American Beauty, with Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening and Thora Birch. I'll be honest, I rented this movie solely because of Thora Birch, but the filler in between wasn't half bad either. Normally I'd be wary of a film with an explicit moral to the story, but I have to make an exception in this case. The movie seemed like a darker twist on 'Office Space' with regard to escaping the soul crushing monotony of one's job. All of the characters were pretty stereotypical, which I guess was the point, but they pulled it off as believeable, reflecting the origins of the stereotypes themselves rather than some cliche. Except Mena Suvari's character. Seeing 'Not Another Teen Movie' before I saw this also helped tone down what might have been a real gloomy film. Oh, I don't care what a tortured soul that kid with the camera is, he's so creepy!

Weeds in Bloom by Robert Newton Peck. A very pleasant quick read. Has that sort of simple joy like fresh baked blueberry muffins. This guy has had an interesting life, or at least ran into his fair share of interesting people. The lack of a plot is rather refreshing, like if your friend was just telling you a series of anecdotes. One particular story got me thinking though: is the feeling of guilt the reason for people to adhere to a specific moral code? To be more specific, when you are confronted with an opportunity to act counter to what your beliefs tell you is a morally right decision, is it a remembered feeling of guilt from a previous breaking of your moral code that keeps you from doing it? In the book, Peck and his friend try to cheat money from a store owner. Peck knows that this is wrong but through coaxing of his friend goes through with it anyway. Afterwards both are faced with the tremendous guilt at their attempt at deception and are unable to take the money. So did he do it because of the simple weak will of a little kid or because he had never really experienced guilt before?

Apparantly this blind kid is an expert at video games. Sort of a modern day Pinball Wizard. Keith and Jenn suspect there's more to this story, after all sound effects aren't enough to play a game like Tetris. Perhaps there's some sort of 'House of Flying Daggers' twist...?

I despise math, mainly because I'm not too good at it but also because of the mentality it represents. Admittedly, any reason I have for not liking math was probably constructed after I realized I wasn't good at it for want of a more substantial reason for avoiding it. Whatever. The cut and dry nature of it goes against how I think. The equation is either right or wrong and no amount of arguing can change it. People who love math say they find the simplicity of the right/wrong system to be comforting. I like to argue and debate, be it politics, religion or completely stupid things like whether or not England is an actual place or a state of mind. I find shades of grey more comforting than black and white and the idea that there can be more than one right answer.
I eventually learned to do just as much math as needed to get by and leave the black and white thinking to the mathematicians, but it always bugged me that when it came to physics and all the cool science stuff, it all came back to math and that right/wrong doctrine. Following up on that periodic table article I posted recently, they've discovered that atoms of the same element can be grouped together and exhibit properties of elements nowhere near them on the periodic table. So that means there's more than one way to make elements behave. Way to beat the system! I feel vindicated at last.

Star Control: Interbellum by W.T. Quick. Okay, so a novel based on a DOS video game isn't exactly blessed from the get-go, but I had high hopes for this book, I really did. There is a definite feeling that the author knew nothing of the game when he wrote the story and had only a rough idea of what the aliens were supposed to look like. Star Control II is probably the greatest computer game ever, due in no small part to the rich story environment, the personalities of the aliens and the delightfully convoluded history of the galaxy. I figured the author was one of the nerds who loved the game so much he was going to make a fanfic epic, but this guy had no idea what he was doing. I won't go into the specific inconsistencies between the aliens' depictions in the game versus the book but the author tries to do too much too soon in too small a book. It looks like he was going to build a romance thread, but no. It looks like there's going to be a big battle, but no. It looks like there's going to be some big revelation as to why the humble main character was selected to go on this super important mission (seeing as that's the main storyline) but the author doesn't even give you a reason for that! The ending made no sense at all, even if the story is crap I won't spoil it, suffice it to say it's very hard to make sci-fi and fantasy/supernatural go together, and this fails miserably.

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Very insightful look into Arabic and specifically Afghani society. The first-person childhood accounts reminded me a lot of Kaffir Boy, the major difference being Kite Runner is fictional, though I hadn't known that when I started reading it. That made me realize how much better the story actually was, it's fiction but it was believable enough to be a true story. There were some interesting views into Afghani culture and I realized that some of the cultural practices are misinterpreted by people today. Specifically, there was a woman in an interview on TV a few months ago who was talking about her experiences being a female journalist in Afghanistan, remarking on how they regard women. She said that when she went to greet them the men slapped their hand across their chest as if to say "don't touch me!" In the book, though, the narrator explains that this gesture is a common greeting. In retrospect, shouldn't a journalist sent to Afghanistan have had at least a crash course on greetings and etiquette?

