ModernGeek

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3 the other day, and as with almost all movies I watch, I'm writing a review of it. I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum! Or at least give warnings before they come.

First, my opinion on the previous two movies.

POTC1: Great movie, one of the best. I loved it, and obsessed over it for days.

POTC2: TERRIBLE! I was so disappointed by this movie, it's not even funny. The plot was WAY too complicated(the three guys fighting each other scene was just over the top), and Jack Sparrow wasn't funny at ALL, Will just acted all weird, and Elizabeth *groan* don't let me get started on her. I swear she aggravated me more in that movie than any other character EVER, in all of my movie watching.

And now onto POTC3. I thought it was good, much better than 2, well worth seeing, but still not as good as no. 1. Jack Sparrow was much funnier, but the beggining scene with him, just made me go o-0 what the heck? Elizabeth was much better except when she would shout "WE FIGHT!", and I'm thinking "Yeah, fight and die!". Will... oh gosh, the treacherous little snake had me wishing for Elizabeth to slap him.

I think overall the most interesting part of the movie for me was the whole scene with the brethern court. To me, it demonstrated that people can have an organized system of authority without government intervention. Actually, I'm surprised these movies have gotten such good reviews, because they are, after all, promoting defiance of the government.

I think the guy who played Beckett did a very good job, his expression the entire time suited exactly what I would have imagined him to be.

So, overall, I think it was a good movie, and I think Ozymandius would enjoy it, at least from a libertarian point of view.

So, as some of you might know, I'm a huge fan of anime and manga, and just recently I bought my first piece of legal manga! WOW, isn't that amazing? /sarcasm. So, anyway, I was asked by my local library to do a piece on anime and manga for beginners for their teen newspaper. So, I said sure, but then I realized I faced a problem. All my anime and almost all my manga, I've watched or downloaded illegally, because I am so NOT going to pay $15 dollars for a DVD that only has six episodes on it. This may not seem like much, but what about when there's even only 26 episodes in a series, it ends up being about $60! And what about for series such as Fullmetal Alchemist that have 51 episodes?, or Rurouni Kenshin that has 91?, or Naruto which has 220?! Okay, my point is made. I'm wondering how I'm going to get the message to people that they can watch for free online, without getting in trouble for participating in illegal activities(this is the PUBLIC library you know!). So far I've come up with saying "Youtube.com, crunchyroll.com, and peekvid.com all have unlicensed anime(and more!) for free watching.", but somehow I feel this is a little weak. If anybody could come up with a different way to direct people to those websites without getting in trouble, then I would greatly appreciate it.

EDIT: I took a quick look at digg just now, and aparrently only 0.0015% of Homeland Security Cases are terrorist related. Jeez, and this is what I spend forever in security at the airport for? 

One of my favorite all time people is Groucho Marx, and the other two Marx brothers. I have spent many hours watching and re-watching the Marx brothers movies. I think I've seen all of them by now. But anyway, my favorite Marx brothers movie is titled 'Duck Soup'(it has absolutely nothing to do with ducks, I have absolute no clue why they named it Duck Soup). Rufus T. Firefly(Groucho Marx) becomes head of the fictional country 'Freedonia' and proceeds to propose all sorts of goofy ideas, and generally being a hilarious nuisance to anyone who actually wants to help run the country. The country next door, however, 'Sylvania' wants to take over Freedonia, and sends two spies(Chico and Harpo) into Freedonia. Duck Soup is full of one funny line after another and it's not, like, dumb humor,(I can't stand dumb humor like the three stooges) it's smart humor. And the best part about it is... it's available through Youtube!

Part1

Part2

Part3

Part4

Part5

Part6 

Part7

Part8

Part9 

Duck Soup also contains two of my favorite songs ever 'These are the laws of my administration' and 'Freedonia's going to war!' Enjoy! 

    Last Saturday I finally finished the Confirmation class I've had to attend this past school year. About half the classes talked about the 'community', but there was one class in particular that reeked of socialism.

