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Let's not confuse this with giving one's opinion on something. I think that everyone does have a thought or opinion on a myriad amount of subjects, and that's a good thing. This is how conversations get started, how people learn from each other, and how human curiosity is satisfied.
It sounds snobbish, I suppose. I could probably use one of the terms that I hated as a younger person, which usually began with something like: "You just won't understand until..."
It's true, though. When I realized the truth in simple statements like that, I found that I became a better listener; which I understand is a good trait in husbands, wives, parents, and customer service representatives.
There are things in which I consider myself either an expert in, or very well informed of. These mostly center on past employment experience, parenting, some academia, and beer drinking. The last one, I'm told, one will always be a student of, and I think I've accepted that in the fullest. I'm very well informed in a number of... things. Like most people, these things are a random sampling of worldly pursuits. I could list those, but really; it would be like reading a wiki article.
So, my problem revolves around people who have the need to include their own opinions into conversations, as if they are an expert in a certain field. As arrogant or shitty as it sounds, if you don't have your own children, I'm probably not investing too much into your opinion on child rearing. I will listen, but will be turned off when opinion turns into direction.
I'm a grammar/English nerd (though it may not always come through in this wee blog space), and will probably stop listening to someone when they want to give their opinion on writing a business letter, and begin their sentence with a conjunction, or "U kno". In an email. When the subject reads "correct letter format". And it's addressed to me. But I don't want to read it. After I already told them this. Because I didn't want to hear it. Beside, in just this post alone I switched from first, to second, to third person already. You need to live with it.
In relating back to my original bitch about people's professor platitudes, I do want to point out that just because one is a parent, it also does not mean that makes them a good parent.
I'm sure that I've come away from plenty of conversations in which people have said: "Man, that Chadd. Dude, thinks he knows everything, doesn't he?" This is fine, because I do. I know everything I need to know right now, and later today, I'll know a little more. I'm sure that my nuggets of knowledge will come from someone else's opinion in conversation.
After that, I will probably run to Wikipedia to find what it was I may have been missing, since I can't possibly live with someone knowing something that I didn't. Except for my wife, because she's an awesome nurse, and when she rewinds her evenings for me, I tend to only get about half of what she's saying. I'm fine with that, as I know she knows what she's talking about, and it's more about us relating to each other.
Of course, she'll also ask about why Sith Lords are all named Darth, and why do they change their names? Or have one with Darth, and the other something else? Sith knowns how sick we are of answering those questions.
I don't know if it's amusing, or actually dire and depressing, to watch episodes of "the Office", while working.
It is an awfully funny show, though. I've laughed a dozen times whilst being torn.
Idiot. Hey, Cynthia, you work for the tax payers dumb ass. Freedom of press is a founding principle.
The kicker is that she has several complaints filed against her. Good stuff.
http://www.firedupmissouri.com/node/133
One of the complaints is that she used campaign finance assets to pay personal property taxes, stating in her defense that "campaign laws are very complex". I'm sure they are, but I'm also pretty sure it's a given that one should not use money that's being used for an election campaign to pay ones own taxes, nor to buy a truck.
Other notable opinions from this fine law maker include:
In February 2009, Davis told a KOMU reporter that fathers are not "natural nurturers," then denied it. Fortunately, Davis' quote was captured on video.
In 2009, Davis signed on to a lawsuit alleging that President Barack Obama is actually an Indonesian man named Barry Soetoro who has illegally usurped the American presidency.
And my favorite, She explains why providing healthy meals for poor children during summer vacation is a horrible, horrible idea.
"Anyone under 18 can be eligible? Can't they get a job during the summer by the time they are 16? Hunger can be a positive motivator. What is wrong with the idea of getting a job so you can get better meals?
Tip: If you work for McDonald's, they will feed you for free during your break."
*sighs*
On that same idea, she also says:
"Is school the only place a child can get a nutritious meal?
No, apparently you can get it when slinging fries at McD's.
Note: You don't get free food at McD's when you work there. One meal is 1/2 price.
"Families may economize by choosing to not waste hard earned dollars on potato chips, ice cream, or Twinkies. Perhaps some families will buy more beans and chicken and less sweets.
Her kids must not work. Or, I know, she makes her kids give her all their money so that they can economically construct a healthy table.
Yeah. Missouri (as others) has no shortage of law makers who I am AMAZED with the fact that they've been voted into office, but this one's pretty good. Still, don't get me started on the blank stare that is Ryan Silvey.
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| From Creations Infinite |
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| From Creations Infinite |
- 14:10 Bono and The Edge are doing music for the Broadway Spider-Man? uh... cool. Think I knew this but totally forgot. #
- 15:54 this song; is so pretty...
