Lintefiniel Musing...formerly Jen Speaks!

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

The Magdalene Sisters

Sometimes I hate “based on true events” movies - because invariably they are the most depressing movies ever made. I do not exaggerate. A prime example is The Magdalene Sisters.

Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.

That sentence barely touches the darkness at the heart of this story, which is based on real Magdalene Sisters asylums in Ireland that were used to house “wayward girls.” These were the girls who got pregnant before marriage or had some other perceived (or real) sexual sin in the eyes of their family and/or the Church. (Click on the link, the story goes into more detail about the “asylums” - it’s also quite spoilerish about the movie.)

What those poor girls endured is heartbreaking. And infuriating. Because the people who perpetrated unspeakable acts of humiliation, pain, and abuse on these girls were cloaked in nun’s habits and priest’s collars and claimed the name of Christ. They came straight from the pit of Hell, imho. I’m grieved for the thousands of real girls and women who endured such pain at the hands of clergy. It’s just another black mark against the Catholic church establishment in my book - and there are many already. Sheesh. In addition to the physical sufferings these girls endured, the heresy they were taught about their sin, God’s grace, and their redemption was also cruel. For not once were they taught the Truth.

The movie, for all that it’s dark and unrelenting, is quite good. It was hard to watch; there were many scenes that were uncomfortably graphic (there is nudity). The acting was excellent - I didn’t recognize any of the Irish actors, but their performances were stunning. And I’m speaking of the evil nuns as much as the girls.

This is not a movie for everyone. I don’t recommend that you run right out to rent it. But if you like a well-made, critical movie, then you might appreciate The Magdalene Sisters. I give it a qualified 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Posted by at 08:47 PM
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30 Second IAWL

Via Rob, the best Christmas movie, this time in 30 seconds and acted by bunnies - It’s a Wonderful Life. Be sure to click on the bunny silhouettes at the end to see bonus clips. Hee Haw!

Posted by at 01:35 PM
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TAR6 Week 5 Results

This is the most quotable episode of the season, imho. Jonathan takes his asshattedness to a new level, but more on that below the fold. Quiz answers are posted here.

The standings:

Players—Quiz 5—Final Score
chrissw—130—520
Jared—150—495
Jaynee—75—405
jen—130—390
Tara—95—390
Ace—60—380
SteenShell—95—380
kdeweb—120—375
tygertyger—45—325
BigOrangeMichael—70—320
princess jami—40—265
bryankelli—0—195
fij—0—175

I took more notes last night than in past weeks. Too much notable stuff, I guess. More to be found over there ----->>

Still Speaking...

***SPOILERS, OF COURSE***

1. I noted several quotes from Racers. First up is from Rebecca, regarding Africa and the slaves. She commented that she was ready to leave Africa because it’s not so nice and followed up with, “I can see why so many escaped.” ESCAPED? Rebecca, honey, you need to go back to your history classes, I see. ESCAPED? Dear Lord, help us, if American school children are being taught that the Africans escaped their way into slavery over here.

2. The Slave House on Goree Island: Very moving task, to lay those roses at the Gate of No Return. I hope that Race requirement showed Rebecca a little something about the difference between escape and slavery. Gus’ emotional reaction got me teary-eyed.

3. Ooh, leaving Africa so soon? Next up, Berlin by way of ferry, air, and train. Destination? Berlin Wall. This week’s episode theme: oppression and freedom. Cheery.

4. I liked that Don/MJ went to the other teams for money rather than beg from the locals. There were no tourists from whom they could acquire money. I would have done the same thing. That the other teams were generous to them was awesome. Most surprising was the $20 that Jonathan gave them - makes me wonder how much they’ve hoarded from previous legs. I wonder if those teams’ generosity will come back to bite any of them later.

5. Choice Quote #2: This time from Kendra, who has had insensitive things to say in previous eps. Talking about the poverty she’s seen in Africa and how it disgusts her, “They keep breeding...” Nice. And in front of a cabbie, too. I’m sure that endeared her to him. Freddy sat there mute, which saddened me - he could have corrected her and chose not to. Maybe he was thinking the same thing?

6. I’m now going to call Bolo and Lori “Bolori” to save on typing the extra few characters. I’m lazy that way.

7. The argument at the travel agency was uncomfortable and amusing all at once. Bolo’s insistence that he’s not taking steroids is laughable. Maybe he’s getting the “flaxseed oil” that the MLB players have been getting?

8. DETOUR: Beers or Brats. Food! Oh, but they’re not actually going to eat it. Dang. I would have chosen to make the brats - I’ve made sausage and it’s not that hard with two people. Although I think meeting the locals at the beer hall while searching for the coasters would have been a riot.

