Buy a gallon of milk from Amazon.com for $69.99. Really, check this stuff out.
Specifically, see 1) the customer pictures, 2) what other products customers are buying, and 3) the customer reviews.
Recently, a friend posted a comment on her Facebook to the effect that no one should die from lack of health care, and furthermore, no one should go broke from health care expenses. Discussion ensued, and one person posed the question, “Why is there a right to bear arms in the Constitution, but not a right to health care?”
I’ll post my answer in a couple days. In the meantime, please post your thoughts on this question in the comments.
For those of you who read my blog but not Ashley’s, go check out her latest post to read about our adventures this past week. I thought about writing a travelog, but decided Ashley’s done a more-than-adequate job for the both of us.
I became aware of Steven Buckner’s album through an online music website called mephtik netlabel. The website provided several of the songs from the album for free, so I checked them out, and really liked what I heard. So I bought the album. On a 10-point scale, I’d give it an 8 or 9. I had to listen to it about a dozen times before I started to want to listen to something else.
To me, the album can be broadly classified as having two styles — the first half of the album has a sort of jazzy, piano new age feel, while the latter half sounds a lot more like electronic, ambient stuff that Vangelis would’ve put out back in the day.
Actually, it sounds like the entire album was made with synthesized instruments. I’m not sure which of the instrument samples are from real instruments, if any. That’s not to say the quality is bad; in fact, the quality is quite good! Despite being synthesized, the music is very enjoyable and the composition is definitely above average. I merely wonder if it wouldn’t have sounded better with some real orchestration.
If you enjoy artists like Vangelis or E.S. Posthumus, or if you’re generally a fan of new age or jazz piano style music, you’ll probably like this game. Video game music lovers will also probably enjoy it. Luckily, you can download about a third of the album from mephtik for free, so check it out before you buy.
And lo, he sprang before me as the flash of a turquoise tornado. As if to dare me to attempt murder, he sang a song. Calling, beckoning. The menace of his voice was unnerving, but I remained unwavering. This was not to be a moment of hesitation: nay, but a moment of decisive victory. It would be the time of his ignominy.
My course of perquisition, having lasted past years three, had landed me on his trail fewer times than that a man has fingers on his hand. Yet I endeavored, persevering in hope that my avocation would prove fruitful. And indeed it had, as the elusive Green Hornet was thus before me.
Perched upon a branch of such beauty as to cause bemusement to even the most thoughtful of creatures, he stared, peering as it were into my soul. But many long moons of study and rumination had prepared me for this chicanery, and I withstood his piercing eyes.
As we gazed across the space, it was I, who, seizing the proper opportunity, sprang forward in such a perfect grace as to immediately receive recognition from the gods. Yea, the fiercest, most noble lioness fighting for the defense of her den of cubs could not have compared to the power and agility with which I bared down upon the Green Hornet.
And it was with the Strength and Promise of the Heavens that I struck him down with all my might, banishing him from this world and the next, never to haunt the souls of men again.
Thus was the end of the elusive Green Hornet, and this is the tale.
(Click to enlarge the image of the elusive Green Hornet.)
(UPDATE: The following image is a better shot, taken of a live Chlorion aerarium. Thanks to Mike Treat and Natalie Delgado for help in identification. Turns out he’s actually a wasp, which I knew, but “green hornet” sounded cooler.)
Today in Las Vegas, a 5-year-old found a gun in his dad’s car’s glove compartment, pulled it out, and accidentally shot himself in the head. His dad was sitting in the car right next to him.
Oh and by the way, it’s the gun’s fault.
I didn’t even want to watch the “news coverage” on this one, but I’m almost sure that was the diagnosis.
In other news, I started to look up gun laws in Virginia. I found some gems of information.
For example, you are only permitted to buy one handgun per month (unless you’re a cop, or), unless given a Multiple Handgun Purchase Certificate, obtainable by filling out a Multiple Handgun Purchase Application. Naturally, you must justify needing to buy multiple hand guns, and there are no guidelines as to what constitutes justifiable.
Not that I’ll be buying multiple handguns anytime soon — we’re too poor. But it really makes me wonder what sort of illogical mind games people (ahem, politicians) must play with themselves for that to make any sense. What purpose does that serve?
Virginia has an “informal” agreement with the state of Utah to accept its CCWs (I have a Utah and Nevada CCW, so I’m ok, right?)… I wouldn’t count on being ok, though. Really, what is an informal agreement? What does that even mean? So, I’ll probably be getting a Virginia CCW as well. Wee!
On the plus side, I found out I can at least take my gun onto GMU campus… so long as I leave it in my car in the parking lot. It’s not that I’m worried about a crazy person shooting up a school in Virginia or anything, I just like to have my gun close to me at all times, if possible.