They've redesigned the periodic table. I have to admit, when I was in chemistry I sat looking at the giant periodic table poster and wondering if that was really the only logical way to organize it. Well, now I know. It is. This new thing sure is pretty, and it has Neutronium on the table, (the element I didn't know actually existed) but it's really not as functional. Maybe it's just my lack of understanding of chemistry, but why can't they make a table where the lanthanides and actinides are shown with the rest of the elements? I also really disagree with their claim that curves are more pleasing to the eye. Well, when it comes to charts anyway...

I just saw this car insurance commercial where they talk about "your baby in a chopshop" and of course by 'baby' they mean car. That really threw me the first time that commercial was on because I wasn't actually looking at the TV.

The King Tut exhibit in L.A. Great stuff. Very nicely set up, at the start they put you in a dark room then light up a statue in the next room, gives you that "I discovered it" feeling. They went through a lot of stuff from people around and before Tut's time, including my favorite: Akhenaten. The meticulous care and attention to detail that the artisans had is really outstanding. I gotta say when you look at a silver trumpet with tiny inscriptions written all over the outside and on the inside, (and remember that this was made with the idea that it would never be seen by mortal eyes again) you gotta question the quality of artists now. We've fallen a long way if you can throw a bucket of paint on a canvas and dare call it a work of art.
One thing I learned about Tut and Egyptian art was that the rather reddish color that he and his wife have in a golden chair is probably their actual skin tone. I thought it was an unlikely color for ancient Egyptians to have, but after walking around in LA without sunblock on I realized if you're already tan and you're in the sun you will in fact turn that color.

I was sorely disappointed at the sights at the beach though. I know there is a certain glorified view of California beaches, but it shouldn't be competely untrue. Hit the gyms people! You have a stereotype to live up to!

Word of the day: anhedonic- The absence of pleasure or the ability to experience it.

And finally, my brother's recipe for seriously tasty hamburgers:
1 to 1 1/3 lbs high-quality, high-fat (no less than 10%) ground beef
1/4 cup Worcestershire plus a bit extra to taste (but if you add too much
the hamburgers will not stick together well)
1 Tbsp mustard powder
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs of your choice (i used flat parsley, sage,
rosemary, and thyme in about equal portions)
1/4 cup finely chopped shallots (they sell these in a small bag at
albertson's; use most of the bag)
2 Tbsp finely chopped garlic
2 Tbsp butter

Mix ground beef, Worcestershire, and mustard powder; let marinate while you
chop everything else up. Fry shallots and garlic in butter over medium-high
heat, stirring frequently until just a bit brown. Reduce heat somewhat and
stir herbs into pan for a minute or so. Collect mixture and add to ground
beef (the meat should cool down the mixture pretty quickly). Mix thoroughly,
form into 4 burgers, and fry in same pan over medium-high heat. Burgers
should be flipped at least 4 times to cook well without serious charring.

That is a tasty burger!

Fantastic Four, with Ioan Gruffudd and Jessica Alba. Basically the only reason to watch this is because of Jessica Alba. Special effects are great, but overdone. Not much way to avoid that given the nature of their powers, but still. The characters were rather 2 dimensional, the only real depth was with the Thing, everyone else just bugged me. The bad guy's name is Von Doom, how did they not see his turning evil coming a mile away? Silly names aside, one thing that really stuck in my craw was how the movie was just one giant commercial for name brand products. Shameless plugs. Oh well...

New Jesus fish. Still no Stalin fish, but that one is pretty cool.

Something that occurred to me recently: at our dojo the vast majority of the students are nerds, either band nerds or Trekkies. Martial arts and nerds seem like a very unlikely combination, but sure enough they work splendidly together. But why is it that specific demographic that seems more interested in martial arts than say preps or frat boys? Perhaps a subconscious instinct to learn how to avoid being shoved into lockers? I think it may have to do with dedication; the hallmark of any good nerd is a fanatic devotion to a particular field, be it musical instruments, TV shows or computers. Your typical frat boy, on the other hand, is rather fickle and not normally committed to a single endeavor. Since martial arts requires devotion and dedication, it would only seriously attract those with said qualities. Martial arts also teach self-improvement, something that nerds, being a lower caste in social circles, would be naturally drawn to. Preps and the like generally believe they are better than everyone already, so they would consider self-improvement a waste of time. Whatever the reason, nerds kick ass.

Swedish is an interesting language. On one hand it's easier than English because all of the verbs have a single conjugation, no 'am,' 'are,' or 'is', just a single conjugation for all persons. Also, the present tense covers the continuous tense, so there is no 'ing' form of a verb. This should make the language simpler than English BUT it's still a Germanic language which means it's still prone to the whimsical rules and exceptions that English is. There are two genders, common and neuter. Sort of like the masculine and feminine in Romance languages, but while they have identifiers in the words to tell which is which, Swedish does not, you have to remember what goes to what on a case by case basis.