Who doesn’t know what a beer stein is? Kendra, apparently. Oh, and Freddy. I’m not saying anything about dumb models, but they are models.

Love that Gus was focused on drinking the beer rather than delivering it. Grossed out by Bolo eating the raw brats. I wonder how sick he got later - then again, maybe he’s got a cast iron stomach that can handle the bacteria you get from eating raw pork/beef. I know I can’t always handle cooked beef, so...

Jonathan’s panic at the arrival of Bolori when they were leaving was comical and annoying. Man, what a jerk. But more on that later.

9. ROADBLOCK: Soapbox Derby. Maybe it’s me, but that was kind of a boring task. Probably fun for the Racers, but not so much for me. I don’t know.

10: PIT STOP: Brandenburg Gate. I wonder how many of the Racers caught the theme for this leg - the significance of all of the task locations. I’m thinking not many, which is sad.

Teams drive themselves from Roadblock to Pit Stop in Mercedes, which is probably like driving a Ford here in the US. OK, maybe not. And this leads to Choice Quote #3 from Jonathan: “You gotta have an appreciation for the people who make Mercedes.” Asshat. Also, at the RB, he bragged about his go-cart days as a kid and how he graduated from them to his Ferrari. OK, Magnum, we get you. Asshat.

Oh, and we get Choice Quote #4 from Jonathan as well - J/V bicker all the way to the Pit Stop and she says she’s going to “lose it” about something he said, at which point he chimes in with, “I’m going to lose it on you (emphasis mine) because you can’t get it right on the ground.” Asshat.

But I’m not done with them yet. In the footrace between J/V and Freddy/Kendra to the Mat, the display of disrespect and abuse from Jonathan to Victoria was appalling. She was correct to insist that they not just leave their packs on the side of the street in order to run faster. In a busy city like that there’s no guarantee that they wouldn’t be stolen, film crews notwithstanding. The malice he displayed by shoving his wife while she was running full speed, carrying both backpacks, in the middle of a city street was unbelievable. I’m not surprised she was crying hysterically - his abuse and her fatigue finally caught up with her. I felt so sorry for her in that moment that I was cheering her on to get to the Mat before F/K - not because I wanted him to be first (man, can you imagine what display he would have given if that had happened?), but because I wanted her to not be blamed for them being second. Second. That’s pretty good in this Race. They’ve consistently been near the top for the past few legs - most other Racers would be happy with that, but not Jonathan.

The disgust on Phil’s face could not be masked. I was impressed that he challenged Jonathan to go talk to Victoria after he yelled at her in front of Phil and the local German dude while standing on the Mat! And then he continued to yell at her. Asshat.

Flo, I forgive you for your whiney, quitter, hated status. You have been superceded as The Most Hated Racer Ever. Have I mentioned that he’s an asshat?

NEXT WEEK: More disrespect from Jonathan to Victoria, “You be the woman and be quiet.” *sigh*

Done Speaking...

Posted by at 12:44 PM
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Home Again

The following is TMI, so I’m warning you now that you probably don’t want to read on. But for someone, it might be helpful, so I’m posting it, albeit under cover here ---->>

Still Speaking...

Posted by at 11:35 AM
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Blog Explosion Find

I discovered an interesting blog while surfing at Blog Explosion that I believe is written by someone I know, although they are blogging somewhat anonymously so I can’t be totally sure. In any case, small world.

I’ve found quite a few interesting reads through Blog Explosion. If you haven’t signed up for it yet, you should. If you think about trying it out, please use my referral link. It’s a great tool for getting traffic to your blog and for finding new blogs that you might not find otherwise.

Posted by at 11:30 AM
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Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Complete Overhaul Ahead

Yeah, so in the new year I plan to make the switch to Expression Engine, with a new host, and my new domain. And yet, I’m also going to have a new blog title as well. I know, this after the hubbub I made over the other Jen Speaks, to whom I apologize. She’s free to go back to Jen Speaks. Whatever.

It’ll be a whole new me in blogland, but it’ll still be me.

Yes, the domain won’t match the blog title. You got a problem with that?

Posted by at 04:58 PM
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Comments, Comments, Comments, Spam

I forgot to fix the “fix” I made to keep the spammers away. I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting any comments this morning*, but then I realized that I need to fix the fix. Comments are working again. Sorry about that!

*Of course, that’s assuming ya’ll have been trying to comment.

Posted by at 04:37 PM
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Why I Will Never Live in Montgomery Co., MD: Reason #2036

Montgomery County is one of the wealthiest counties in the US. It’s also one of the most liberal and the council is mad. Now this:

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) - A Montgomery County judge has thrown a wrench into Maryland’s tough anti-spam law.

