Film Review: Kinsey

I saw Kinsey a couple weeks ago, I'm late on posting my review.

This was a fantastic movie. It reminded me how much we take for granted the sexual revolution. The big point I got out of it was that so many of the social "bad things", when investigated, are things that everyone does.

Film Review: Rocky and Bullwinkle

I saw R&B on TV the other day. Now I know why it was a flop. It was great if you are an adult, because it made fun of things only adults would understand. However kids must have thought it was entirely boring. Oh well, sucks for them!

Nonviolence International Banda Aceh Office Destroyed

[ Michael Beer is a friend of mine who has taught me a lot about peaceful conflict resolution. Donations would be appreciated. ]

Media ReleaseSigne Poulsen
December 29, 2004
Contact: Michael Beer + 1 202 244 0951, info@nonviolenceinternational.net

Nonviolence International Banda Aceh Office Destroyed, Staff Missing

Nonviolence Internatinal is sad to report that nearly all of our full and
part-time staff are still unnaccounted for in Banda Aceh after the recent
earthquake and tsunami. Only Dr. Asna Husin who flew to Kuala Lumpur just 1
day before the tragic events is accounted for. Still missing and feared dead
are:
Abdul Azis Muslim, Deputy Director
Sayed Subhan Almabrur, Curriculum and Training Coordinator
Armia Abdurrahman, Administrative and Financial Officer
Aruni, Administrative Assistant
M Yusuf, Night Security
Dedek, Cleaner


Our office the “Peace Education Program” of Aceh has been completely
destroyed. All contents swept away including our library, computers,
thousands of copies of our books bound for the schools of Aceh and a new
resource manual for the ulama of aceh that was a ground breaking work on
peacebuilding and Islam. We have also lost a proofs of a nearly finalized
book, 3 years in the making, that was a collection of stories of successful
nonviolent resolution of conflict in Acehnese history.

We will establish a relief fund. Details to come.

We will post more information on our website
www.nonviolenceinternational.net

Car Fire

On the day after Christmas my housemate’s truck caught on fire. Luckily it was parked outside the house. It was near enough to melt the vinyl siding.

quietchris and I were up in my room watching TV and suddenly we hear what sounded like someone beating on the garage door. Sort of a bam!bam!bam! sound you might hear if someone was locked out and was trying to get our attention. I remember thinking, “Why would C or M bang on the garage door instead of ring the doorbell?”. We looked out the window just in time to hear a big “whooosh” sound followed by a huge red ball of flame.

Suddenly my housemates are running around yelling things like “call 911”. Evidentially it was burning for long enough for a neighbor to have called it in because 911 answered with, “Car fire, yes, we know.” instead of even saying “hello”. I was too dumbstruck to say what I wanted, which was, “Yes, but you know the address?” I said “thank you” and hung up, realizing that if they were on the right block they’d see the house to go to.

We got dressed and went down stairs. Soon 4 cop cars arrived, one tried to use his tiny fire extinguisher to put out the fire. While it didn’t, it at least kept things as bay for a bit.

My housemate explained that his truck is a diesel and the engine block heater was plugged into the external outlet. Most likely it sparked and caught on fire. We stood outside with the cops (oddly, 4 of the 5 cops were female) and watched it burn. When the firetruck arrived my housemate explained the situation. (NB: Diesels break when they freeze, so they get plugged into heaters on cold nights.)

Well the firefighters were able to put out the fire. It took a long time but it did finally go out. Nobody was hurt. The truck is totaled. The vinyl siding is melted, and if you look closely you can see starburst-patterns on the door? That’s were the initial burst of flames threw burning shrapnel all over the place, which must have been the bam!bam!bam! that we heard when the whole thing started.

What a night!

Film Review: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Holy cow did I enjoy this film. The visuals were stunning. I’d be willing to watch this movie with the sound off. I’m glad I saw it on the big screen. Then there is the plot, which was a fine family plot with a bunch of stuff for the adults. Perfect.

Now it may be just that I’m still depressed about the election, but did anyone else see this as an allegory for the way the Dems value brains and inventiveness and are beaten up by villains that value lies and deceit? And wasn’t it interesting that when they go for help to the people that should be the “adults”, they either get ignored or the “adults” go off and fix the wrong problem. (like how the DNC ignores the grass roots, or when they don’t ignore them, they fix the wrong problem)