I just bought a bunch of movies from the tech market in the South of the city. It’s called Yunona, for anyone who cares (Юнона). Anyways, on these DVDs they often list what languages the film comes in. Usually Russian and the native language. Well, I bought a film based on it’s sweet cover, I’ve never been a fan of that particular proverb.
The title of the movie is Returner, and on the back of the DVD all the credits are in English. So I buy it, anticipating a satisfying futuristic sci-fi movie. Imagine the horror when I see that the only languages available are Russian and Japanese, and the only subtitles Russian. Yes, it is indeed a Japanese movie. But why did they lie to me about the langugages? And why are the credits in English!
It looks it could be right up my alley:
A kind of second rate knock-off of everything from John Woo stylistics to Mad Max contraptions, this Japanese B-flick makes for a campy action romp which will play best with tech-heads and gamer-types into anything action.
It was practically made especially for my friends and I. Kind of like Death Race 2000.
On a happier sidenote, I also picked up Tombstone, Spy Games, Bulletproof Monk, and Underworld. Has anyone heard of the movie Equilibruim? It came with Bulletproof Monk. One of my Russian friends has seen and liked it, but I want a second opinion. It looks like it could be cool.
I’ve bought quite a few (25) DVDs in my five months over here, but the amount of viewing is far from uniform. I’d say that a third I haven’t yet watched, though some of those I had already seen before buying the DVD. The rest I’ve probably seen once each. Then there are two in particular that I have seen four or five times each.
I don’t know why, but everytime a group from the dorm wants to watch a movie, it’s either “Kill Bill” or “The Hot Chick.” Admittedly, both are excellent films, but there comes a point when enough is enough. Seriously, “The Hot Chick” is far better than it looked in previews. I would liken it to “Zoolander,” another stupid looking comedy that turned out to be awesome. Each time after the first, I’ve watched them in Russian. So I guess that counts for something. Although, I still don’t understand the vast majority of what is said. Luckily for me, these are two very physical films.
It has begun.
Today the clocks were moved forward. As if it didn’t stay light long enough already, now it’s 8:30 and looking out my window it’s still bright as day. We’re not even near the apex yet. In summer it gets to the point where the sun doesn’t go far enough below the horizon to get really dark. It’s more of a seamless transition from dusk to dawn.
I think it’s going to drive me crazy.
Why is our government making secret laws about anything?
What other secret tax breaks do some groups get?
At stake is whether people of all religions can deduct the cost of religious education as a charitable gift, as Scientologists are allowed to do under an officially secret 1993 agreement with the Internal Revenue Service.
The chief tax lawyer for the Church of Scientology, Monique E. Yingling, said the Sklar lawsuit was baseless. She said that until the 1993 agreement, Scientologists were discriminated against by not being allowed to take charitable deductions.
“Auditing and training are both Scientology religious services,” Ms. Yingling said, that members “participate in to advance in Scientology.”
Mr. Sklar, though, said he saw no difference between the services that Scientologists cite for their deductions and the religious training his children receive at two Hebrew schools in Los Angeles.
“If the government is allowed to do this unchallenged, it means you have a state-favored religion, and that has never fared well for the Jews.”
Talk about an understatement.
Every single time I’ve heard about the conflict in Sudan, it’s been described as the Islamization and Arabization of the Southern Sudanese, who are Christians and animists (pagans). Essentially the government, run by the National Islamic Front in Khartoum, is trying to convert everyone to Islam, and if you don’t they either kill you (often cruicifiction) or they enslave you. It is, without a doubt, a horrendous human rights disaster.
Yet when a major Op-Ed author for the New York Times writes about it, he never once mentions the fact that the Muslims are trying to eradicate the Christians and animists. In fact, he never even mentions religion at all. He simply states that the Arab government is killing the Blacks. He never even attempts to give an explanation as to why. He lets the reader assume that it’s racial tension, which is true to only a small degree. The arabization part wants everyone to speak Arabic, and get tied in more with Arabic culture. The killings come in when you don’t convert to Islam.
