Since starting a business, I've been wanting to read this work by P.T. Barnum. I located it on the new pad, found it was free (part of Project Gutenberg), downloaded it, and started reading it yesterday. Last night, I put it down at page 78 of 98, thinking I still had about 15 minutes to go, but when I picked it up today, I found the final 18 pages were merely disclaimer/licensing stuffs.
So... the book. I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone. It's not a simple read due to the aged language used, but it was certainly quick; probably took a little over an hour, and I read slowly. The contents is sort of organized like a blog; each "chapter" is an idea, and the text expounds upon it. Some are incredibly short, while others span many pages. The way it's written, I think today it actually would be a blog...
The pad has a pretty nifty bookmarking/highlighting feature, which I began using about halfway through to annotate key bits. I also went back to note the things I had missed before discovering the feature... My major takeaways follow:
"Idleness breeds bad habits."
"Let money work for you, and you have the most devoted servant in the world."
"There are some persons who are "born tired." - I hope Caitlin shares this one at work.
"Getting in debt for what you eat and drink and wear is to be avoided."
"The foundation of success in life is good health."
"There is one thing that nothing living except a vile worm ever naturally loved, and that is tobacco." - Funny.
"A handful of people, calling themselves the aristocracy, run up a false standard of perfection, and in endeavoring to rise to that standard, we constantly keep ourselves poor."
"Until you can get so that you can rely upon yourself, you need not expect to succeed."
"An animal with a split hoof must live upon grass and grain." - Interesting science/survival bit.
"You must exercise your caution in laying your plans, but be bold in carrying them out."
"There is no tool you should be so particular about as living tools."
"No man ought ever to indorse a note or become security, for any man, be it his father or brother, to a greater extent than he can afford to lose and care nothing about, without taking good security."
"Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business."
"To get rich, is not always equivalent to being successful."
Bonus: Thanks to the book, I looked up, and learned about the Croton Aqueduct.
Finally got to see one of the two movies I've been dying to see. The other being Inglorious Basterds, which I'll get to next week.
I, like most others, didn't know squat of District 9 before it was out and heavily reviewed. As usual, I only take a look at Rotten Tomatoes scores, but try to steer clear of all actual reviews because I like my movies to surprise me. Going in, all I knew was that there were aliens involved.
While not quite as great as I was led to believe it'd be, it's still a very worthy film and worth a watch. Decent story, good direction, but a bit too much blood splatter and flying meat. Yes, meat... Flying. At a point I began to laugh because it was getting so ridiculous, but Geordie, not as keen on gratuitous... I don't know the word... (he doesn't like things being too over the top) was not a fan. He still thought it was a good movie, but you know, that they overdid the flying meat and body explosions.
Unfortunately, I picked a major hole in the plot this morning. If you'd like to know it, highlight the following text. It is very much full of spoiler.
If Christopher Johnson knew how to fly the mothership, and it wasn’t broken in any way, why were all the aliens stranded there and dying before the humans opened it up and rescued them? Was it that tiny bit of “juice” that they needed to power both the dropship and then the mothership? I don’t know much about alien technology, but that doesn’t seem to make too much sense.
I eagerly anticipate District 10. What do you think? Three years?
This is definitely one to rent, but I'll go so far as to say it's worth the price of admission at a theater. Get your medium popcorn, and enjoy.
Dreams is just that, a collection of dreams from one of the greatest writer/producers of all time. I can't say it was all that entertaining, but it was truly awesome that he had the means to put his dreams (or nightmares) in to film for the whole world to see. It was neat to see others have such crazy thoughts racing through their heads while they sleep... My biggest takeaway was that I'd very much like my funeral to be a celebration, not a mourning.
This is a movie about a pothead comedian who saw Morgan Spurlock's film about McDonalds, and thought it would be great to do his own version.
The main character, Doug Benson, is a funny guy, but as a coworker of mine put it, rather depressing. His comedy is entertaining, but damn, I wouldn't want to be his friend.
Whereas the original film had a great amount of information behind it, this one really just follows Benson around, checks his lung capacity, shows some SAT scores, a mental capacity exam, sperm counts, and a psychic test... Apparently marijuana can make you psychic? I don't know. To save you the trouble or time of watching this, I present you this data (presented as sober/high):
Lung capacity: 93%/89% SATs: 980/1030 Mental exam: 27/24 (normal is 22) Sperm count: Slightly above normal/Way above normal Psychic test: 4% correct/28% correct (still not even close to "psychic")
What I did find most interesting is the laws and such around marijuana. Proposition 215 in California legalizes the use of medical marijuana, but a) it seems like anybody can get a license if they exhibit any sort of ache or pain, b) the federal government still says it is illegal so the DEA regularly raids "dispensaries," seizing everything inside, and arresting operators. I was left wondering how lucrative a business it is to be in, where the dispensaries get all their weed, and how are the doctors writing so many bogus prescriptions (which is sad because there are people who actually do need the stuff)?