So far, the most challenging part of the language is the pronounciation. There are 9 vowels in Swedish and they're sometimes too subtle to tell the difference between them. Ö is a tricky one, somewhere between an O and a U but with your lips protruded out more and your tongue where it would be to pronounce the letter E. J and sometimes G are pronounced like a Y, 'Sj' is pronounced like you were blowing out a candle (does that make it a vowel?).
The trickiest thing though is the tones. Like Chinese (thankfully not as bad) Swedish is a tonal language and there are plenty of opportunities for a foreigner to make an ass of himself. 'Anden' depending on the tone, can either be "the duck" or "the spirit/ghost". There are more embarrassing ones out there, I can feel it. I just hope I find them before I say one in front of a crowd of people...

The Seven Forms of Lightsaber Combat. Quite a detailed list of fictitious fighting styles. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I think it's pretty cool. Interesting to note the different philosophies behind each of the forms and how they mirror actual martial arts. The strengths and flaws they mention in the theoretical techniques are quite similar to real life styles. Form IV seems similar to capoeira, for example, and Form III like aikido. I suppose there are only so many possible combinations of movements in melee combat, Jedi or not.

Darth Vader's blog. This guy certainly put a lot of effort into this. A combination of genuine fanfic darkness, lke the part about his childhood, and humor, like the part about Ozzel. There's just so much written down this guy must never leave the computer.

Store Wars. Like the Meatrix, if you've seen it, but better. Normally I'd feel the guilt trip but I work at an organic grocery store, so nyah!
Speaking of which, I recently noticed that the old fashioned peanut butter we sell at Sunflower Market isn't nearly as tasty as Laura Scudder's peanut butter (the tastiet to date) despite the fact that they both contain the same ingredients; peanuts and salt. How can you come up with such different tasting products if they consist of only two ingredients? I guess the peanuts make all the difference.

Movie time.
Series 7: The Contenders, with Brooke Smith and Glenn Fitzgerald. What a disturbing film. I can see this actually happening in the not too distant future. Certainly the concept has been done before, (Running Man and Battle Royale) but this was different in that it was shot in the style of a reality TV show. The acting was quite believable, I gotta give them props for creating deep and believable characters, if it weren't for that the film wouldn't have had 1/10th the impact. Like my brother pointed out, it would've been so much cooler if the director had been able to make it an actual series. If they did do that I'm guessing they would try to make people think it was an actual reality show and end up tricking the audience like they've been known to do. It would be interesting to see if the public's moral outrage would outweigh their thirst for blood. I'm guessing not.

Never Say Never Again, with Sean Connery and Kim Basinger. Man, the Bond films ain't what they used to be. You need big scary superpowers and nuclear weapons to make a good secret agent flick, which is why the old James Bond movies are so good. Sean Connery is the best Bond. Period. Anyway, the thing that may make this movie so good is the moderation in the things that the franchise is (in)famous for. The gadgetry is kept to a minimum, the one-liners are appropriately spaced and the 007 charm is believable. Contrast with, say, Die Another Day which seemed to be more like Austin Powers than Austin Powers. The only thing I found fault with was a scene where Bond gets the crap kicked out of him by this giant henchman and doesn't get so much as a scratch. Especially when the doctor mentions earlier that he has "more scar tissue than an entire regiment."
Fun fact: Rowan Atkinson (aka Mr. Bean) is also in this movie and also in the James Bond spoof Johnny English.

Pane e Tulipani, with Licia Maglietta and Bruno Ganz. A nice, lighthearted movie. A house wife is left behind on a tour and decide to finish her vacation and continue it indefinitely. While she is away from home she discovers the joys of having a life outside of being a stay at home mom.
It's quite European, what with the visions that this perfectly sane woman has out of nowhere. I guess they needed a way to convey her inner thoughts clearly and a simple dream wasn't good enough. The characters in the story are really zany, at first I attributed this again to the fact that it's a European film but as I think about it, I've met some pretty weird people in Europe. I thought it was funny that there was a hyperemotional, easily angered Italian stereotype in an Italian movie. The ending kind of threw me, but I was expecting a different reaction from the family.

Since I'm still new at this blog thing, I'm not sure what form it should take, so I'm borrowing concepts from other people.
The Jacket, with Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley. Interesting idea. I'd be able to enjoy it more if there hadn't been more movies with the same plot. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy realizes he can time travel with his mind and tries to change the past. Same EXACT concept as Donnie Darko and The Butterfly Effect: Time travel/changing the past/insanity. It was cool the first time around, now it's pretty clear the movie-makers are struggling to keep things fresh.
Here's my theory on the future of film making: either this trend of unoriginality will continue until people start remaking movies that came out the summer before, OR (I'm looking at you, film majors!) the young people who are just about to enter the industry will be so sick of all the recycled ideas they've seen and will have a list in their heads of everything they would like to see in movies so when they are the ones directing and producing films, it will be a cinema renaissance. That's my hope, so get crackin'.