    Each class was a lecture given by a different person each week. This particular class was titled 'Catholic Social Teaching'. It started out with the teacher asking everyone to take off their coat and look on the tag to see where it was made. Places such as China, Taiwan, Honduras, etc. were named. She then named out the salaries people per week make there. I can't remember the exact numbers but I know they were very low, $1 a week, or something like that. This was apparently supposed to prove that people in those countries are very poor. Which they are, but she forgot to take into consideration that in those places like that, a dollar would be worth MUCH more, then here. Well, moving on.

    Then, she asked where people bought cloths. People said, Wal-Mart, Gap, Old Navy, Target and others. She said(and I am NOT exagerating in any way) 'Those companies exploit people in poor countries! By buying products of those places you have said that you support the idea that people live in horrible conditions, for low pay! We must all boycott such companies, to stop such horrible practices!' So, I'm thinking 'What? You want us to go spend more money then we usually would in order to try to put Wal-Mart out of business, which would make lives for people in those poor countries even worse?' And here are the economics behind the statement 'Wal-Mart, Gap, Old Navy, and Target are great things for the people in poor countries'. 

    The companies mentioned above are all providing jobs for people, which they wouldn't have otherwise had. If they didn't have those jobs, then they would be getting NO money at all. Thus, if more factories were moved into the poor countries mentioned, there would be competition between the companies, and wages would rise. Telling the companies to move out, it like taking away those people's source of income.

    Is this so hard to understand? All it takes five seconds, to take a 'second thought' after hearing the idea, to disprove it. Then, I listened in utter shock as all the girls at my table start saying 'Yeah! We should boycott Wal-Mart!'. 

    Then she moved on to the topic of recycling. She said we should recycle our paper, because our trees are being destroyed, blah, blah blah, you've heard it all before. Here's the problem with that idea.

    When we recycle something we reduce the need for it to be produced. If there isn't a need for trees to be produced then they won't be. So, logically, if you want more trees, then you should strive to use as much paper as possible. A good example of this theory is chickens. There are tons, and tons, and TONS of chickens in the world. That's because people eat lots of chickens. If people stopped eating chickens in an attempt to 'save' them, then the need for chickens would go away, and businesses would stop raising chickens, thus drastically reducing the amount of chickens in the world.  

    Basically this lady just bashed money, and the market for an hour and fifteen minutes. It was just a bunch of anti-capitalistic trash. And at the end she announces 'This is Catholic Social Teaching!'. No it is NOT. Not even close. Her ideas are miles off. Her basic 'thing' was that the government should force all companies out of poor countries thus putting them out of business, and that we should all be happy little people running around in a jungle somewhere with no technology at all. 

  Oh, and the funny this is, that aparrently she has an mega membership at the local health club. Apparently, in her mind, using money to buy cheap clothes is evil, but using it to work out on fancy, expensive equiptment is perfectly alright!  

  This was the only class that was so strongly socialist, but about half of them total would speak about the 'community' and 'working together' to 'save the enviroment' the people in poor countries.

But thank goodness it's all over now. 

Oh, and apparently it's been discovered that there's warming Mars, which obviously has no people occupying it, thus strongly suggesting that Global Warming is in fact, caused by the sun.  

Yesterday morning, I was abruptly woken at 5:30 AM by disturbing scratching noises coming from behind my bed. I though, my brother's hamster might have gotten loose, or there was some sort of mouse behind there. So, I moved back the pillow, and a large flying object comes flying out at extreme speed from behind there, and started flying in insane circles around the room, and ramming his head against the door so hard, I thought he was going to split his skull. So, I freak out, jump out of bed, get out of the room with the flying thing still going in circles. My Dad, came up a few minutes later, and the flying thing was nowhere to be seen. Now, at this point I'm being given dubious looks, like "Are you sure you didn't dream it up?". Well, now I've lost an hour of sleep, dragged Dad up to my room for no aparrent reason, and am totally freaked out. Well, throughout the day there's no sign of the flying thing, which at this point I thought was a bird.

