Tuesday, July 20, 2004

I’m With Jay

Count me in!

Posted by at 01:13 PM
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Down With Love

I like Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, but Down With Love, which they star in is dreadful. At least the first 20 minutes are. I couldn’t get watch a minute more and turned it off.

Aaaah… it’s New York City in 1962, and love is blooming between a journalist (McGregor) and a feminist advice author (Zellweger), who’s falling head over heels despite her beau’s playboy lifestyle.

It’s supposed to be an homage to those old Doris Day - Rock Hudson movies from the 60s, but this is no Pillow Talk. It’s not even close.

Don’t waste your time and money on this stinker. It’s one of the worst movies I’ve seen. EVER.

Posted by at 12:12 PM
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Monday, July 19, 2004

Vile

I’ve seen this article (registration required, try Bug Me Not for a dummy userid/password) linked all over the place today - for the most part, all linkers are pretty repulsed by the callousness so proudly displayed by Ms. Richards.

I found out I was having triplets when I went to my obstetrician. The doctor had just finished telling me I was going to have a low-risk pregnancy. She turned on the sonogram machine. There was a long pause, then she said, ‘’Are you sure you didn’t take fertility drugs?’’ I said, ‘’I’m positive.’’ Peter and I were very shocked when she said there were three. ‘’You know, this changes everything,’’ she said. ‘’You’ll have to see a specialist.’’

My immediate response was, I cannot have triplets. I was not married; I lived in a five-story walk-up in the East Village; I worked freelance; and I would have to go on bed rest in March. I lecture at colleges, and my biggest months are March and April. I would have to give up my main income for the rest of the year. There was a part of me that was sure I could work around that. But it was a matter of, Do I want to?

I looked at Peter and asked the doctor: ‘’Is it possible to get rid of one of them? Or two of them?’’ The obstetrician wasn’t an expert in selective reduction, but she knew that with a shot of potassium chloride you could eliminate one or more.

Having felt physically fine up to this point, I got on the subway afterward, and all of a sudden, I felt ill. I didn’t want to eat anything. What I was going through seemed like a very unnatural experience. On the subway, Peter asked, ‘’Shouldn’t we consider having triplets?’’ And I had this adverse reaction: ‘’This is why they say it’s the woman’s choice, because you think I could just carry triplets. That’s easy for you to say, but I’d have to give up my life.’’ Not only would I have to be on bed rest at 20 weeks, I wouldn’t be able to fly after 15. I was already at eight weeks. When I found out about the triplets, I felt like: It’s not the back of a pickup at 16, but now I’m going to have to move to Staten Island. I’ll never leave my house because I’ll have to care for these children. I’ll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise. Even in my moments of thinking about having three, I don’t think that deep down I was ever considering it.

[...]

When we saw the specialist, we found out that I was carrying identical twins and a stand alone. My doctors thought the stand alone was three days older. There was something psychologically comforting about that, since I wanted to have just one. Before the procedure, I was focused on relaxing. But Peter was staring at the sonogram screen thinking: Oh, my gosh, there are three heartbeats. I can’t believe we’re about to make two disappear. The doctor came in, and then Peter was asked to leave. I said, ‘’Can Peter stay?’’ The doctor said no. I know Peter was offended by that.

Two days after the procedure, smells no longer set me off and I no longer wanted to eat nothing but sour-apple gum. I went on to have a pretty seamless pregnancy. But I had a recurring feeling that this was going to come back and haunt me. Was I going to have a stillbirth or miscarry late in my pregnancy?

I had a boy, and everything is fine. But thinking about becoming pregnant again is terrifying.

Sickening. The level of selfishness and complete irresponsibility is astounding. I say irresponsibility because she made the conscious decision to stop taking the pill because she didn’t like the way she felt on it (it makes her moody. Gee...). Nevermind that she’s not married to Peter, the father of her children, and has no plans to marry - but that’s a-whole-nother issue.

Obviously adoption never crossed her mind. It’s such a shame because I can think of several thousand couples who would have happily taken the two unwanted babies or even all three. Really, the one she let live would be better off with some one else as his mother. Instead he’s saddled with a cold, calculating, selfish monster for a mother and a spineless father (judging from his lack of arguing against the murder of two of his children).

And people wonder why our world is increasingly more violent? There’s nothing more heinous than legally sanctioned infanticide.

Additional Links:

OTB
M Malkin
Poliblog
ASV

Posted by at 05:17 PM
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Happy, Happy, Happy…

...Birthday, Bryan.

Posted by at 05:00 PM
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Harrowing Terror, Author Update

Via Michelle Malkin, I learned that Annie Jacobsen has an update to her article from last week about her scary flight with the Syrian music group.

The mainstream media started calling.

[...]

NBC was the first major news outlet to contact WomensWallStreet. The producer I spoke with on the telephone said the FBI had confirmed that 14 Syrians were on the flight, they confirmed the details about what happened upon landing in Los Angeles, and they said that the accounts from the flight attendants regarding what happened during the flight matched the accounts given by me and my husband to the FBI after we landed.

And Snopes.com is on the case, too.