The only explanation I can think of is that the author (ideologically a Liberal, just read some of his other columns) does not want people to think he’s intolerant of Islam. Well, we need to be intolerant of this particular strain of Islam, the one that’s committed to death and torture, the one being spread by Wahhabi mosques and bin Laden.
Let’s get back to the Islam that facilitated the Renaissance, the Islam that carried and advanced science and literature while Europe was spasming through the the Dark Ages.
PS: Who says there’s no dialogue going on in the Muslim community?
But what’s the news there? After all, they did arm the Hutus and Saddam.
France is also lobbying EU countries to drop the 15-year-old embargo on arms sales to China, imposed after the brutal 1989 suppression of pro-democracy demonstrators, the Financial Times said.
At least they’re consistent. If you’re opposed to the US, they’ll probably arm you too.
A couple of months ago, when doing some continuing electrical work, all of the fire alarms/ smoke detectors in the dorm were disconnected. Mind, this is the best dorm in St. Pete’s. There are still random wires hanging from the ceiling, and just last week I walked into my room to find somebody drilling holes in my bathroom. After the dust had settled (literally), I found that they had run a wire down my shower wall. It has a flimsy plastic covering. I’m a bit worried. I have no idea why it’s there. It seems that they brought a wire through the wall, ran it from the bottom of my shower up to the top, brought it along the ceiling to the other side of the bathroom, and grounded it to the metal pipes that carry my water. Pipes that I often touch when I’m wet, when I turn around … practically everytime I enter the bathroom because it’s so small.
Anyways, flash forward to last night, about 3am. Some joker throws his (or her, I’m all for gender equality) cigarette butt into the trash chute. Apparently it never occured to him that there might be some flammable stuff down there. Needless to say, a fire starts in the basement, and the hallways of the lower levels are engulfed in smoke. I, along with 80% of the dorm, slept through this, alarms being disconnected and all. Not noticing anything except a smoky odor when we left this morning for classes. I guess out of respect for the hour and understanding that students need their sleep, the several fire trucks that showed up and fought the fire decided not to use their sirens. Or, scarier yet, maybe the fire trucks here don’t have sirens.
Great, now that there is no longer a thick layer of snow to cushion my three storey fall, the fires begin.
I played a crazy game today. My roommate invited me, and I’m told that it’s essentially a made-up game by the people here at St. Petersburg State University. So it’s badminton, but without a racquet. Instead you attach foam pads to the backs of your hands and the tops of your feet. To seve, you have to kick the shuttlecock, but thereafter you can use your hands. Unfortunately, since the padding is on the back of your hand, it makes for some awkaward arm movements. I haven’t quite figured out a good way to do it, so I basically punched the birdie. It seems to me it would be easier if the padding was on the palm. But I wasn’t there when they invented it, so I don’t have a say.
I did well on my first day. There were about twelve people and only room for eight people to play. We all divided up into pairs, and had a doubles tournament. Two teams played at a time. We were only beat by one team, and the score was 14-15. What’s worse, the guy we were playing against cheated. He’s one of the two most experienced, so he’s good, and there’s no need to cheat, but he did anyways. The volleying is like volleyball, your team is allowed three hits to get it over the net, but they have to alternate between people. This kid hit twice in a row himself. My teammate didn’t see it, and I just assumed that it was legal. Then, later on, when she did it, he called it out. Additionally, he hit the net once, and play continued. I hit it, and it’s an out. Just a little bitter, that’s all. I’ve met plenty of people like this, and I can never stand ‘em. Especially if you’re good enough that you can win without cheating.
I was there with my roommate, and the coach asked us both back on Friday. Also, there might be some sort of tournament this weekend. Crazy. Who knew I’d go from being treated like a rag doll by Caucasians to actually being semi-coordinated in a random game.