♫ Genevieve's Wheel - Venus Hum lala.com/zGhI #
- 10:06 bore witness to #transformers2 last night, and it was eleven buckets of awesome. #
- 10:07 @fishdirt u talking about the craziness that was Upper Deck and the Marvel cards? I've still yet to see a paycheck from MMII series. #
- 10:33 @fishdirt UGH... the expereince with them was horrible. Just bad business aspects from their end. really soured sketch cards for me. #
- 10:45 Watching Adam Carolla on: kevinpollakschatshow.com/
Impressed by him. Totally changed my opinion. He is a boxer and carpenter. # - 15:57 Hey #kpcs Smith tweets and suddenly viwership starts to rocket (Kevin Pollak's Chat Show live > ustre.am/2NCK) #
- 16:21 Hey #kpcs ? Smith: Mary Jane or Lois Lane? Are you going to try to make Fletch? (Kevin Pollak's Chat Show live > ustre.am/2NCK) #
- 16:22 Hey #kpcs ? for Smith: Coffee or frappuccino? Will you ever shave the beard? (Kevin Pollak's Chat Show live > ustre.am/2NCK) #
- 17:12 aw man. Blur at glastobury. jealous of all that are there. #
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kevin-pol
What question should I ask Kevin Smith (his guest)?
fer serious. If one goes into a movie, by Michael Bay, that is based on a Saturday Morning Cartoon show, that was based on a bunch of toys, and expects something OTHER than giant robots fighting, explosions, and camera insanity, then one needs to re-evaluate their expectations.
I think that's a big thing with these movies. Expectations. It as my big problem with the Star Wars prequels and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. My expectations were high, based on prior content, so the disappointment one felt with those movies is just, and mostly the fault of the filmmakers for not raising the bar to them.
With Transformers, though, my expectations were met, and then EXCEEDED.
I read a review or two about how the movie is hard to follow, and to that I say to those reviewers: Pay attention. This movie is not that difficult. Wake the fuck up. The problem the movie DID have was pacing and sound engineering. The main reason the movie was hard to follow (for some), is that while the story is all there for you to piece together, how the elements are delivered to you is difficult to ascertain. I speak specifically to elements of dialog that are delivered vis one robot or the other. If you are unable to understand the digitized speech of several of the robots, you will stumble along with the movie, and get lost. That, and if you
are not able to follow along at any other pace other than FUCKING FRANTIC, then this movie might give you problems. If the sound would have been made clearer with the robot dialog, and if some pace editing was done to give the audience a breather, allowing exposition given time to work its way through the movie, then I would have pushed the grade up to A.
Knowing that, you should also realize that my 13, 11, 9 and 4 year old daughters all followed along, and all knew what was going on.
A few points to take from this movie:
1. Optimus Prime will kick all available ass, and do so in such a fantastic fashion, that you can't help but say: HELL YEAH! when it's over.
2. Bumblebee is funny, and knows kung fu.
3. If you ever wondered how the U.S. Military would respond to an alien robot invasion, this movie does a pretty damn good job of showing you. Yeah, it's like a flag waving, tank shooting, machine gun toting bullet fest.
4. I just can't hate Shia.
5. Giant robots, fighting. Let me say that again: GIANT ROBOTS FIGHTING.
In another point all by itself, I will say that the effects by ILM are OUTSTANDING. The fight scenes were better, you get long shots of robots kicking the crap out of each other are SOLID, and you eel the weight of the robots on screen. The detail put into the f/x are just astounding.
( Under the cut here, I'm going to take pieces of Roger Ebert's USELESS review, and correct items of it with not only my own comments, but those of my kids; who seem to have a solid grasp as to what's going on with the Autobot/Decepticon war. )
- 11:47 uh... Kansas City's 90.1 is playing kick ass electronica right now
www.kkfi.org/program.php?id=26 # - 11:54 @fishdirt *laffs* no, it was the Chemical Bros, followed by The Orb #
- 18:15 holy shit, MJ and Fawcett both dead today. Heavy day for Hollywood. #
- 18:20 @forceeffect it happens in threes! #
Here is the best review I've read of the movie so far:
"GIANT ROBOTS. All else is nitpickery."
Concur. Sure, I know I'm going to have complaints about bad acting this, or omg overdone that... but really. Giant robots. Giant robots fighting. Giant robots transforming. Giant robot explosions.
Kind of like the Wolverine game I'm playing right now. Pretty linear, pretty easy. You get shot a lot, and basically shrug it off while you slice and dice EVERYTHING... but who cares, because you're Logan, THE WOLVERINE.
EDIT: I read a review from a fella who advised his readers that he was an avid fan of anime, and then noted that the Transformers 2 plot made no sense. I'll withhold judgement until tomorrow, but I just want to say to this avid "fan of anime", dude, have you ever even WATCHED most anime? None of that shit makes sense; but I still watch Cowboy Bebop and Macross.
