movie series (I'm talking about Twilight, which I actually enjoy somewhat).
So who knows. I've enjoyed the Discworld MOVIES. Maybe I'd enjoy a series as well.
(ANYTHING would be better than Midnight Chronicles. Just wanted to say that. My last foray into made-for-TV fantasy was GOD-AWFUL.)
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Stoning people to death: Not just for Islam, but for Christians too.
I mean, when you read the headline, it's plainly obvious before reading the article that this has to do with religion.
Thank you, religion, for "providing us with a moral framework" to justify murdering people.
Where are the atheists stoning people to death for their sexuality, again? Oh yea, that behavior is exclusively in the realm of religion.
If this kid would have heard that in a Marilyn Manson song (not that Manson sings anything homophobic), Manson would be on trial in the media also. But when it's the bible? Business as usual.
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Good news, everyone!
March 24, 2011
VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: The Foot Fist Way (2006)
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video[3] Comments
[IMDB link] [Netflix link] “The story of a man who teaches people how to kick other people in the face.”
LIMERICK REVIEW: (not a great one; these are hard!) An instructor who’s wife liked to fuck,
idolized superstar Chuck The Truck.
His wife went too far,
then left in the car.
Some people don’t have the greatest luck.
UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ Tae Kwon Do guy’s wife sleeps around a lot. His hero is not heroic.
PEOPLE: Jody Hill‘s first feature film — before making the hilariously dark hit Observe And Report. Watch for this guy’s future movies — he’s going somewhere.
Starring Danny McBride (Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express, Observe And Report, Land Of The Lost, and uncredited roles in Fanboys and Superbad); Mary Jane Bostic (a n00b) as his wife; Ben Best (who co-wrote it) as the famous fighter; and keep an eye out for Collette Wolfe (Jody Hill‘s wife, also the “crippled” girl in Observe And Report, 17 Again).
QUIRKS: The title is a semi-literal translation of Tae Kwon Do, which is what this movie is about. It’s a sports comedy. A martial arts comedy. But fortunately the sports remain a background plot advancement device, while the comedy itself takes the foreground.
BAD STUFF: Nothing!
CONCLUSION: The dialog and jokes for this movie were insanely funny. There’s really not a way to summarize the brilliance of how this movie played out. It was extremely funny!
RATINGS: Netflix: 4/5. IMDB: 8/10. Tempting to give this 5/5 stars, as it didn’t really fail anywhere other than having 2 montages that weren’t comedic montages. But maybe we’re just spoiled after the best comedic montage ever in Wet Hot American Summer.
RECOMMENDATION: See it!! It’s an easy-to-overlook great comedy.
SIMILAR MOVIES: Sports comedies with ridiculous people full of themselves are all somewhat similar to each other. If you liked this, you might want to try Blades Of Glory.
MOVIE QUOTE: There’s soooooooooooo many… But if you haven’t seen it, you might not want to read all of these:
Fred Simmons: Dentistry? I can’t even believe that’s something that’s real.
Suzie Simmons: I was so drunk – like, Myrtle Beach drunk.
Fred Simmons: Meditation is terrific and all, but I’ve never heard of it saving anyone from a gang rape type situation. Meditate on that. Rape.
Fred Simmons: I’m so hungry I could eat a grown man’s ass right now!
Fred Simmons: Let me think about that for a second. Ok, I’ve thought about it and I think my answer to that question would have to be “fuck you”. I don’t care if you wake up in a ditch with grown men shitting on you and jumping on top of your head. Maybe your nose will turn into a big ole dick and you can stroke that all the time. I hope your hair turns into dog shit one day. You wake up and you run your comb through it and all that it is, is little trundles of dog shit. The worst shit that you could imagine. AIDS… it’s cool. Everything comes around sweetheart.
FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Lauren & Andy seemed to really like it. Glen liked it. (more…)
March 23, 2011
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Unlike yesterday's Catan link, today's link works. BrettSpeilWelt — where I go to play Dominion online — has a playable Settlers Of Catan.
The interface takes some getting used to; I was playing like a retard for the first 2 games. But now that I have the hang of it, I have a feeling that my actual game is going to be closed and never used.
Still, I needed it to learn how to play!
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Yes, let's give the government the power to regulate the behavior of consenting adults in private business beyond that of criminal law. FOR YOUR HEALTH!
This is exactly the same as a smoking ban. "We don't like what you're doing, so we're going to tell you not to do it, even though it's legal. IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD."
