The Gimcrack Miscellany

You shouldn’t write posts like this because they become completely dated in like a month. You’ve seen these brand new movies, heard these brand new songs, or found this awesome brand new technology, but you forget about when you discovered LaserDiscs and you wrote a post about it as if you had discovered gold (of course, you have to assume a ‘blog post’ had been invented at that time - use your imagination, geez). If I followed my own rule, then this post, among pretty much all the rest of my posts, was a bad idea.

I’ll just get right to it. Here’s some recent movies that I highly recommend. The title non-aptly indicates that these movies all came out in 2007, but that might not be true.

Ocean’s 13

Way better than Ocean’s 12, almost as good as Ocean’s 11, Ocean’s 13 takes you back into a casino - thank goodness. As I recall, 12 took place in Europe with thieves and diamonds and golden eggs and houses on hydraulic under-water jacks and Julia Roberts playing an actor who was portraying the real Julia Ro - blah, blah, blah. 13 thankfully gets rid of “Tess” (Julia Roberts’ character) and focuses on the banter among Danny’s crew and the inner workings of a state of the art casino in Las Vegas. Pacino is great as the casino owner and gives you someone to hate, which usually makes for a good movie. Go see it! It’s worth the $8.75, unless you’re reading this from one of the coasts, in which case it’s still worth the $20 that you’re gonna spend to see it.

Shrek the Third

Again, way better than Shrek 2, and just as good if not better than Shrek I, Shrek 3 is full to the brim with jokes and satirical situations involving popular characters that Disney loves to make movies about. We get to see what happens when you put Show White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Sleeping Beauty in a room together. It’s a crazy whirlwind of jealousy-ridden arguments involving fashion and pop culture, and it’s not too different from what happens when you put my wife and her three sisters in a room together. The ginger bread man shines, as does puss ‘n boots, and the dream sequence with Shrek and a bunch of ogre babies is one of the funniest moments in all the Shrek universe. I’m buying this one as soon as I get a chance.

Pan’s Labyrinth

I loved everything about this film - from the look and feel, to the intriguing magic of the story, to the amazing acting and directing. I’ve talked to a lot of people who did not like this film, and I am absolutely not recommending it to kids as it contains a lot of frightening imagery, but I think it is an absolutely excellent movie, and I think that anyone who didn’t like it is shallow and unsophisticated, and I also think I’m ignorant for saying that, but I just don’t care. I’m not going to go into the story too much because I’m waiting on LITS to write a post on it, as Arthur seems like he knows a lot about it (people always think they’re experts when they watch the DVD bonus features). Hint, hint, Arthur - I’ll be looking for your post, and I’ll link to it from this post when you’ve completed it. If you don’t write it, you’ll be letting all my readers down. I’m sorry in advance, my precious readers, if Arthur fails you on this one. I’ve done all I can.

There you have it. If you haven’t seen these flicks, go rent them and watch them in this order: Pan’s Labyrinth, then Shrek the Third, and finally Ocean’s 13. I don’t know why, but that just seems like the right order. You wouldn’t eat cheesecake, then a steak, and finally a lobster bisque would you? Don’t answer that.

Update: Art wrote the post I requested. Thanks, Art!

But don’t worry, it’s back up now - minus a few of my most recent posts (namely the one about the seatbelt checkpoints).

What happened?

I host my own blog, which means my database is separate from the Wordpress blog sea. So, if I lose my database I’m SOL. Guess what - I lost my database. Actually, my web host lost my database and has been apologizing profusely, saying something about it not being… well, I’ll let you read what my support tech said, as he has put it so extraordinarily well:

Hi Brain, any database which does not in client’s list will be removed my our system periodically. I’ve added it to your list therefore it should not happen again.

That’s a verbatim copy/paste from my help ticket. I really love how he compliments my wit by calling me “Brain”. It sure does make me feel real good knowing people like this are taking care of my precious blog posts.. I know, I know, he’s probably not so much “dumb” as he is “Pakistani”, but it’s fun to throw jabs at someone who caused me to lose my blog for almost a week. His salutation made everything better:

Let us know if you get problem.
Thanks!

Will do, my main man Habeeb, will do.