Judge Durke Thompson has ruled that the law is unconstitutional because it seeks to regulate commerce outside the state’s borders.

Thompson’s opinion was filed late last week. The judge threw out a case brought against a New York e-mail marketer by a George Washington University law student.

Maryland was the first state to pass a law penalizing people who send mass e-mail. But now, more than three dozen states have anti-spam laws on the books, so the ruling could have implications elsewhere.

Laws in California and Washington were declared unconstitutional on grounds similar to Thompson’s ruling in Maryland. But higher courts overturned those decisions.

Having just spent a considerable number of hours to the elimination of a spambot here at the blog, this just torks me. Posted by at 04:27 PM
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Letting Go of Pretending

I enjoyed reading Rob’s recount of his church’s Christmas pageant. Towards the end, he shared

On the way home, the two older girls peppered me with questions about Santa’s operations:

“How can Santa get around the world from the North Pole so fast?”

“Magic.”

“If he’s so big, how can he get down those little chimneys?”

“Magic.”

“How can his reindeer fly?”

“Magic.”

At this point, my six year old said, “So your answer to everything is ‘magic,” isn’t it?”

I replied, “Yup, pretty much.”

That held her for a while as she thought it through. I’m happy to say that she’s not yet at the point where she actually disbelieves me. Hopefully, things will stay that way for a few more years.

I was reminded that I was told at about the age of six that certain folks weren’t real, but in fact were my parents.

Dad can confirm the details since I’m sure his memory of this is better than mine, but I think I was six or seven (I know we lived in England at the time) when he sat in his chair, put me in his lap, and said, “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“OK,” I had no idea what was coming.

“The Easter Bunny isn’t real,” Dad told me. I think it was around Easter when we had this conversation - I only remember that it was not Santa that he brought up first. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but it was something like, “Really? Then where does the candy come from?”

“Your mother and I,” he responded. “We’re also Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.”

I don’t remember being traumatized by the shattered illusions of my little mind. I sort of remember working out the information and realizing that the clues were there the whole time. Even then, I was an analytical thinker.

“Don’t tell your sister,” I was warned. “She should still believe for a little longer.”

“OK, I promise not to tell.” Who knows if I kept that promise - I had a big mouth and loved to share information with Jaynee all the time.

ECD hasn’t revealed the truth about Santa to Nee yet. She was worried that Santa wouldn’t find her at her grandmother’s house this Christmas. We’ve assured her that he knows where everyone is at all times and that he will have her gifts delivered on time to the right house. We saw Santa at the mall on Saturday and she and ECD went see him on Sunday after our tea/lunch. She mentioned that she likes “my santa” (the one in our town rather than the one we saw at the mall) better, so I’m wondering how much longer it’ll take for her to figure out that it’s all a ruse.

Posted by at 03:39 PM
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The Neighbor and the 7-Car Pile Up

I had a carpooler with me in my car this morning - a neighbor/friend from church. He had gone to the Redskins’ game on Sunday night and left his car at the Metro station and spent the night at a friend’s, so he didn’t have his car this morning. He just needed a ride to a Metro stop and since the courthouse is between 2 stops, it was a good plan for him to hitch a ride with me - then I could cruise the HOV lane on I-66. Ideally, I would get to the office in an hour or 90 minutes.

Nope.

It took an hour just to get to I-66, which is less than 5 miles from home. Once on 66 we cruised along nicely until we got onto the Beltway. ECD chirped me at that point and breathless told me about a 7 car accident up ahead. She had stopped to see if anyone had notified fire/rescue yet. No one had, so she called it in and waited with an injured pregnant woman for the ambulance to arrive. Right then, I could hear the sirens and two fire trucks passed by. At that point we came to a complete halt and from there we inched along until we got past the accident.

I dropped our friend at the Metro at 9:30am and got to my desk about 15 minutes later (about 9:45am). From the moment I walked in I’ve been peppered with questions and requests and I just now had the first chance to actually sit at my desk for longer than a minute or two.

Posted by at 01:37 PM
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Monday, December 13, 2004

Comments Closed Open Again

I’m getting a new wave of spam, I think. Comments will not be available for a bit.

This time, in addition to removing the code from the template for the comments page, I’ve changed the name of my members directory.

UPDATE: I’m sure ya’ll are tired of hearing my spam woes. Comments are available again.

Oh, and the TV is working again.

Yay!

Posted by at 05:56 PM
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Golden Snub

Neither The Passion of the Christ nor that propaganda film by Mikey Moore were included in the list of nominations for Golden Globe Awards. Methinks I shall not be viewing that awards program next month in protest.

There’s little doubt that The Passion... was one of the best films (if not the best) of the year. To not have it nominated is patently ridiculous.

