I made it clear on this blog that I didn't support any mainstream politician in Americas most recent national election. However, I have been paying attention to the politics of The Netherlands for a while. See that thing on the sidebar that says that I'm half Dutch? Yeah, I take that pretty seriously. I've bought books in Dutch, and teach myself some Dutch in my spare time, and try to get into conversations with people who know Dutch... Anyway, I've had my eye on Geert Wilders for about ei
Move here, to my state. I watched this reality TV show about thousands of Chinese millionaires who moved to Vancouver, and I thought, "Why Vancouver? It's rainy. It's a stuck-up coastal city, just like all of the other stuck-up coastal cities. They should come over to my state, specifically my town! If they're rich, they can start businesses that will make Valjeanville more interesting. Right now, the only cool business that we have that makes our town an interesting place to live in is ou
Seriously. That face. That stylishness. She could become iconic if she took on some ambitious acting decisions. Also, she looked a heckuvalot like Audrey Hepburn in her first movie, Mirror Mirror, and I'm a total sucker for Audrey Hepburn lookalikes. I really want them to succeed. And I really liked her in the movie Stuck In Love, which I recommend as a pretty good indie film. C'mon Hollywood! Put her in more stuff! And not garbage like that City of Glass movie! Speaking of that movie, there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_8h9PjVJhA This sounds like an actual language. And just because I I feel like trash talking Christopher Paolini, who doesn't know the different between a verb and a participle. That doofus. Also, Sindarin is legitimately pretty and I would rather learn this than French, which I will grant as sounding pretty also but unfortunately has the most inconvenient spelling conventions. Anyway, it's a legitimately cool language and Tolkien's languages probably wil
When I first read that book series, I loved it. In hindsight, I realize just how derivative the whole thing was. Do I regret reading it? No, since it passed the time and kept me entertained, which is a positive for any book, but it still doesn't make them good books. That's like saying that junk food is good food because it tastes good. I'd go through a comprehensive list of everything that was wrong about those books, but in order to truly get into detail, I'd have to re-read them, which I
Interesting ring to it, right? I think that's hilarious. But you want to know what's even more hilarious? Academy Award Winner for Best Actor in a Leading Role Nicholas Cage. I always address him by his full title. How can I not? It's so funny! 24601
Nope. Didn't happen. Came as close as it's ever been, though. I was really rooting for Denzel to win Best Actor over Casey. Once more, an Affleck gets an Oscar that I don't think that he deserved. Speaking of which, I didn't like Argo. It wasn't a bad film, but it didn't deserve a single one of the Oscars that it got. I'm actually going to list the different films that should have won Best Picture so far this decade. 2010: Toy Story 3 2011: The Artist 2012: Lincoln (should have won Bes
A'ight, time to discuss the Oscars, and not just the Best Visual Effects category. Best Picture La La Land, all the way. It was everything that I wanted it to be, and a perfect nostalgic throwback. It has a pretty good chance of winning, since the Academy really likes movies about movies. There's something really timeless about it, like Fahrenheit 451, which is a book about books. Best Director Anyone but Villeneuve. Arrival wasn't bad, but it was overrated. Personally, I'm kind of root
I watched it for a third time, this time with my family. Right as the credits were rolling, one of them turned to me and started complaining about the ending. So it wasn't just me! Yeah, I was really frustrated with the ending. It didn't make me happy like the end of the movie (although it was brilliantly executed on a musical level). We both ranted for a while about it, and it felt good. 24601
This year's nominees are, in the order in which I am the most impressed: The Jungle Book Kubo and the Two Strings Deepwater Horizon Rogue One Doctor Strange As it happens, I've seen every single movie in this category, so I'm capable of having a fully informed opinion on this one. The most likely winner this year will be The Jungle Book. It was simply so amazing, and it was a pretty epic film. At first I thought that it would be absolutely ridiculous if any other movie stood a c
So I had this dream the other night. Hitler and Mussolini came to visit my house, and I was too polite to turn them away. Also, I was curious as to how they were still alive. As it turns out, they wanted to be friends to me. Once again too polite to say that I didn't want to associate with them, I decided that I'd actually be a good host, have a good time, and even befriend this really odd couple. It would be a highly dysfunctional friendship, but hey, I have a tendency to make these things work
Woah. That was unprecedented. I don't normally watch Superbowls, and I don't normally say that that something was a "good game," but that was definitely a good game. The Patriots came back after a 25 point deficit, which is just extraordinary. And I just witnessed the first overtime in Superbowl history. I'm pretty glad that I joined a Superbowl party to watch this. Also, Lady Ga Ga's live performance was pretty epic. Not gonna lie. And there was a trailer for Stranger Things 2, which w
