Sunday, April 13, 2008

That's disgusting!

I rented the movie "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" for Julia. She's really been into horses lately and fell in love with the movie when her Aunt Jackie showed her and her cousin, Tess, this movie during a family get together.



Julia's going through a horse phase right now, so of course she wanted to watch it over and over after I rented it.

The other day, we had just put it on for her. Laura and I were getting supper ready and she said, "Mom. Dad. This is when Spirit's Mom gives birth to him."

"Oh really?" I asked.

"Yeah. The mother horse lays on her side to give birth. It's the most disgusting thing in the world!"

When Laura and I laughed out loud at this, Julia said, "I'm serious! That's how horses give birth! It's SO disgusting!"

I should point out that in addition to Julia's horse phase, she's also going through a phase where a lot of things are disgusting and she's not afraid to vocalize that.

For example, a few weeks ago, I had to take my wedding ring off because I had a blister that was taking a while to heal because I was itching it. Julia looked at the bandage on my finger and asked, "What's wrong with your finger?"

I explained the problem with my finger was a result of me wearing my wedding ring all the time and that I should probably take it off at night.

Julia stared at me. I thought she was staring because she didn't know what a wedding ring was. I said, "You see, people wear a wedding ring on this finger (point to ring finger) to show other people that they are married."

She stared again and said, "That's disgusting. Thanks for sharing."

I asked her why she thought getting married was disgusting.

"Everyone knows that if you get married, you kiss at the wedding. That's disgusting."

I then declared that not only did we kiss at our wedding, but we kiss all the time. I said, “I even kiss her goodbye when I drop her off at work.”

Julia paused, looked at me with a slight glared and said, "How about this? Stop... being... disgusting!"

To press that point home, Laura and I asked her about it the next night at dinner. She declared that she didn't want to talk about it.

I leaned over and kiss Laura... on the lips...

Julia sighed and exclaimed, “Why do you have to be so disgusting?!”

Dirty clothes can be added to the list of things that Julia finds disgusting. Julia and I went into the master bedroom because I was going to turn on cartoons for her. Laura and I were still eating and wanted to watch American Idol. As I was turning on the television, Julia started muttering, “Umm... ahem... ahem... Dad!”

“What?” I asked a little annoyed because she's been apt to exclaim at me for weird reasons and I weary of it.

“Ummm.... Ummm... (pointing at something on the bed). Ewww!”

I looked around for something on the floor, which wouldn't surprise me if it was cat puke as one of our cats pukes up hair balls all the time. I didn't see anything. Meanwhile, she's still pointing and exclaiming.

“What are you pointing at?”

“That!” she exclaimed and pointed at a bra that was draped on the bed.

“So?” I asked. “That's Mommy's”

“That's a bra!” she exclaimed again.

“So?”

“So that's disgusting!” Julia said.

As a result of this, Laura has maturely started leaving her bras around all over the place for Julia to find them. Julia exclaims appropriately. I'm sure she'll have no hang up about it...

So what started out as a story about the Spirit DVD turned into a weird mix of Julia “That's disgusting” anecdotes.

Tokyo Police Club - In a Cave


I ordered this album from Saddle Creek records and am going to their show at The Slowdown on May 23rd. Here's a song off the new album called, "Elephant Shell".



Daily Show - The meter is running...

The Daily Show slams Fox News in this video. I don't watch Fox News that often, but I will flip to it every now and then to see what insane thing they are talking about now. Whether they are expressing mock outrage for the little things Democrats say or do, while ignoring or downplaying Republican acts of stupidity (or just identifying them as Democrats when it's convenient), getting facts wrong or just plain pandering to the White House, it's always nice to see them get called on it.

While they are the number one news network, I personally believe it's because half their audience tunes in to be outraged.



Hillary's 3 AM phone call from Obama

Monday, April 07, 2008

Some good advice for the kids...

The Never Song.

Movie Review - Right At Your Door



I had seen the trailer for this movie on another DVD, and it seemed like it was a really interesting and thought-provoking movie. While certainly thought provoking, it's only interesting in parts with a twist ending that, while interesting, has plenty of holes in it. I'll be discussing some plot points and the ending, so stop reading if you don't want to know how it ends.



The movie centers around Brad, an out-of-work musician, who sees his wife, Lexi, off to work. Soon after she leaves, Brad hears that several dirty bombs have been detonated in the city (Los Angeles). He goes outside and notices several clouds of smoke in the air. Thinking of his wife, he tries to call her while driving to where she might be. It seems the dirty bombs have a combination of toxic chemicals and an unknown viral agent. Not being able to get through and turned back by police, who he saw kill a man that was contaminated, he rushes back home while trying to call his wife several times. He also stops at the hardware store and steals a boat load of plastic sheeting and duct tape.

At home, he and the next-door handy man seal up the house while they wait for Lexi come home. He waits to do the front door last, but when it looks like she won't make it before the cloud of smoke overtakes the house, he puts clothes, food and water in a box for Lexi by the back of the house and seals up the front door.

What's supposed to be interesting is his decision to not let his wife into the house. She does show up and is mighty pissed when he won't let her in. His reasoning is that Fox News said not to come in contact with exposed people as they may be deadly. Her response is kind of funny: "What the f^&* does Fox News know?" There's a bit of back and forth as they argue about her getting into the house. She also tries to break into the back of the house by throwing her cell phone through a window. In the end, she resolves to her fate of being outside.

The rest of the movie drags and drags with the couple arguing between windows and plastic sheeting. There's also a lot of swear words that really detract from the story. At one point, Lexi says something like, "Well, they're not the f-wording one that's f-wording dying! F-word!" To which her husband pounds a wall and yells, "F-word!" I realize that this is a pretty stressful situation, but surely, they have a bigger swear-word thesaurus out there?

Like any movie out there, there are some head-scratching turns in the plot. As Brad is sealing up his house, I kept thinking, "Why doesn't he just seal off a room for his wife?" Sure enough, he finally does just that, but not until some intense arguing between the couple with F-bombs being thrown around, a character shows up, a character leaves and masked health officials show up a few times.

At one point, Brad stands in his bathtub and dumbs a whole bottle of bleach all over him because... well I'm guessing because he's paranoid about being contaminated. Curiously enough, he doesn't get any chemical burns, nor does his skin or hair turn colors. I don't care how toxic the environment is, washing yourself with a toxic chemical isn't the answer.

The 'shocking' ending comes when health officials show up and drag his wife away. Then the masked health officials inform Brad that the air in his house that they tested (he gave them a sample of something in the house) showed that the house was full of toxic air. Because he sealed up the house, he wasn't getting any fresh air and he's received a deadly dose of the toxin. They aren't letting him out and tell him not to struggle. They nail boards over every window and door and start filling the house with gas. He's killed to stop the possible viral spread of the toxin. Outside, the officials inform Lexi that because she was shut outside, she will likely survive the exposure.

This is where I didn't get the movie. I'm pretty sure health officials aren't just going to kill someone in a house because they believe that he's a goner already. They can probably quarantine someone if they have to. I'd hate to be the official that called for the mass extinction of everyone that sealed up their house only to find out that they might have acted too fast if people survive.

All in all, it's an okay movie. It has a definite point about whether or not we're prepared for a terrorist attack, but it's message is muddled by its plot holes and the coarse language.

Memo to some parents on my block this 4th of July...

I realize that it's July 4th and that boys like to shoot off fireworks. I, myself, blew up my fair share of them when I was a kid contin...