Condoms are gross… Why would I want to watch one in a porn? What next, are cumshots going to be illegal because they might transmit a disease? I hear pornos need to have that moneyshot or nobody thinks it's real. Maybe we should just have simulated porn, then everyone can be really safe. Big Brother is fucking you.
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Apple: Proving themselves bigger assholes than Microsoft on a nearly daily basis.
Sure, Microsoft has sued to protect "Windows" in the realm of operating systems.
But "app" is an abbreviation for application, and "app store" is not an apple specific term. Android has an app store. iPhone has 3rd party app stores too (Cydia, Installous). For Microsoft to have been as big of an asshole, they would have had to sue people for using "OS".
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I'm removing this from my browser toolbar, so I need to save it here :) Culdcept is an amazing game that is best described as a mix of Magic The Gathering (without sucking away your money) and Monopoly. You play like Monopoly, but you battle cards to decide whether you a) pay "rent" or b) steal their property from them altogether.
March 22, 2011
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This was a man literally foaming at the mouth and in need of help. But because he lacked the mental capacity to accept such help, we killed him using the very funds he paid taxes into.
Internal affairs found no problem with police killing people they are trying to get to go to the hospital.
"I stand behind the use of the Taser as an alternative to deadly force," says Chief William O'Brien, who is far as I am concerned is a supporter of institutionalized murder.
Officers Keith Cintron and Christopher Poythress are the ones who pulled the triggers on the tasers that probably killed this man. But they were "just following orders", right? I mean, just following orders means you can kill people, right? The Nazis who killed Jews were okay, because they were just following orders. Funny how Neuremberg Trial mentality only applies to Nazi Pigs and not American Pigs.
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Another boardgame portal, like BrettSpielWelt. This has a Settlers Of Catan clone that we have not tried yet, but it may or may not be better tahn the Settlers Of Catan in BrettSpielWelt. Only one way to find out!
The Settlers clone is called Xplorers on this site, however.
The problem is, however, that THIS SITE IS CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC! Maybe they will open up again someday?
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John The Canadien's recent account of our recent 3-hour hangout, including a review of the Warren The Ape finale.
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A new single from ATR's new album… This one's about human trafficking.
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Road rage: Better hope you don't get it from a cop, because they will have the additional motivation of knowing they can get away with it.
Leon Epps is an asshole.
March 21, 2011
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This is a pretty big deal. Just last year the DEA was saying "marijuana has no scientifically proven medical value".
They're no longer able to issue such statements, as the consensus is so strong they can no longer deny scientific fact.
March 20, 2011
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He wasn't even called for this. He was at the school for another reason, heard the kid, was annoyed by him, so he lifted him up by his throat.
The reason cops are pigs is because the system encourages pig cops to remain pig cops, instead of removing them from the force like a proper system would.
If the pigs were gone, the remaining cops would be heroes. Instead they are simply a part of a group that fucks up peoples' rights and lives every day.
The fact that the police/DA can't agree with the child protective agency indicates just how out of touch and out of control our police pigs are.
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Megadeth rocker Dave Mustaine refuses to play heavy rock anthem The Conjuring live – because the track is laden with black magic imagery and occult spells.
What a fucking pussy.
Religion: Even ruining thrash metal. Fuck you, Jesus.
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Abrahamic religions are evil perversions of previous religions. They spread like a virus because men rewrote them to be male religions, giving themselves more power, and allowing for more fanatacism.
Fuck Abraham.
Fuck Jesus.
Fuck Allah.
Fuck Jehova.
All your religions are belong to bullshit.God's words don't get to be rewritten by man. But it doesn't matter because they weren't God's words anyway.
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What good is insurance if the company fucks you over in your time of need?
Further in the article — I don't understand how federal courts can rule that employees must surrender their rights to jury trials and punitive damages. How is it surrendering a right if I have no say in it?
P.S. Clayton Hauser sounds like a piece of shit.
March 19, 2011
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Yes, instead of dealing with actual bullying in school, let’s have the government monitor us instead.
This just uses schools to claim even more surveillance rights than ever existed against students.
Fuck you, ever-encroaching anti-privacy Big Brother government.
March 19, 2011
VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Day Watch aka Night Watch 2 aka Dnevnoy Dozor (2006) (Russian version, not shorter international version)
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video[2] Comments
[IMDB link] [Netflix link] The sequel movie to Night Watch.
PEOPLE: Same ones as last movie.
QUIRKS: Russian urban fantasy sequel. Just like the previous movie, Night Watch, this became Russia’s highest-grossing movie.
Based on a book. Actually, the events in this movie are still events from the Night Watch (1st) book, and not from the Day Watch (2nd) book. So calling this Night Watch 2 is not at all inaccurate.
