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Archive for October, 2007

Oct 29

6 Comments

More Misunderstood Movies

I’m told that I have a somewhat strange taste in movies (mostly by my lowbrow, wanna-be film critic friends). What my friends have yet to discover is there is often an unintended epiphenomenal, or emergent, quality to so-called “B” movies was neither intended nor understood by the actors or directors of those movies.

Below is a list of films that critics and audiences alike dismissed as “a waste of money” or “a complete disaster”. Often, it takes a very sophisticated mind (like mine) to comprehend these brilliant, yet unintended gems. I recommend you purchase and preserve for posterity these brilliant classics because it will only be centuries from now when the human brain has expanded enough to truly comprehend the level of genius contained in these films.

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Oct 21

69 Comments

Sony VGN-N320E XP Drivers

Okay, I love Vaio notebooks, but trying to downgrade to XP from Vista is not fun. Sony provides no support – so it takes some serious digging to find all the driver. Hopefully, I can save someone what I went through. I’ve zipped up all the XP drivers (except for the modem driver which I couldn’t find). Here ya go…

Sony-VGN-N320E-XP-Drivers.zip (21.1MB)

Oct 19

3 Comments

Give Free Rice

For each word you get right, freerice.com will donate 10 grains of rice to a hungry person through an international aid agency. I played this morning and donated 850 grains. It’s not much, but you should play the game, too. Brilliant concept. You can increase your vocabulary and do something good at the same time. My vocab level is a 37. What’s yours? Go to Free Rice.

Oct 18

13 Comments

Sigmund Freud Committed Suicide

Yes, it’s true. After writing about how we still practice ‘blood rites’, it got me wondering who are some of the more well known victims. These are some of the people that either cracked under the weight or were just done with living and took their own lives. Who knows what caused these people break. I guess the Russian poet, Vladimir Mayakovsky, who committed suicide in 1930 summed it up best, “I don’t recommend it for others”.
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Oct 17

Blood Rites

Far away, on an African savanna somewhere there is a lion stalking its prey. On the edge of a massive herd of animals, the lion chooses the weakest and strikes. The rest of the herd will not flee. Instead, they stand around and watch. The herd goes about their business because they know that the lion is no longer hungry. One member has been sacrificed for the safety of the herd.

A few years ago Barbara Ehrenreich published the book Blood Rites. It’s mostly about the evolution of humans and their unnatural attraction to violence. Ehrenreich offers some excellent observations about how we as a species have behaved for thousands of years. For so long, in fact, that most of our behavior is completely unconscious – we, too, often behave like a mindless herd of animals.
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Oct 10

1 Comment

Under the Milky Way Tonight

Sometimes when this place gets kind of empty, sound of their breath fades with the light. I think about the loveless fascination under the Milky Way tonight. Lower the curtain down on Memphis. Lower the curtain down all right. I got no time for private consultation under the Milky Way tonight. Wish I knew what you were looking for, might have known what you would find. Wish I knew what you were looking for, might have known what you would find.
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Oct 4

2 Comments

Ode to Joy

I try to hide my super geeky side from most people but I’ve always loved symphonies, opera, and musicals. There is something so amazing about our ability to compose and play music in a way that seems to bring out the best of us. It’s not that this sort of sublime experience is not possible with more popular music – it is – it’s just that classical music seems to hit all the senses in a way that stimulates the mind, body, and spirit. I can’t say that there is much on the radio that does much for the spirit.
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Oct 1

1 Comment

U.S. Defense Budget for Oreos

Sometimes things are really complicated and require a ton of textbooks and several lectures to get the point across. However, as complicated as it can sometimes be, the truth can be made simple by enough for everyone to understand. So, where do American tax dollars go? Here is a quick summary. Personally, I don’t think we spend enough on our defense. Surely we could squeeze a few more billion dollars out of healthcare and education.

Oreo Defense