The Wrath

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood_(2010_film) I didn't even know about this until about 10 minutes ago, but I say it's about damn time. Kevin Costner's version was good when I was 8, and I retain a good deal fondness for it, but I'm glad someone is taking on the task of making a serious, historical epic about the legend. And who better than Ridley Scott? Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven are both fantastic movies, so he knows how to do a historical epic. It will be interesting to see how the character is portrayed. Will he be a modern liberal (stealing from the rich to give to the poor) or an outlaw who leads a rebellion against a corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham? I'd bet on the latter. Now if someone would do a decent adaptation of the Arthur legend, I can die a happy man.

No one has any comments on this? I actually thought I made a pretty good point, but it seems to have killed the thread for over a month.

"Amazing" by Aerosmith. Contains one of my all-time favorite lyrics: "Life's a journey, not a destination." "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash. They were none-too-pleased when it became the anthem of the first Gulf War, but I always hope that one day I can watch the news highlights of the overthrow of the Saudi or Iranian regimes to the tune of the Arabic version of this song by Rashid Taha. "Piano Man" by Billy Joel. I guess "individualistic" isn't quite the right word, but it has a certain sense of "everything is gonna be alright" to it. "Judith" by A Perfect Circle. Anti-religion to the last chord.

I thought of that one earlier, but forgot to post it. One of the best rock ballads of the 80's.

Well, apparently the muscle damage isn't as bad as we were originally told, so he won't be needing grafts and will be able to walk again. He still needs reconstructive surgery on his heels, but every news update seems more optimistic than the last. He's also being sent home, so that will be a relief for he and his wife, since they originally thought they were gonna have to move somewhere to get the proper treatment.

Show me the way to go home...

A good friend of mine from college had an IED detonated against his vehicle in Afghanistan. According to updates I've gotten from his wife, his legs are messed up pretty bad. He has severe lacerations and both of his heels were shattered, so he has to have reconstructive surgery to fix that. They're saying the road to recovery will be a long one and that he'll be in a wheelchair for a while, possibly even the rest of his life. This is really troubling to me, for a couple of reasons. The first is that he and his wife already have a young son with just about every kind of difficulty you can imagine. He has some genetic issue that involves the ends of two chromosomes being transposed (or something like that), he is severely disabled, and is not expected to live for very long. So, needless to say, being deprived of the use of his legs is about the last thing they need right now. The other thing I find troubling is that this guy always took magnificent care of his body and was the epitome of physical fitness...so seeing him confined to a wheelchair will not be easy. I'm assuming he won't be able to stay in the Army, but I just can't imagine what else he will do...he was made to be in the military, and I have real difficulty picturing him doing anything else. The incident is mentioned in this article. Even though he isn't named, he is the wounded soldier in this article who crawled out of the vehicle to put tourniquets on other wounded soldiers. Another soldier put tourniquets on the journalists, so the article didn't get that quite right. I know Objectivists don't pray, and neither do I...neither does he, for that matter, since he's an atheist. So, I guess the atheist equivalent would be to just ask you to keep him in your thoughts and be thankful that there are people like him who are willing to risk so much.

Haha, I guess it is. I guess I had never thought of it before, but now that I actually think about the lyrics, it seems pretty obvious. Oh well, still a good song.

It's not one of their most popular songs, but part of that is because Roger Waters was gone when they did that album. The song isn't really "individualistic," per se, but it has a fantastic sense of life.

I was wondering the same thing. In terms of actual artistic merit, there are few rock bands that rival Pink Floyd. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and say that the only band that even comes close--in terms of real, musical, artistic quality--is Led Zeppelin

I'd like to read a book about the impact of the first world war on human civilization. My impression has always been that, although WWII gets all the attention because it was more apocalyptic, WWI resulted in more fundamental changes in how human society operates. I'm not so much interested in a book about the events of the war itself. Does anyone have a good recommendation?

My avatar is actually a picture of my alterego, who has been known throughout the ages as The Wrath, Moose, or Conan. He comes out at the full moon, and also on Columbus Day for some strange reason. And I might have been a bit premature. I saw A yesterday, and she wants to keep moving slow...which is fine with me, because it means I can keep seeing B until the situation either works itself out, or until I have a better idea of who I like better. I told her about B, and she actually encouraged me to keep seeing her, so I guess I don't have to worry about her feeling like she's in competition.

Rocket Man by Elton John Here I go Again by Whitesnake

It's a cable modem, and it's brand new. They took the old one, just in case, even though it looks like that wasn't even the problem.

1984 doesn't say whether or not fascism exists outside of Britain. If the protagonists had won in 1984, or had a reasonable prospect of winning, it would have drastically reduced the sense of warning that you get by reading it.

How is it any worse than the end of We the Living?