Meanwhile Mark Aveyard notes a contradiction: “Remember being told by the left that Saddam’s regime and Al Queda had no relationship, that they actually hated each other? Now they’re saying that Al Queda attacked Spain because the US ousted Saddam!”
Good point, wish I’d seen that.
Brilliantly well-done remix of Bush’s State of the Union 2003. You have to go see it. Classic lines like:
Every year, by law and by custom, we meet here to threaten the world.
Our first goal is to show utter contempt for the environment.
This year, for the first time, we must offer every child in America, three nuclear missiles.
And while you’re there, go ahead and check out the main Bush Yoga page.
On a more serious note, is it any wonder why the left and the right in America can’t see eye to eye, we don’t even live in the same world. For instance, in the video they make fun of Bush’s logging proposals, saying they’ll destroy our forests. Yet they don’t realize that it’s years of leftist enviornmental laws that contributed to the devestating fires that struck Southern California last fall. Liberal laws that don’t allow people to clear away dead brush near their homes, thus creating a literal powder keg waiting to burn down residences.
That’s but one example of the diametrically opposed world we live in. My take on it is that most Liberals are just too blinded by ideology to see the facts for what they are. I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt on this one, because the only other explanation I can think of is that these people are such atrophied human beings that the idea of freeing a country from the terror of Saddam Hussein causes irrational hatred for “neo-conservatives,” Jews, Israel, and self-determination.
One of the internet’s greatest accomplishments is it’s ability to provide aging 80’s children access to their favorite cartoons of that era. I can’t remember the number of times, throughout my college career, that my roommates and I have had discussions turn to 80’s cartoons only to have vague recollections about such and such series or character. I have recently stumbled upon a clearinghouse for all your needs:
80scartoons.net
Yesterday’s attack on Spain is one of the bloodiest terrorist atcs ever committed. 200 dead and 1,500 wounded. Whoever was behind the bombings, whether it’s Basques or Islamo-facists, the world needs to once and for all condemn this type of “resistance.” It is not acceptable to kill civilians in order to extort your opposition. Just like we have outlawed certain types of warfare, ie. chemical and biological, we need to outlaw this one - indiscriminate attacks against civilians.
Of course, since the world’s “moral authority,” the UN, has spoken out in favor of palestinian terrorism, I don’t think there will be any action on this topic soon.
The most poignant and disturbing image:
Train cars were turned into twisted wrecks and platforms were strewn with corpses. Cell phones rang unanswered on the bodies of the dead as frantic relatives tried to call them.
Movieoke is a fantisic idea, and an outgrowth from Karaoke.
The concept almost explains itself: instead of making a fool of yourself singing in front of strangers, you do it by acting in front of a movie screen with the sound turned low.
I know I’m a technophile, but how cool is this (not the content, just the medium):
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani issued a fatwa on his Web site that said the document “will not gain legitimacy except after it is endorsed by an elected national assembly.”
[The "document" is the Iraqi temporary Constitution]
While Rob may have written off Winter, I’m not quite at that stage yet. I’m getting ready for warmer temperature, to be sure. But all things considered, I liked the psuedo endless nights. Oh, how I remember the days in December when the sun would rise at 9:30am and set at 4pm. Great city for vampires. Except they’d have to be migratory vampires, because the summers here just wouldn’t do at all.
However, for this year at least, winter is definitely on it’s way out. Yesterday and today both hovered around 0C, and never did I think I would consider that warm, but I do now. I spent the day wandering around with my coat open, and hat and gloves left safely at home. The last of the snow on the ground is all but melting away, and there hasn’t been any on the sidewalks for several days. It snowed last night, but it didn’t stick. Barring any freak weather patterns, I don’t imagine there will be any more snow in the city. The 10-day forecast even has all positives during the daytime. I took out my comfy shoes for the first time in months. You know, the ones that make me fall left and right if I walk on ice.