Posted by at 04:41 PM
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Network Issues

So I got in to find that our network was down. Apparently, our server room was 120 degrees - we think that GSA, in order to conserve energy, turned everything off over the weekend, including the AC in the server room. I’m curious if any of the other offices in the courthouse had a similar problem.

Anyway, I had a good rant about my commute going, but I’m calm now, so there’s no point. Except I will say that it involved our fine State Troopers parked on the side of the road in the same spot as last month and a few drivers who still don’t understand the concept of “yield.”

So it’s 11:00am and I haven’t gotten a thing done yet since 85% of what I do involves a computer and our network.

Posted by at 01:09 PM
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Sunday, July 18, 2004

I, Robot

After church, my parents and I went for a quick lunch and then to see I, Robot. It took a while for me to get into it, but by the time Will Smith was eating his grandmother’s sweet potato pie, I was engaged. In the beginning the futuristic effects were a little distracting despite the seamlessness of them - really the graphics work was very well done. But by the time we were fully into the mystery, I forgot about the computer generated stuff. I’d like to see a behind the scenes thing - I’m curious how they did the robots - were they fully CGI or were some actual robotics?

What I liked most about the movie was that it wasn’t a clear case of robot bad, human good (and vice versa). And I liked the subtle (and not so subtle) spiritual overtones throughout - talk of a creator and the created for the most part, which makes sense given the plot. But there was other imagery of a spiritual nature that I appreciated.

There were some pretty cool action scenes - the car in the tunnel was well done, I thought. And Will Smith has yet again solidified his star status. There were humorous moments, as you’d expect with Smith, but there was some depth to his character.  He’s proving to be a pretty good actor with a widening range.

I’d give this one a 3.75 out 5 stars - it’s not quite a 4 for me but it’s darn close. I’ll be interested to see how it translates to a TV screen when it comes out on DVD later - and to see what bonus materials will be included.

For another review, go see Eric. (You thought I was going to say, Jared, didn’t you? He hasn’t reviewed it yet (that I’m aware of), but I know that Eric has and that his review is a little more comprehensive than mine.)

Posted by at 06:09 PM
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Saturday, July 17, 2004

House of Sand and Fog

There aren’t many wrong notes in House of Sand and Fog.

An abandoned wife is evicted from her house and starts a tragic conflict with her home’s new owners.

I don’t mean that it’s all sweetness and light and the people exemplify perfection. Far from it - it’s a dark and moody film with characters who are deeply, tragically flawed. But it’s a masterfully written story that is played out on screen with nobility and regality by the likes of Sir Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connolly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Ron Eldard. Aghdashloo was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award (Renee Zellweger won it for Cold Mountain - I’ll have to see that movie soon to see if she surpassed Ashdagloo’s performance. I’m doubtful), which she greatly deserved.

The special features on the DVD are illuminating. There are some deleted scenes that would have made the movie very different and were correctly left out of the finished film. Although watching them after watching the movie gave a little more insight into the characters. The behind the scenes blurb was cool - turns out that Andre Dubus (the author of the original book, pretty much wrote Behrani modelled after Ben Kingsley. When Kingsley was offered the role he jumped at it and he was brilliant in the role. There are some other interesting nuggets, but I don’t want to spoil them for you.

There was some cool use of time lapse cinematography - the fog rolling in, cloud movement. There’s one particular scene of rolling fog that made me wonder how long they had to wait for it and how long it took to film - it was pretty impressive. And the music was evocative, too.

And for my obligatory link to my personal movie reviewer, Jared, check out his review. Interestinly, he only give it a B+. I think I give it an A-. Semantics? Maybe...I liked it a lot. Also, Jared’s review is somewhat spoilerish, but excellent, as usual. I disagree with him about how the movie ends, but I can’t explain further without spoiling it, except to say that this movie is a modern tragedy and that’s how I took it when it was all over and I was left weeping.

Posted by at 08:07 PM
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Friday, July 16, 2004

Typical Weekend Ahead

It’s oh-so boring here at the office this afternoon. I think I am the only one still here.

I have worship band practice. I was all excited about this (and still am, but it’s tempered a tad) until I got the email from our leader today. Apparently his Big Client (he’s a lawyer) is requiring his presence in Puerto Rico on Monday. Sure. Right. I believe that. Actually, his Big Client is in PR and he will be working, so we have our B-leader leading at the last minute and no guitar. I’ll be interested to see how this works. Unfortunately, we’re not meeting until 7:30pm, so I have about 90 minutes to kill. So I’ll be running non-grocery store errands and save the grocery store trip for tomorrow.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my small group gals asked me if we could meet one-on-one this summer. So we’ll meet tomorrow morning to catch up with each other and discuss what she wants out of our time together. What’s cool is that she asked to meet earlier than the time I suggested - who would have thought that of a 17 year old?

I may go to see Anchorman by myself in the afternoon tomorrow. I know my parents won’t be interested in seeing it. I’m also interested in seeing King Arthur and I, Robot, but I think my dad wants to see I, Robot, so I’ll wait for him on that one. Probably what will actually happen is that I’ll think about it all day and end up not going.