VISUALS: Excellent fantasy visuals!
MORALS: Chalk kicks ass.
CONCLUSION: This was much more coherent and less confusing than Night Watch 1. Overall, a much better movie. The pieces of both movies fit together, and events in the 1st movie are brought to light [or dark :)] here. While the first movie had quite a few flaws, this one didn’t have any.
RATINGS: Carolyn: Individually, Netflix: 4/5 stars, IMDB: 8/10. But Carolyn clarifies that the 2 movies put together collectively score 5/5 stars and 9/10, even though they don’t score that high individually.
I’m going to have to agree with Carolyn here. It got a 6.6/10 on IMDB in general.
RECOMMENDATION: To watch Night Watch without watching Day Watch would be a crime!
SIMILAR MOVIES: How many modern good vs. evil urban fantasy movies are there? Hellboy and Underworld come to mind.
MOVIE QUOTE: “Imperfections are hidden in darkness, Yegor. And people always have their imperfections.”
FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Jordan & Benj liked it.
WILHELM SCREAM: Yes. (more…)
March 18, 2011
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Great new study confirming what many of us already knew – marijuana is medicine, and the government is causing people to die by preventing its use. It's free, and poor people who can't afford insurance can simply grow a weed that may save them. The corporations don't want that.
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Thu has a twitter!!
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If cops weren't pigs, situations like this wouldn't exist. It takes a LOT of pigs for things to get this bad. Black arrested at a 16:1 ratio? No shooting in 6 yrs found unjustified? EVERY fatal shooting being a black person? 911 calls not in english going unanswered?
If police aren't pigs, how do situations like this occur?
March 18, 2011
VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Night Watch aka Nochnoy Dozor (2004)
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video[4] Comments
PEOPLE: From the director of the movie Wanted — comes the first of 2 movies that were supposed to be a trilogy: Night Watch. (Followed by Day Watch.)
QUIRKS: This is a Russian-language fantasy movie involving the never ending battle between the forces of darkness and light.
Based on a 4-book Russian fantasy series.
Expect vampires, witches, visions, surrealism, owls that aren’t what they seem, vomiting of blood, brief medieval battle scenes, secret societies, magical abortions, telepathy, and extreme weather.
When it came out, it was the #1 all-time box office movie in Russia.
VISUALS: Incredibly fantasy visuals! This takes place in “our” normal world, but there are some parts that are *incredibly* trippy. The Gloom, for example. You don’t want to deal with The Gloom, trust me.
MORALS: You probably shouldn’t perform abortions via magical spell. And if the good guys use the same tactics as the bad guys — are they really good?
BAD STUFF: There are really several separate plots of characters that don’t relate to each other very much, which is always a turn-off to me. Throw in the fact that we watched it with subtitles, and we started to get confused about who is who. Once again, another foreign movie where we think 2 different females are actually the same female. That can be a bit off-putting.
Carolyn said there wasn’t as much of an interconnecting twist at the end as she would have hoped… And I agree. However, since this is just the first movie of a “trilogy” (that was never completed; they only made 2 movies), I consider it more of an intro to the 2nd film than a complete story in itself.
It did wrap up a bit too conveniently. “Oh, we know what the problem is now, so it’s instantly solved. Yay.”
CONCLUSION: Despite it’s flaws, this was a solid, dark, urban fantasy movie with great visuals.
RATINGS: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IDMB: 7.5/10 (rounded down to 7/10).
RECOMMENDATION: If you love modern fantasy movies with good visual effects, this is a good start! Hopefully Day Watch will be even better than Night Watch.
SIMILAR MOVIES: City Of Lost Children has some of the fantasy + darkness + urban elements — though it takes place in the 1800s, and this movie takes place in the present.
MOVIE QUOTE: “…And so it will be, until a man emerges who is meant to become the Great One. And, if he chooses the side of Light, then Light will win. But, those, to whom the truth has been revealed, say that he will choose Darkness. For it is easier to kill the Light within oneself, than to scatter the Darkness around… The prophecies are coming true.”
FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Christie loved it. Ian & Benj really liked it. Jordan liked it. I’m surprised so many people have seen this! (more…)
March 17, 2011
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I've talked about these tress for decades! Glad they are becoming real.
All the environmentalism in the world isn't going to save us from ourselves. I'm all for preserving nature, but as a species we absolutely must learn how to subsist WITHOUT the assistance of nature.