That evening I got home late from Softball, and from 9:00 to 10:00 I'm in my room hearing scratching sounds coming from either my closet, or my fan, which has a type of "bowl" thing at the top with holes large enough for a bat to get through. Finally, at 10:00 I can't stand it anymore, and go and call Dad who comes up, and locks in the closet, and kind of knocks the fan, but with no response. Now, I feel really stupid, and paranoid, and attempt to go to sleep, which I accomplish in the end.

This morning, I hear stories of how my great-grandmother had two flying thing sin her room last night, and I'm greatly relieved, knowing that I'm not the only one who's hearing and seeing things.

Now, based on flight pattern, response torwards light, size, and times being spotted we've concluded that the flying things are actually bats, and we have at least three in the house somewhere. So, this means that there's definately one living in either my closet, or my fan. I named him "Alucard" from the anime "Hellsing". :) So anyway, my Dad's plan for getting rid of the bats was to take a tennis racket, hit the bat as hard as possible, and then step on it while it's disoriented. MY plan(which is SO much cooler that Dad's) is to wait for it to land, then take a tuperware container and slam it down over it, slide a magazine under the container and bat, and throw it out the door/window to the outside. I'm also armed with a digital camera to take pictures, which if I get any, I'll post. Dad, and I are having a contest to see who will catch a bat first, and I am going to WIN! Anyway, I'll be giving updates on the bat issue tomorrow, as tonight I'm going bat hunting!

-Moderngeek

EDIT: 7:30: I'm all prepared with a medium sized plastic container, a thick magazine, and the digital camera. This is going to be an exciting night.

Almost 9:00: I'm all set here, camping out in my room, waiting for Alucard to show himself. I'll win this contest!

1:00 AM: HAHAHA! I just succeeded in successfully removing a bat from my great-grandmother's room! I have now won the contest, earned my great-grandmother's eternal admiration, and..... it's one in the morning. I also can't go back to sleep because of adrenaline running. I am SO going to regret this tomorrow morning when I get up for school. Anyway, there's one bat taken care of, but methinks there shall be more episodes to the bat saga somewhere in the next week, because like I said, we think there's probably three or four bats in the house. And, oh yes, I did get pictures. Only two unfortunately, but have you ever tried snapping a picture of a bat in mid-air with the camera in one hand and a sweatshirt that you're about to lob at the bat in another? It ain't easy. I'll be posting those tomorrow, because looking around for the cord that connects the camera and computer isn't something I like doing at 1:00 AM. Wish me luck with being able to get up tomorrow morning!

12:30 next day: Pictures are up!

Here's the bat when he decided to make his landing spot the top of the window.

Here's one I caught of him, while he was flying through the air. Let me tell you, it's not easy to capture a bat in mid air, and even more so when holding the camera with one hand.

Dad somehow was able to get this certificate printed out, and gave it to me as a joke. I came home from being bored to death from Spanish and found this sitting on the table. I laughed so hard I almost cried. The picture looks squished up because I had to reduce it by about 2/3 to be able to make it fit within my blog template.

Saturday morning: Someone requested for me to tell exactly how I caught the bat, and the actual process turned out much different that planned. Well, trying to trap him under the plastic container didn't work, because he had a liking to landing on walls too high for me to reach, so that plan was busted, then I thought I'd open the window and try to let him fly out on his own, but he somehow had decided that his official "spot" to be was going to be all the way ACROSS the room from the window. I ended up having to take a sweatshirt in one hand, and a large plastic bin top in the other(as a "bat shield") and kind of beating him across the room, and then crouching behind the "bat shield" when he would get crazy and fly at me. I ended being able to hit him out the window and slamming the window before he could get back in.  

I have a new favorite quote.

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagosing it, and misapplying the wrong remedies." -Groucho Marx

I'm a huge fan of Groucho Marx, and so have put his picture to the right, and updated my About Me page with a bunch of his quotes.

And now, I'm going to post a video. No, is it not an hour and fifteen minutes long like the last one.

I think I've watched this about thirty times over, and everything stated is absolutely true.

Aparrently both Mike Gravel, and Ron Paul have stated that they dislike drug laws, and will abolish them if elected president. I really like Mike Gravel, just as a person, because he says what he thinks is right no matter if it will hurt his chances of being elected or not. The world would be a better place if more people were like him.