I hope to get a lot of reading done as well. I’m almost halfway through Otherworld - I’m on page 150. I’m still really enjoying it, but I’m ready for the villian(s) to be revealed already! What is going on?!?!

OK, I’m outta here.

Posted by at 07:06 PM
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Terror in the Skies Update

It pays to have a blogger with media connections. Michelle Malkin has continued to research the story about the Syrian terrorists/musicians.

I have been speaking with Brendi Rawlin of Porter Novelli (PR rep for Womens Wall Street). According to Brendi, the Washington Post has been sitting on the true story of Annie Jacobsen’s “Terror in the Skies” account since last Friday, when WomensWallStreet.com approached him. Dave Adams, the air marshal’s spokesman, not only confirmed the story, but has also apparently supplied witness statements and other corroborations of Jacobsen’s account. NBC Nightly News, ABC, and Dateline NBC are now on the story as well.

More to come…

3:24pm. Just got off the phone with Annie Jacobsen. She has been writing business reports and articles for WomensWallStreet.com and print magazines for the past two years. Recounting the flight, she told me “My legs were like rubber...It was four and a half hours of terror.” She is working on a follow-up story for WomensWallStreet.com on Monday and will appear on NBC Nightly News Monday night. I asked how she felt about suspicions that her story had been a hoax. She hadn’t heard of these suspicions and instead has been hearing overwhelming corroboration of her experience in thousands of e-mails, many from pilots and flight attendants reporting similar incidents.

She has been shocked that “for whatever reason, the story didn’t develop” in the mainstream media.

I took off my journalist’s hat and told her I thought she was a patriot for bringing the story to light.

Now, I want to know why John Mintz and the editors of the Washington Post have deemed Annie Jacobsen’s story unfit to print.

Yeah, I’d like to know that, too. Posted by at 06:00 PM
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BlondeStar

I heard this last week on the radio when I was driving to my sister’s. Hilarious…

UPDATE (7/19 11:45am): The creator of the bitcommented, so I feel that I should link to him on the main page. I found the clip at another site, although I can’t remember where. Well done, Elic, it’s clever and funny.

Posted by at 05:53 PM
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Danger! Step Away from the TWoP Recap…

I fear that I may well ruin my deep affection for Band of Brothers if I am unable to resist the temptation to read the TWoP recaps of that magnificent miniseries. (Killing my lunch hour by perusing the shows listed on Permanent Hiatus was a bad idea, methinks.)

The pullquote for Recap 1 - Currahee is making it mighty difficult to ignore the siren call of the entire series of recaps.

The credits are a prolonged sepia-toned sequence of shots from the series, set to typical Greatest Generation music. They run for two minutes and twenty-two seconds, which seems a tad overblown to me, but then again, so was all of A.I., so this vanity is to be expected.

Heh. And no, I only spend this much time at TWoP when The Amazing Race is on TV. Otherwise I’d be blogging about it ad nauseum. Posted by at 04:02 PM
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Friday Fun Facts

Happy birthday, Ith! I hope it’s a stress-free and happy one for you.

Michelle Malkin has an update to my post about the frightening flight. Some have expressed skepticism to the veracity of that account. Michelle verifies that the base information is true. There are other personal accounts in the comment sections of other bloggers who’ve linked to the article. Whether terrorists are planning to use airplanes or not, we need to continue to be alert and remember that we’re at war.

Martha got 5 and 5 - 5 months in prison and 5 months of home confinement with 2 years of probation and a $30,000 fine.

“Today is a shameful day for me, for my family,’’ Stewart told the judge before she was sentenced. “I ask that in judging me you remember all the good I have done. My hope is my whole life won’t be completely destroyed.’’ Stewart called the case that has dogged her for more than two years “a small personal matter’’ that became “an almost fatal circus.’’

Fatal? Talk about hyperbole...please. And don’t be fooled by the myth about Club Fed - no minimum security federal prison is a country club - she will be required to work every day while she’s in and she’ll be housed with all manner of other felons including murderers, drug dealers, and gang bangers. Often minimum security facilities are used to transition prisoners out of medium and maximum security facilities before they’re released to the street. Her five months will seem like an awful eternity.

That’s it for now…

Posted by at 02:22 PM
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Well, That’s Just a Tad Harrowing

I’ve seen this mentioned in a couple other places (sorry for not linking ya’ll).

Remember the story James woods told about the flight he took the week before 9/11/01? I think this more recent flight experience is a little more frightening. The little hairs on the back of my neck are still standing at attention.

I’m not excerpting a word. You have to go read the article in it’s entirety.

Posted by at 12:45 AM
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Thursday, July 15, 2004

This Week on CPS

Penn Jillette is way annoying. Fortunately, once they got into the poker game, he calmed down a bit, but still. In my head I’m screaming, “SHUT IT!”

This week’s players: Angie Dickinson (who’da thunk that she’d play this tournament?), Jeff Gordon, Penn Jillette, Kathy Griffin, and Ron Livingston. There’s a whole lot of mediocre poker being played this week - very conservative playing for the most part. It’s kind of boring.

Yeah, I’m so in love with poker. Fun game, fun game.

Posted by at 11:58 PM
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