Bruce Willis Tells Hollywood to Shut Up.

That’s right, you heard me correctly. I’m so tired of Hollywood telling people how they should live their lives, what’s right and wrong, and how much better they are than us. I mean, just read my brother’s post about Sheryl Crow’s stupidity.

Bruce, keep rocking my socks off.

Dr. George Bebawi came to my church last night and lectured on the differences between Christianity and Islam. I was pretty impressed with his ability to “bash” Islam without really bashing Islam. This skill comes from his tenure at Cambridge University, where he taught Christian and Islam students in a very politically correct environment.

I won’t go into every point he hit on, but I will tell you what I took away from it. One of his first points was how the word Islam itself means submission, more specifically submission to God’s law, whereas Christianity focuses on God himself, manifest in Christ here on Earth. If you are constantly thinking about the law and what’s right and wrong, you tend to be thinking about yourself instead of God, thus you are not drawing closer to Him but further away.

Another thing he said along these lines is that Islam views right and wrong in terms of reward and punishment. You are supposed to do the right things not because they’re the right things, but because you’ll receive a reward. Likewise, don’t refrain from evil because it’s against God, but because it leads to punishment. On the contrary, Christianity teaches that God is love. This simply means, as Dr. George put it, that you do good deeds because they’re good, not because you’ll receive a reward for doing them (although that is naturally the outcome). We are made in the image and likeness of God, and He sent His son to die on the cross for us only because He loves us, so we are to do what’s right only because we love Him.

Lastly, I gained a deeper realization for how Islam differs from other nations that the USA has had trouble with (i.e. the Russians, Germans, Japanese, even the IRA - although I don’t know how much that has affected Americans). Other nations have risen up out of patriotism, which can be quelled with alliances, shifts in power, and even negotiation. However, Islam is different, and I think this is by far the deepest and most important point having to do with all of this. Islam is not based in patriotism, it is based in religion. There are no alliances, no negotiation. Muslims are ultimately instructed that they will only be in the house of peace when everyone on Earth is either Muslim, a slave, or dead. Until then, it is the house of war.

I read a book called The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and The Crusades) by a man named Robert Spencer, and since then I’ve been letting these ideas sink in. It was great to hear Dr. George, an expert on the subject, speak at our church. His topics really paralleled the book I read, and I would highly recommend it if you are interested in learning more.

I remember back when my paladin was edging closer and closer to the coveted level 60 by questing in the highest level places like the Plaguelands and Silithist. Now he’s sitting in Shattrath City drinking ale with a bunch of drunken Scryers. I got him all the way to 70 and bought him a nice snowy griffen mount before I decided I didn’t want to play him anymore. At least not enough to keep him as my main.

There’s a new kid in town. Well I guess I should say there’s an old bald wizard in town. His name is Yot and he’s hungry for the Outlands. There he is riding his horsey in Silverpine Forest on his way to kick some butt in the Scarlet Monastery (I need to get some updated screenshots as that was about 15 levels ago). The reason I decided to make Yot my main is because he is simply more fun to play than my paladin.

Sure, I’m going to miss not dying. I mean, my paladin could outlast any opponent. The trouble is, a paladin simply can’t DPS like a mage, which means he can’t succeed in player-vs-player combat. Plus he has no way of stun-locking players like a mage or rogue, so if he does get in range of slaying a foe, all they have to do is run away.

That being said, here’s something I’m going to miss: having awesome fiery angel wings shoot out of my back whenever I want (ok, there’s like a 60-second cooldown on them, but still). The holy warrior of God thing really appeals to me, as does choosing between being a damager, healer, or tank. With Yot I have only two roles, crowd control and DPS, and I don’t get to choose between them because I’m required to do both.

I don’t care though. Yot is 54 and he is very close to the Outlands. Heck, he’s already been there - in fact his home is set to Shattrath City. Mages get to instantly port to any city, which means I get to use a Boeing 747 for all my annoying FedEx quests while you have to use a rickety old FedEx Ground box truck.

One last screenshot to say goodbye to Atanamir, the male human paladin from Elwyn Forest. I call it “Atanamir turns 70, and dies.” I’ll miss you, little buddy.