- 12:15 @riebschlager that was your sandwich in the 'fridge. It was tasty. #
- 15:14 I need to quite looking at my financials. Everything looks ok, but I bet tomorrow my 401k catches fire and burns down New Jersey. #
- 15:15 @boogabee that's what she said ! *badabop-krrrssh!* #
- 15:24 @thepetshopboy "the ebert review" LOL! what happened to this guy? He can't even accurately reference the players or "bots" in the movie. #
- 15:52 @thepetshopboy Mr. Bay is certainly boomboom in a can. I'll just go for the big robots and bigger explosions. gives my mind a rest. #
- 16:00 @thepetshopboy ah... concur. An even better reason. #
I'm particiapting as a volunteer for the Kansas City airport's Emergency Excercise. I get to have moulage applied. Cool. I'll take pics of my accident scarred visage.
Wonder Wife got me the Wolverine video game for Father's Day. Holy crap, is that game fun. Want to jump out f a helicopter, crash into the grund, get up, and then just start kicking ass? Yeah, you can do that, because you're Wolverine. Want to jump from a cliffside, scale a wall with your claws, and then slice seven guys while being shot and on fire? Yeah, you can do that because you're Wolverine. Want to take M-60 fire to the chest, and then slice the machine gun in half while slicing arms off of bad guys? Yeah, you can do that, because holy shit, YOU'RE WOLVERINE.
- 10:17 It's hard to not speak to some people and end my sentence with "And... duh." #
- 11:55 @petshopboys, have you ever sampled your own songs? I swear their are pieces on "yes" that do this. #
- 11:58 *laffs* I'm not normally one for the "celebrity" bullshit gossip, but is this really the first time someone beat up Perez Hilton? #
- 12:46 bit.ly/yGsIU via @addthis here, if you'd like a good cry about the power of good cinema, read this. #
- 12:53 ♫ Cherry, Cherry - Neil Diamond lala.com/zZFe
yeah, that's right, Neil DIAMOND # - 14:37 @riebschlager hahaha! s'okay, I don't even know who that guy is beside a blogger wannabe. #
- 08:22 Just saw a trailer for "Merlin". awesome. Anything King Arthur related I'm all about. www.nbc.com/merlin/ #
- 10:46 gears of war on Cowboys giant LED. bit.ly/3wad82 #
http://www.nbc.com/merlin/
*raises hand*
King Arthur NERD. right here. yes.
I've watched some previews, and it seems that they've taken liberties with some of the myth as most know it. Looks like Arthur is not shown as an illegitimate son of Uther, that he and Merlin look to be about the same age, I don't see a Sword in the Stone connection (though we may see Lady in the Lake?), and that Gwen seems to be around already.
Though, it looks like the fantasy elements of the legend are ramped up quite a bit, which I like. As I understand it, this was already broadcast on the BBC, last year? I remember hearing rumblings of it last year (mostly because some Buffy-ites pointed out that Anthony Head plays Uther Pendragon), but fell off my radar after that. Has anyone seen it already? Any opinions?
I'd been watching some of that "Legend of the Seeker" episodes online, to get some fantasy fix, and it's okay. This show looks to be more in my mix of things.
- 21:13 i get to partcipate in boxcity tmrw. i can't say this excites me. #
- 21:16 overall good day today. lots of tile wrk done. lots of painting and drywall. kids worked hard. #
- 17:57 for those who may not know, i'm on a mission trip w/ my eldest in sikeston,mo. whole lotta cnstrctn work. #
- 22:24 day finally winding down. taught kids how to tile and relocated bird fmly. pics later if i can make palm t/x work. #
- 16:43 at sikeston, mo. whew. gonna be a fun week of bldg stuff. #
- 10:28 test tweet w palm device #
- 17:55 getting ready to go play minigolf. can't even rem the last time i played. #
- 10:12 vanilla ice cream as a coffee creamer sub is decent this morning. Gotta go to the store. #
- 10:25 @riebschlager thank goodness my Twitter is hooked up for my TwitterBox already. I get pay-per-tweets, and twit on demand with it. #
- 09:01 blargh! Billing offices and their ineptitude are pissing me off this morning. #
- 09:22 awesome SW: Invasion cover step by step. Great image of Luke. Jo Chen, u rule. www.darkhorse.com/Zones/StarWars #
- 11:54 This one reminds me of something off of Behavior
♫ Did you see me coming? - Pet Shop Boys lala.com/zWbI # - 12:05 ♫ Pet Shop Boys "Brits" medley - Pet Shop Boys lala.com/zvUI
Nine minutes of PSB awesome. # - 12:05 @boogabee Hell yeah. Yum. #
- 13:12 @bonniegrrl what? that sucks! RT: Soon u have to pay for hulu. bit.ly/HyODK #
- 14:01 I am always amazed at how literal some people take some things. Irony? Sarcasm? Allegory? Ever heard of these things? #
- 15:36 Who here do I know that has Verizon? I need a +/- for it. Need to upgrade mobile phone systems. #
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