[via wizbang]

Posted by at 02:17 PM
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Random Monday Musings

1. I picked the Sole Survivor in our pool. I didn’t win the pool, but I moved up significantly after last night’s finale. That was the lamest season of Survivor I’ve seen - having only watched the last three seasons. That whole women’s alliance thing really annoyed me.

2. We have a new deputy who’s from Boston and has the accent. I’m going to enjoy talking to him. Until he’s corrupted by the guys in the back, but we’ll see how long that takes.

3. I have to submit payroll today for some reason. We get paid next Tuesday, but they’re saying we need to transmit early because of the holiday, which is next Friday. Makes no sense, but I want to get paid on time, so I do what they tell me. I’ll have to transmit for the next pay period next Wednesday/Thursday in order for us to get paid on time next time.

4. I’m going to download the free trial of EE tonight. I’m also thinking that when I make the move I’ll use the jenspeaks[dot]com domain and let the freakinjen[dot]us domain expire next year. Since I’m switching my host as well, I’ll let them do all the migration work for me. The spam event last night convinced me it was time to pony up a little more dough for my hobby. It sux that there are people out there who have the capability to ruin my enjoyment of my hobby, so I’m going to do what I can to eliminate their attempts.

In the meantime, I wish it wouldn’t be so time consuming to delete the comments that the bot managed to leave yesterday, but it will be so they shall stay.

5. Conversation with Nee last night:

NEE: Can I touch your hair?

ME: Sure, but it might be a little crunchy. *I was a little overzealous with the hair gel yesterday.*

NEE (after a quick touch): Sometimes your hair is a little scary.

Then this morning, when I saw her on my way out the door she said my hair was scary today. ECD was horrified, but I cracked up. I asked why she thought it was scary and she said, “Because it looks like you didn’t brush it.”

“I didn’t brush it,” I confirmed. I’ve got that tousled thing going today.

“It’s too fluffy,” is the other problem, apparently.

“Sweetie, by the time you see me tonight, my hair will no longer be fluffy. I guarantee that!”

Hilarious.

Posted by at 12:57 PM
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Comments Are Back, For Now

Removing the comments code from the template seems to have worked. The comments counter is what it was when I removed the code. I also increased the comments timelock to 5 minutes - so you won’t be able to post comments in increments smaller than that for now. I apologize for that inconvenience.

Jay was kind enough to email me with another recommendation, which I will implement if it happens again.

The TV still isn’t working, but that’s a continuing trouble for a new day.

Posted by at 08:40 AM
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Sunday, December 12, 2004

290+ 300+ 900+ Today

I just downloaded ~~290+~~ ~~300+~~ 900+ spam comments to my email. Joy. It was one thing to get a dozen or two a day, but this is madness! They should be hunted down and killed on sight.

Technical snafu #2 today is the big screen TV, which was working fine this morning before I left the house. Now it doesn’t want to fire up at all. It’s trying, but it never brings up the picture. I can hear the channels because they feed through the sound system, but nothing to see. I tried unplugging it and replugging it, but still nothing. And I had to unplug it to get the blinking warning lights on the front to stop - just pressing the power button does nothing.

And I was having such a great day, too. The children’s musical at church was fantastic and Nee did a great job as Mary. We went to the British Pantry for a late lunch for ECD’s birthday, and they both enjoyed that a lot.

So now I’m going to delete all the spam from my comments and then see what I can do (if anything) about the TV.

UPDATE: As I typed this post, 39 more messages downloaded to my email. I’ve closed all comments temporarily in an attempt to get rid of this spammer. He’s been at it here all day from the message timestamps.

UPDATE #2: I just checked my 0spam.com account - there were 572 comment notification messages that hadn’t passed muster and gotten to my email account yet. I just deleted them outright - no sense in downloading that junk.

I. AM. NOT. HAPPY.

UPDATE #3: I’ve got the comments turned off from the main weblog management page in the control panel and I also have them set to require registration, which you should not be able to do from the regular comment page. I’m able to leave comments though - even when I’m logged out of the control panel and have to enter my info. Will someone please attempt to comment so I will know if it’s really turned off or not? If you’re not able to, please take the time to email me at jenspeaks [at] freakinjen [dot] us to let me know. Thanks.

UPDATE #4: Desperate times call for drastic measures. I removed the comment code from the templates in the control panel temporarily. I just downloaded another 100 or so messages to my email. This is completely ridiculous!

Looking at my host stats, I’m pretty sure it’s GigaBot and Inktomi that’s hitting me. I don’t have the techie skillz to kill the bots. I’d appreciate any help that’s offered.

LATER: I will restore the comments code in the morning. I’m going to go watch the Survivor finale. I’m done dealing with the spam tonight.

Posted by at 08:29 PM
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