NDBT

So… Sunday. Went to the gym. My trainer upped my cardio workout, which kicked my ass. It was raining, and I forgot my wallet, so I went home and spent most of the day in bed reading Good Omens and watching movies and Doctor Who (although the new one Sunday night was a cliff-hanger – argh!).
We’ve got our new staff member in this week, so yay there.
Oh! South Africa is in the final! Yay! At least one country where I’ve lived made the cup final! My housemates are very sad though. Oh – and Javier moved out, but I didn’t know he was leaving because he and I had opposing work schedules, so I never saw him anyways.
We had cake for tea today because it’s Craig’s birthday.
One of the trainers from Wellington came down this week and couldn’t decide from my accent whether I was American or Irish. Maybe I’ve just kept traces of Irish-ness from living there whilst I’ve been travelling around other former British colonies? 

BTW – Gone baby gone has a 91% rating over at rottentomatoes and every review I’ve read is ecstatic, so if you’re looking for something to see this weekend… Too bad it isn’t opening here. And there’s an NYTimes article on it here. It talks about where the movie was filmed, including Dorchester, Southie, and Roxbury.
This is totally and completely brilliant. Stephen Colbert writes Maureen Dowd’s column.

 
Neil Gaiman on Stardust. Seriously – one of my favourite films this year; it is wonderful.
7 non-horror films that scare children. I personally enjoyed Return to Oz, but I did have dreams about the hall of heads. And obviously I love Labyrinth and Dark Crystal. But I do totally concur with the wolf thing from never-ending story, Large Marge from Pee Wee, and the freaking oompa loompas. I hated those things.
An interesting article on the Weinstein Company. Is there any other studio as well known as theirs? I swear that theirs is the only one that people outside the business actually know what’s going on with it.
Here’s a good (if depressing) piece on the current political campaigning.
Horror movie gimmicks that work, via Nathanial Hawthorne.
Obviously, yay on the IPCC winning the Nobel Peace Prize (much like Wangari Maathai winning before). (Al Gore, U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change win Nobel Peace Prize.) As one of my fellow students at Columbia put it, “I believe the symbolic significance of this prize being awarded to the largest science-based body of experts on climate change should not go unnoticed.  Remember, this is a “peace” prize and by the Nobel Committee selecting the IPCC & Al Gore for this prize, they are stating (and they have) that climate change threatens the very foundation for peace and stability: environmental resources.”  I saw.. I think it was Stephen Schwartz from the IPCC talk at Pomona – he did a great job of going over all of the variables and hypotheses the IPCC deals with in formulating their climate change estimates. He was a really good speaker.
It’s official; Jorja Fox is leaving CSI. She’s 39?!? Ok – her romance with Grissom is somewhat less sketchy now. I seriously thought she was like 32. Which I guess she was when she started CSI.
This sentence made me laugh: From Rush & Molloy: In his new memoir Ronnie, the Rolling Stones’ Ron Wood says that at one point he was freebasing so much cocaine that Keith Richards, of all people, got upset with him.
Of all people.
For my mother: Jane Austen fan vids. Whatever – I LIKED Kiera Knightly. I thought she did a fantastic job and I can’t wait for Atonement. In terms of fanvids – yeah, I can’t imagine who takes the time to make these! I was looking for a joke that Jim said on the Office one day, and instead I find a BAZILLION Jim & Pam videos all set to sappy 90s music. Do lonely teenagers go through and watch these? I don’t get it.
The star’s favourite ts. Silly little time waster, but since I’m someone who wears her favourite tees to death (I still can’t bring myself to throw away my 70s San Francisco one, despite the holes), I found it amusing. (Although its mostly the cast of 30 rock and How I Met your Mother.) My other favourite tees? My “extinction sucks” one from Wildlife Works and ‘Miss Scarlet in the Hall with a Revolver”. I’m sure there are others, but…it’s been so long since I’ve seen my wardrobe, I kind of forget what all I own (same with my DVDs – I was trying to remember if I have Harry Potter 4 the other day, and I just don’t know.) Ooh – I like my red express peacock shirt.
That’ll be a nice thing about coming home – opening up all my boxes in the attic. It’ll be like Christmas come all over again. Hey! I have jeans! Check it out – Equilibrium! I forgot I owned that…. Etc. etc.
Einstein is suddenly a hot topic. I don’t get why biographies always come in sets. The only one of these I’ve heard of is the Andy Serkis one, anyways, yay BBC.
From the Onion, via my mother: Death Of Miss Moneypenny All TNT Needed To Run Monthlong Bond Marathon
Cleolinda linspam:
Most Popular Baby Names. [Ed: most of these are kind of awful – but yay! Jessica is only in the top 10 for Asians. Maybe there will finally be fewer of us.]
Zack Snyder and His ‘300’ Gang Eye ‘The Last Photograph.’
HBO Responds to Cinematical’s Story About ‘Deadwood’ Movies.
And because we started off with an intelligent, wonderful pundit, we’re going to finish off with a crazy lady; “WASHINGTON (CNN) – Conservative commentator and best-selling author Ann Coulter may find herself in the midst of a controversy for comments Monday suggesting America would be better if everyone was Christian.
Asked by CNBC host Donny Deutsch what the U.S. looks like in her dreams, Coulter said it would look like the Republican National Convention in 2004
“People were happy,” she said, according to a transcript provided to CNN by CNBC. “They’re Christian. They’re tolerant. They defend America.”
When Deutsch responded, “It would be better if we were all Christian?” Coulter said “Yeah.”
Deutsch, himself Jewish, continued to press Coulter on her remarks, asking, “We should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians then?”
“Yeah,” Coulter responded, adding “Well, it’s a lot easier. It’s kind of a fast track.”
“You can’t possibly believe that,” Deutsch responded. “You can’t possibly. You’re too educated.”
“Do you know what Christianity is?” Coulter replied. “See, we believe your religion, but you have to obey. We have the fast track program.”
Later in the interview Deutsch asked Coulter if she doesn’t want any Jews in the world, Coulter responded, “No, we think — we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.”
“Wow, you didn’t really say that, did you,” Deutsch said.
“Yeah, no,” Coulter replied. “That’s what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws. We know we’re all sinners.”
Deutsch said he was personally offended.
“No. I’m sorry. It is not intended to be,” she said. “I don’t think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to live up to all the laws. What Christians believe — this is just a statement of what the New Testament is — is that that’s why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don’t believe our testament.”
Deutsch continued to call Coulter’s comments anti-semetic.
“No, no, — I don’t want you being offended by this,” she responded. “This is what Christians consider themselves, because our testament is the continuation of your testament. You know that. So we think Jews go to heaven. I mean, [the late Rev. Jerry] Falwell himself said that, but you have to follow laws. Ours is “Christ died for our sins.” We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian is not offensive at all.”

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 8:12 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.