(How else will we get off this rock and become a spacefaring race? Time is running out. We only have a few hundred million years :))
All these people whining that a real tree would be better are completely missing the point. If I need to take a breath of air, I can't wait for a new tree to grow. These can be rolled out now.
Of course, they're probably not worth it at all now. But as our technology improves, these will become cheaper to produce, and use less energy.
It's not a bad idea. It's a proof of concept.
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Illegal immigrant previously deported, came back, arrested for DUI, not deported, and now has killed people.
This is why when people are arrested they need to be checked against illegal immigration databases.
Not because of their race, but because only an citizen should have the right to remain here after drunk driving arrests.
Don't even get me started on the disproportionate number of DUIs from illegal immigrants. Facts can't be racist. They're just facts.
Now we'll have to spend $100Ks of tax money prosecuting and incarcerating someone who should not even physically be here.
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"History" is a loose term for what this is. But it was very interesting to look up some of my lifelong malls and read up about them. Springfield Mall really needs an entry here!
March 16, 2011
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I can understand where this is coming from — if you are on public assistance the public has the right to ensure that your money is actually spent on assistance. But saying that you can't carry cash is bullshit. What if you find a $50 on the ground? You can't pick it up? Ridiculous.
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Those who got free Panik art at our last house party might want to check out Panik's SubGenius yearbook, drawings of many SubGenius members.
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Since when does the government have the authority to tell journalists what medium they can report in? This is BLATANT violation of Freedom Of Press. Thank you, Republicans, for making yourselves look stupider every day.
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The headline is misleading; Australia only requires "outie" vaginas to be digitally altered. It is a tad silly.
Also, I dislike the requisite comments that pop up in ANY online discussion about vaginas, where someone says that a guy who prefers a shaved vagina is somehow illogical or (the best insult) a pedophile. By that same logic, women who prefer men's faces to be shaved (bare of hair, like children's faces) are also pedophiles.
Fact of the matter is, some people like seeing genitals. For them, hair blocks that view. Some women like seeing a man's jawline, chin, and lips. For them, hair blocks that view.
Personally, I think body hair is unnecessarily genetic code left over from our ape past. We should edit our DNA so that the only place hair grows on anyone is their head. I'll be the first to sign up. I don't need it. It just makes me have to wash more.
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Please show me an example in history where Democrats made it so that Republican lawmakers legislative votes do not count.
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And the weekly cop road rage stories continue… Of course a cop is more likely to throw you through your glass storm door if he knows his department won't even press charges against him!
Most road range incidents can only result in injury if you let the person follow you home, or stop your car. Guess who has the legal authority to force you to stop your car? Cops.
Also funny: This guy has the same name as Cyclops of the X-Men.
March 15, 2011
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Further proving that Obama was full of shit when he wrote a letter to the Justice Department telling them not to enforce medical marijuana laws in states where it is legal. Just another empty "hope and change" promise that he did not deliver on (like closing Guantanamo, standing in a picket line with protesters of unions are threatened, or ending any of our wars).
At this point, it's on you, Obama. You have the power, and you refuse to use it. What is your agenda? Re-election? Don't think that's gonna happen. Grow some fucking balls and make some real change while you're still in office. Stop being a douchebag.
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Yet another thing Apple won't let you do. What if I misplaced my phone in my house? I could use VNC to make it start playing music so that I could find it. Or I could check my phone messages from another location if I left my phone at home.
(Works best with Insomnia app, which keeps your wifi up even when the phone is locked.)
Of course Apple won't let you do this. You have to break Apple's rules to use Apple's devices in a proper way.
In no way, shape, or form, is the user experience enhanced by denying them the ability to remote into their own property.
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How is any of this helping society again? We have a guy wielding a knife barricaded in his own bedroom.
Where the fuck was the taser? Oh yea, tasers aren't for stopping shootings, they are for torturing people who don't comply.
So they shot and killed a guy with a knife. Fucking cowards.
But then an MTA cop showed up and shot Geoffrey Breitkopf dead!
One can only hope that Brietkopf was the one who fatally shot the knife-wielder, and thus received some karma for being a douchebag. But I have a feeling that both of the cops who shot someone dead are still unfortunately alive today, and that the cop who was shot dead probably did not deserve this.
Either way, they are all pigs. They took a psuedo-violent situation where no actual violence had occurred, and caused two people to die. This does not help society in the slighest. This is a loss of life.
The police of course will use the stat of the cop death to justify drawing their guns quicker, & using SWAT raids more.
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This is the THIRD time in a year that Apple has fucked up the simple task of making a clock work on their phone. Apple. "It just works." Bwahahahahahahah.
Claire's blog 