I've read 1984, Anthem, We, and Brave New World. I did not care for Brave New World. It depicts a world that is too ordered, to the point that it churns people out on an assembly line. Basically, it's a critique of the mass market production that Henry Ford helped to jump start...the main protagonist is also a complete luddite.

What are some of your favorite rock songs with an individualistic sense to them? I think one of the best is Pink Floyd's Learning to Fly, from the album A Momentary Lapse of Reason. I have part of the lyrics in my signature.

Unless they start actually targeting the people who are the subjects of these "flaggings," then they're not exactly doing anything illegal or unconstitutional. But it's still pretty creepy and Big Brother-ish.

A few days ago my internet mysteriously stopped working. My service provider came out and fiddled around with it, before telling me it was something wrong with my computer. I called Dell and they helped me mess around with it and then assured me that it was my service provider's fault. And Dell actually proved themselves to be right, by showing me that the computer was, in fact, communicating with my modem and router. They had me go into the device manager and change the link speed of my network adapter. I didn't get it working while I was on the phone with them, but I fiddled around with it for a while and eventually got on the internet. The problem is that I had to slow my link speed. Before, it was set to auto negotiation, which had it running at 100Mbps/Full Duplex. Well, 100Mbps does not work anymore. I have to run it on 10Mbps. So, needless to say, my internet is slower now than it was before. Does anyone know enough about this stuff to tell me why it's doing this, or how to fix it? Thanks.

I largely agree with Rand's take on this. I believe she offered up 3 circumstances: 1.) Single-party rule. 2.) Silencing of political speech and/or criminal prosecution for "political crimes." 3.) Imprisonment/execution without trial, or with a show trial. The only one of these that I'm not quite comfortable with is single-party rule. If the people vote such that a single party takes control of government...well, they got there legitimately. Before this health care bill revived the Republican Party, I was tempted to say that we were approaching single-party rule, but I certainly don't advocate overthrowing our government.

I remember discussing anti-phobia methods in college, and there was one method that stuck with me. I can't remember what it's called, but it's basically gradual desensitization. Rather than immersing yourself in a vat of spiders, you start with something simple like looking at a picture of a spider. You may initially feel some amount of panic but, while you're looking at the picture, you force yourself to calm down. Breathe slowly and deeply, try not to shake, etc. Once you've gotten to where you can look at pictures without panicking, you move up the ladder and start spending time around a spider in a jar. Once you're comfortable with that, you bring them out into the real world with you. The theory behind this is that it is physiologically impossible to be in a panicked state while you're body is relaxed. Because panic, by definition, induces physical symptoms then, once you make those symptoms go away, you are no longer in a panicked state. You may never like spiders (I know I don't), but this might be a good method to get over your paralyzing fear. Also, as someone who has been personally hypnotized (for entertainment purposes), I can assure you that it is very real...so I wouldn't write that idea off. There is a video of me doing things that I would never do in my right mind, and I have absolutely no memory of it.

Well, if I'm about to start dating girl A a bit more seriously, I think she needs to know. A few months ago, after we were first introduced by a mutual friend, she told me that she was gonna start dating another guy...just letting me know where I stood, which I appreciated. The reason I feel like I should tell her is because, on Saturday, she asked what I was doing later that day...I told a small fib and said I might be meeting a college friend, but actually was meeting girl B. That date wound up being a total disaster, but that's another story... Also, where exactly is the "intimacy" line for something like this? Obviously, if I have sex with one, I should tie off the other. But does cuddling/kissing on the couch cross that line? Man, I feel like a 16 year-old having to ask these questions, but I have just never had to juggle 2 potential relationships at the same time like this. And I said I have legendary bad luck because I always have in the past. If you've read my past posts on this topic, you'll remember that my erstwhile wife walked out on me without giving much of a reason and, before her, I'd never dated anyone for more than 2 weeks. This is a very unusual situation for me...and I may be very wrong in my perceptions. It's very possible that they'll both decide they aren't interested in me, after they get to know me a bit better, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up.

Due to my legendary bad luck with women, this is a situation I have never found myself in before. There are 2 girls that I have been on a few dates with, each. One seems to be somewhat interested in me. The other is harder to read, but I think she is too. I'm not remotely intimate with either one yet, and neither of them knows about the other. The problem is that I kinda like both of them--each for different reasons--but it is becoming an increasingly awkward situation to deal with. Before I can really get emotionally invested in either one, I have to tell them that I've been seeing someone else. With one of them (we'll call her girl A), I might be at the point where we're going to start seeing each other on a more serious basis, so she definitely has to know about girl B, even if I wind up tying it off with B. But I'm not really ready to stop seeing B either, because I like her for her own reasons. I'm seeing A sometime this weekend, and plan to tell her about B. What is the smart way to approach this situation?

I know the dictionary will say something different. That's why I appealed to common usage. And I can see the argument against Obama, but I'm not sure he's anymore dishonest than the average politician.