8893 - Wednesday –

[scottobear]

We are immersed in beauty but our eyes have no clear vision.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

It was broiling outside at midday… 95, but “feels like” 101! That’s some hot, swampy, yuck outside. Days like this are when I’m glad I’m not a roofer. I’m glad it’ll rain later on… hopefully that will cool things down a smidgen.

Poll thought - What’s more in line with what you like to read about in another person's news / pop culture links?

Apple's Iphone

Iraq

Paris Hilton

Michael Moore / health care

Gary Esposito.

Harry Potter

Danny and BHK went to see knocked up… both said that I dodged a bullet by going to work instead. Danny gave it a 4. Considering the fact that there were a couple of cute girls in it to ratchet the film up about 2 points, it must’ve really been terrible. BHK gave it a 1, saying that it’s possibly one of the two worst movies she’s ever seen. The two women behind them walked out of the movie, which is what BHK feels that I would've done.

I’m surprised; because those are the first two negative reviews I’ve heard about it. Hopefully BHK and I will have a better time with the new Die Hard movie. (or FF2 [even if doom is the weak point], Spidey 3, or Pirates 3, all of which neither of us has seen) It’s been a span since we last saw anything in the theater… Shrek 3, I think. I wouldn't mind checking out 1408, for that matter.

Danny really enjoyed Shaolin Soccer, however. It is hard to say which he preferred between that and Kung Fu Hustle.
I hope he had a good time while he visited... he sure seemed to, save for a lot of commuting time and that just couldn't be helped. He was a good sport about some minor tribulations, like the very hot green curry - BHK made some awesome mac & cheese which should obliterate any unhappy mouth-scalding memories. He got on well with BHK and Pye... declaring Pyewacket his favorite cat ever. Newton was a bit gruff with him, suspected so because Danny's arrival almost always signaled my departure.

I was a little concerned about BHK this morning - between dropping me off at work and dropping Danny at the airport, she was in a minor collision with road debris that flew off of another vehicle - about the size of a hammer, it spun up and under the Love Cube. I'm just glad it didn't strike her or the windshield.

I've come to realise that we have way too many pirate ships all over the place.. They need to be consolidated, sorted and put into some sort of storage system so we can create fleets off the cuff comfortably and with a minimum of space thievery.

More Port Authority info to chew on -

http://piers.com/

http://aapa-ports.org/home.cfm

Re-inking Thor pool in Flickr. Pretty nifty concept.

I'm thinking of trying Risus with BHK, to introduce her to RPG gaming. We didn't get to do any RPG stuff while Danny was in town,but maybe next time. BHK and Dan played Hunters and Gatherers, and quite liked it.

Maybe do a mod of LCR , too? With blank dice , maybe.

CIA to reveal decades of misdeeds

The US Central Intelligence Agency is to declassify hundreds of documents detailing some of the agency's worst illegal abuses from the 1950s to 1970s. The papers, to be released next week, will detail assassination plots, domestic spying and wiretapping, kidnapping and human experiments.
Many of the incidents are already known, but the documents are expected to give more comprehensive accounts.
It is "unflattering" but part of agency history, CIA chief Michael Hayden said.
"This is about telling the American people what we have done in their name," Gen Hayden told a conference of foreign policy historians.
The documents, dubbed the "Family Jewels", offer a "glimpse of a very different time and a very different agency".
The full 693-page file detailing CIA illegal activities was compiled on the orders of the then CIA director James Schlesinger in 1973.
He had been alarmed by accounts of CIA involvement in the Watergate scandal under his predecessor and asked CIA officials to inform him of all activities that fell outside the agency's legal charter.
'Skeletons'
Ahead of the documents' release by the CIA, the National Security Archive, an independent research body, on Thursday published related papers it had obtained.
These detail government discussions in 1975 of the CIA abuses and briefings by Mr Schlesinger's successor at the CIA, William Colby, who said the CIA had "done some things it shouldn't have".
Among the incidents that were said to "present legal questions" were:

• the confinement of a Soviet defector in the mid-1960s
• assassination plots of foreign leaders, including Cuba's Fidel Castro
• wiretapping and surveillance of journalists
• behaviour modification experiments on "unwitting" US citizens
• surveillance of dissident groups between 1967 and 1971
• opening from 1953 to 1973 of letters to and from the Soviet Union; from 1969 to 1972 of mail to and from China

The papers also convey mounting concern in President Gerald Ford's administration that what were dubbed the CIA's "skeletons" were surfacing in the media.
Henry Kissinger, then both secretary of state and national security adviser, was against Mr Colby's moves to investigate the CIA's past abuses and the fact that agency secrets were being divulged.

Accusations appearing in the media about the CIA were "worse than in the days of McCarthy", Mr Kissinger said.

Comments

Re: Knocked Up

[blackhellkat.livejournal.com]

I am a total Freaks and Geeks nut and really the only part of the movie I liked was the cast cameos. I just don't think they used Seth Rogen's smart-ass charm to the fullest extent though. Something about the humor didn't click for me maybe because they'd also been spoiled a bit by the trailer previews I'd seen. It did however make me want to pull out my Freaks and Geeks box set and have a marathon with Scotto :D

By the way what do you think of the post-F&G show Judd Apatow did? I think it was called Undeclared. I've been thinking of Netflixing it since I missed it on TV.

Re: Knocked Up

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

BHK is a bit of a F&G nut... it's a fun show, but for whatever reason she didn't dig the movie.

[legal-beagle555.livejournal.com]

I was kind of disappointed in pirates3.. course, I saw it on graduation weekend and was exhausted to the point of falling asleep for a bit during the final fight scene.

Keith Richard's cameo was a definite let down.

[blackhellkat.livejournal.com]

Were you just too busy thinking about navigational servitude to enjoy Pirates3? heehee

[legal-beagle555.livejournal.com]

Yarrrrrr! ye brings the bar into everthing!

[kat78731.livejournal.com]

Check out Mazes and Minotaurs - fun and simple, one of those you can pick up cold, throw together a character and be fighting the same evening..

Behold Mazes and Minotaurs! All available as free PDFs now:

http://mazesandminotaurs.free.fr/

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Thanks! have you played it much?

[phillykat.livejournal.com]

wow! those are the first negative reviews of "knocked up" i've heard of as well. i thought about seeing shaolin soccer, but i haven't. i wanted to know if it was any good. I LOVE Kung Fu Hustle!