Last summer, I saw the trailer for Hidden Figures and thought that it looked like one of those simple, feel-good, family-friendly Disney films. You know, like Queen of Katwe, which also had advertisements out at about the same time. Then this movie got nominated for Best Picture, and I wondered if there was something more to it, that it was a serious drama that rose to the level of high art. I was going to watch this regardless of the nominations it received, because it looked like a good non
Right off the bat, there was something that I loved about this film: a long dance number done in a single take. I absolutely love it when films do complicated stuff like this in one take. It's a dying art. On the subject of cinematography, La La Land also had a painter's eye for lighting, and filled its scenes with the most wonderful colors. So as it happens, I'm really rooting for this film to win Best Cinematography. The other conspicuously obvious Academy Award that it's up for is Best Orig
Quick show of hands: who hasn't read this book? I'm just curious. Where I come from, this Nobel Prize winning book was required reading in my freshman year of high school, but maybe that isn't so in other states and other countries. Of course, even if it is required reading, perhaps you haven't got to high school yet, so you haven't read it. In my opinions, everyone should read this historic book, and they shouldn't wait until high school to do so. Parents should read it to their children when
A while back, an Iowa state representative by the name of John Kooiker gave me a book after church. He was an old friend of mine, an elder I looked up to and regularly talked with after services had convened. I meant to read it right away. Around ten years later, I finally got around to it. It's a shame that it took me this long. I should be far more eager to complete a book when someone gives it to me. It's the polite thing to do. And anyway, I didn't read it because I remembered John Kooiker
He mentioned Atticus Finch. Incidentally, my students are reading To Kill A Mockingbird right now, and they don't quite appreciate yet its relevance. I daresay, though, when the president mentions the book in his historic final speech, I think that it gives you an idea of just how influential the book is. I guess the kids don't pay much attention to politics, but it still made a nice talking point. 24601
I feel guilty for not writing any reviews lately. So here are some movies I recently watched that I have some thoughts on, and will consider reviewing. I don't know if I'll write a full essay on each, but at the very least I suppose I can give these movies drive-by reviews. If any of you are particularly interested in seeing me review one of these movies, let me know, and I'll do my best to put more thought into my review for it. Moana All Is Lost The Homesman Jane Got A Gun Moon J. Edgar S
You know the most popular constructed language in the world, created with the hope of unifying all of the peoples? Yeah, I hate it. L.L. Zamenhof designed it to be easy to learn, particular for people in his environment, and in that area, thee language succeeds. It is definitely easy to learn, due to its simplicity and familiarity, but in every other regard, I hate it. First of all, it often sounds like someone just spoke Latin and then intentionally mispronounced everything. Seriously, wh
Both are doctors. Both manipulate space and time. Who would win in a fight? And yes, I'm aware that they have both sworn never to take a life, which makes this all the more interesting. 24601
She passed away this morning at 8:55, at the age of only 60. Not to be too darkly humorous too soon, but it looks like they killed off the wrong character in The Force Awakens. Ben Solo is probably going to get orders from Snoke to kill off his mother now, to make his turn to the dark side even more complete. And they had better step up their CGI technology from Rogue One if they want to shoot that scene. Also, if it's true that only the good die young, then Carrie was a good, good person. T
Who would win in a fight? Serious question. I mean, Muhammad Ali is a pretty tough guy, but realistically, not even he would be able to survive the stuff that the Wet Bandits, specifically Marv, survived in the first two Home Alone movies. Do you honestly think that Muhammad Ali could knock out Marv? Granted, Marv doesn't pack much of a punch, so he wouldn't be able to knock out Muhammas Ali, either, so where are we at now? Honestly, who would win? 24601
1. People with Down Syndrome don't have a difficult time learning. 2. Christmas carolers become popular again. 3. The Cubs win the world series (wait a minute...) 4. The entire world adopts Ithkuil as the universal language. In this ideal world, people can actually pronounce all of the consonants in Ithkuil. 5. Roads? In my ideal world, we don't need roads! 6. Everyone has seen Back to the Future and gets that reference. 7. My friends don't all move to other states/countries after a year or two
Alright, so here's me serious, non-sarcastic thoughts on rating people based on how attractive you find them. I don't engage in the practice myself, for a couple of reasons. I don't trust to do it without objectifying women, first of all. Second, and probably more importantly, it offends the person being rated, since I would rarely rate someone above a 6, and everyone wants to be a 10. As I've said in my previous entry, 10's basically don't exist, and anything above an 8 is incredibly rare, or a
A lot of people seem to rate people on their looks, and there's nothing bad about that, except they go about it all wrong. They throw out their numbers with little thought, and higher scores don't have that much meaning. So I'm going to give you some quick tips: There are two factors that go into rating someone, their looks alone, and then the context of their looks. It is possible to say that someone is a 7 based on her looks alone, but then you find out that she's an alcoholic single mothe