Another interesting bit was an interview with a gentleman who rehabilitated drug addicts for a living. He stated that of 65 people who had entered his program since it began, 60 had troubled or nonexistent relationships with their fathers. That data point really is the most valuable one in the entire film, and it wasn't even planned! Basically, if you're man enough to have a kid, be man enough to raise it or be around.
Overall, a decent watch, but I can't really recommend it unless you have nothing else going on or are really fascinated with the subject. I was looking to really learn something, but that something never seemed to come around... Add on a low budget, poor directing, poor camerawork, bad sound... I was kind of glad it was over.
I got this one via Netflix well over a month ago. It has been sitting around because Caitlin and I were put off by the scenes/snippets leading up to the main menu. Those scenes alone prepared me for this endeavor, so nothing came as much of a surprise.
This movie is pretty bad. It doesn't even seem to hide the fact that it's a cheap ripoff of that little epic written many years ago by Mr. Tolkien. Surely, nobody would know those stories and draw serious parallels between them and this. Well, I am aware of the Rings, and I couldn't help but draw those parallels throughout this film:
Evil archenemy. Galbatorix = Sauron. CHECK!
Dark sorcerer who performs the deeds of the archenemy. Durza = Saruman. CHECK!
Archer helper dude. Murtagh = Legolas. CHECK!
Good looking chick who can fight. Arya = Arwen. CHECK!
"Last stand" city for all humankind built in to a mountain. Farthen Dyr = Minas Tirith. CHECK!
Person draped in all white clothing while riding a white horse. CHECK!
Not-so-special hero from a generic past. Eragon = Frodo. CHECK!
The big difference is the big series everybody knows about had a great budget, great actors, and great director. This had none of that. It was very clearly a cheap knockoff. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't manage to finish watching, but it was bad enough that I checked my e-mail regularly.
Netflix now works on the Mac! Hurrah! Completed my Japanese homework in record time last night, had an hour and a half to kill. Solution? Watch a movie.
Didn't know anything about this anime other than the Netflix rating system had it very high on my list. It's about typical for your ninja anime films... Swords, blood, folks with special powers, a villian... You come to expect those things. What you don't come to expect is nudity and pretty steamy sexual imagery. Wowow.
Overall, an enjoyable watch, but nothing to go out of your way to see. It's a classic, but not the best I've seen.
This had been sitting on the DVD shelf for well over a year, waiting for the day Caitlin and I felt like reading a movie. Last week, that day came, and boy am I glad.
I can't really go in to the details of the movie, but suffice to say it is a beautifully put together piece of art. You will have felt something by the end of it. Bravo, frenchies.
Grade: A (very close to a +, but I reserve that for movies that come like once in a lifetime)
If it wasn't for tons of blood, guts, bullets, and fire, this one had nothing, but what can you expect from a sequel to a film that didn't need one?
Where the first broke some new ground in the whole "people are more f'd up than zombies," this one simply tried to hard to hit on that one again and failed miserably.
It was entertaining, and I managed to sit through it, but there are plenty of better movies out there.
The 2nd film I've seen about Pre, and that's where it ranks as well. We all know the story... If you don't, I recommend you watch Prefontaine, which came out a year earlier and despite a lower rating on IMDB, I find it to be a much better film.
What bothered me about this one was the casting; Billy Crudup leads you to believe Steve was some stoner retard, and Donald Sutherland is an airy a-hole.
The story was perhaps told a bit better, but there's something to be said for getting my emotions involved... this one didn't do that.
While still a decent movie, I cannot recommend it to anyone who is not a runner.
We all know this one so well that it is likely a waste of time for me to review it, but whatever, I feel like writing right now.
Easily one of the best films ever made, and it is from 1939! The effects are pretty awful, but something I cannot put my finger on makes it oh-so immersive... Maybe the fact we grew up on it?
What do kids these days think of the film? Do they find the story to be as incredible as we do or can they not see past the dated effects and poor picture? Regardless, Katie will be receiving on DVD as soon as she will be able to understand it.
Another thing I've noted while watching movies from this era is that nobody from them is still living. Movies have been around that long. I didn't go through the whole cast, but I did click through on the top 20 characters or so, and the last one alive passed away in the 90s. Wild...