Maybe someone can explain this to me. Why is it that every Asian home I go into (in America) has several giant geodes placed decoratively around the house?
Am I making an over-generalization from too small a sample size (I think n = 3 or 4), or is this really as common as I believe it is? Asian friends, help me understand.
Where to begin?
First, this post contains spoilers of both the book and movie, so this is your warning.
Second, I didn’t jump on the Harry Potter bandwagon til just recently. I whisked flew the 7-part series this past December/January. I had meant to write up my feelings on the series, but never got around to it, because, well… it would’ve taken forever.
At over 4,000 pages, reading the series is no small endeavor, and once you have finished, you can’t help but feel like you’ve just been on an incredible journey. I have only felt such an incredible sense of varying, strong emotions after finishing a very few number of books… such emotions as accomplishment, sadness (of coming to the end of the journey), pure bewilderment and elation (“I can’t believe how amazing that was…”): Harry Potter belongs on my short list of this type of book.
And within the series, one can rank the books in order of enjoyment. My favorite book in the series? Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
At the beginning of the story, Dumbledore tells Harry they are going to have private lessons throughout the year in order to better prepare Harry for his destiny — to defeat Voldemort. The instruction taught during these lessons is primarily about Voldemort’s upbringing and past. Thus, at least in my mind, the two main purposes of the sixth book are to 1) develop Voldemort’s character and 2) develop the relationship between Harry and Professor Dumbledore. Both of these are done through the lessons.
Along the way, other events occur: for example, the romance between Harry’s best friends Ron and Hermione begins to flourish; also, Harry and Ron’s sister Ginny also start to hit it off. However, this is mostly an appendage to the story. The romances are similar to the game of quidditch, which shows up in almost every book, and helps move the story along, but is certainly not the focus of the books. The movie would have you believe otherwise.
In the process of developing the romances, the movie makers brush off the aforementioned two main purposes of the story. As a result, in the last half hour when Harry and Dumbledore travel to the cave, it really doesn’t even make sense: a surprised Dumbledore admits he had no idea Voldemort had created horcruxes to immortalize himself, and moments later, they’re whisked away to a cave where Dumbledore believes a horcrux is hidden. This makes a lot more sense in the book, as Dumbledore knew about the horcruxes, he just didn’t know how many there were until Harry retrieved Slughorn’s memory.
Within the cave, either the acting or the directing of Dumbledore was terrible. He didn’t convey any real suffering. The one time he screams “Kill me!” at Harry, he sounds like an angry maniac, not like a man in the throes of abjection. And in the next minute, he’s conjuring huge fireballs. This is probably the coolest part of the movie, and it only lasts for about three seconds.
Since relationship-building between Harry and Dumbledore is virtually non-existent during the movie, when Dumbledore is killed in the next scene, I didn’t even care. It was almost as bad as when Cedric was killed in the fourth movie. “Who cares? He wasn’t even that important of a character.” (this next sentence was added hours after I originally posted this blog; thanks to Ashley for the reminder…) After the movie, Ashley remarked that she felt sadder when Hermione was crying over Ron than she did when Dumbledore died, and I completely agree.
The movie ends with Harry, Ron, and Hermione hanging out in the tower where Dumbledore was murdered, discussing how they must go out and search for the horcruxes. Ashley noted that the ending was very similar to the ending of The Fellowship of the Rings, with Frodo and Sam committing to one another to finish the mission they are destined to complete. But whereas FOTR made you feel emotions of friendship, loyalty, and hope, Half-Blood Prince made you feel… nothing.
Actually, if I felt anything, it was irritation: irritation that the movie was so lacking in epicness. Despite having so much epic potential (arguably the most in the series, since Dumbledore is killed with no explanation), it had none.
In addition to my main complaints, a few others include:
- The scene where the Burrow (the Weasleys’ home) is destroyed was completely pointless and a waste of time. Its absence could’ve allowed for more ending awesomeness or more development of Voldemort or Harry/Dumbledore.
- The lack of mystery. Throughout the book, another theme/conflict is that Harry is suspicious of Draco, and spends a lot of his free time trying to figure out what Draco is up to. None of this kind of suspenseful mystery is present in the movie; not with Draco, nor with any of the other mysteries in the movie. “Who is the Half-Blood Prince? Oh, I don’t really care, since obviously the main plot of this movie is the romances among the teenagers.”
In conclusion, I have a very strange feeling of ambivalence for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I sit there and watch it and I generally enjoy it… but then I leave feeling like I missed out. I think what it really comes down to is that it’s a decent/good movie, but it’s not a great movie, even though it totally had the potential to be.
or 
.