Three Dog Day (Okay, now I'm being silly again!)

Well, let's have a look at what I've been up to over the last three days. Friday Night - Bugger all (you can read about Friday in my last post - not much happened after that.)

Saturday

US News Report

On Saturday I woke up. Yes, I really did! My mother was in a really bad mood. Mainly as the US News broadcast she was watching announced that an AMERICAN NURSE was the REAL HERO in London on the day of the terrorist bombing. I'm not sure what the story is about this nurse, but if she is some sort of hero, she is obviously NOT the only one. My mother was really angry, as she is from England and we have relatives back there. We only just lost my Great Uncle (heart attack), so a lot of our relatives who don't even live in London were back in London. Apparently, some of them live a short distance from the bombings and actually use one of the tube stations that was attacked. Fortunately, we have heard that they are all okay. Anyway, the news service really upset my mother. I hope it was only the one US news service which was making the outrageous claim that this American Nurse was the real hero! If they all did, then I feel it is a pretty dismal state that the US media has made for itself. My mother was very upset as the news went on and on about this nurse and was really hyping up the attacks. It was a very different report to what we were getting on every other station. Almost everyone else was praising the English/Londoners on their great calmness and willingness to help and co-operate with each other. Not this news sevice, who were making out that it was a HUGELY DEVESTATING BLOW to the English! Sorry US NEWS broadcaster, but you are WRONG WRONG WRONG! The Londoners (using the term broadly to include all who live/work in London), did NOT receive some blow that has completely sapped their morale etc. In fact, it is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE! These people are reknown for their ability to continue on in the face of great adversity. (Thus the old English STIFF UPPER LIP! plus their defiance during WWII and the London Blitz etc) The English have actual shown that they will NOT bow down to the sort of crap the terrorists are trying to heap on them. I even read about them in the Japanese Newspapers that I read everyday. So the WORLD knows that the English are not a bunch of pansies that need to be saved by America! It is a pity that this news service has done such a defamation to the English/Londoners on this occassion. It seems like they were trying to do the usual two fold trick of making out that anyone who isn't an American can't handle adversity and making out the it takes an American to save all the non-Americans! When will this perverse US Media bias stop and have a good hard look at itself. Sure, it was probably only the ONE US news service, but it is still bloody disgusting that it resorts to this sort of hyped up bullsh*t in order to put down other nations. Anyway - end rant - back to my weekend.

Genealogy

My brother Jeff and I went to do more genealogy research. After several hours, we only got to add two more names to our family tree. Unfortunately, we have very little more details other than that. I have it all on several spreadsheets - the family tree is looking mighty good.

Wood Chopping

My mother decided we needed to chop some more wood for our fire. So I went out and did some amazing wood chopping. (No pictures unfortunately). I'm not usually a wood chopping type of person. With my mother's blood pressure and my brother's bad back, I had to be the one to do all the chopping. (Though my mother later decided to get involved after I was showing how easy it had become - I think she might have dented some wood for me). Anyway, for some reason I really got into the zone and was chopping and spiting the wood really easily. I even managed to get through some of the really hard Aussie native wood that we have. Normally Aussie Gum trees / Jarra etc can be really hard to get through. For some reason I found it pretty easy, and we had more than enough wood to last the week and some more.

Scrabble

We played a game of scrabble - and my over confidence let me down. I kept giving my mother triple word score tiles, thinking she would place down simple words. Unfortunately, twice she got really high scores off them. This catapulted her ahead by more than one hundred points. Inspite of this, I clawed my way back to lose by six points (212 to 206) My youngest brother Jeff was about one hundred behind my mother and me. It was a pretty devestating blow to my almost perfect unbeaten scrabble record. (I blogged previously when my mother beat me - the only other time I've been defeated!) My mother then refused to play another game (we usually play three in a day) - she wanted to keep a perfect winning record for that day. I certainly would have played more defensively in a second and third match!

Sisters B'Day

That night we went over to my sister's place for her Birthday. She turned 33 yo. Was a plesant night. I got to rave on about the genealogy research I've done. I am back seven/eight generations from myself at present. Not everyone can trace back that far. It was a pretty good night all up. My sister was pretty happy. Everyone thinks I shouldn't go to the UK now. I'm not sure I have much of a choice.

Sunday

Went to the Library, and the video store. Finally got 'The Butterfly Effect' out. My mother asked my brother Jeff what the Butterfly effect is. He said it was a meteorology term! Bwahahahahaha! He went on to start talking about the butterfly flapping it's wings in Hong Kong and it changing the worlds weather patterns and how it's proven. I had to interupt him and explain - it's a chaos theory term - and it's not about the weather per se. If a butterfly flaps it's wings in Hong Kong, it can cause a snow storm in New York - it's not about weather - it's about the effects of small things which seem insignificant building up to being significant enough to cause something to happen. A butterfly in Hong Kong can't in and of itself cause a snow storm in New York just by flapping it's wings - otherwise it'd always be snowing in New York. They'd have to kill all the butterflies in Hong Kong to get good weather. It's the fact that a lot of other factors lead up to something but it doesn't quite make anything happen. THEN a small effect caused by, for example, a butterfly flapping it's wings, is enough to push everything over the edge leading to a significant event. In the movie, Ashton Kutcher's character suffers blackouts. Later in life, he finds out that he can go back in time and change the events which occurred during those blackouts, just by concentrating on what he'd written in his journal leading up to the blackout. What happens, is just by changing a few small things he greatly effects his own life and the lives of all those around him. I do have ONE small problem (so far - I didn't put a lot of thought into this) - but ONE small detail didn't make sense. There is a part when he is in prison - he shows this religous jailbird his hands - then he goes back in time and hits these spikes to cause stigmata type scars on his hands! Okay - everything changes - then he's back in his cell with this religious guy ... guess what - if all the events in his life changed from that small change, then he would have carried those stigmata scars from childhood into his adult life - they wouldn't have JUST APPEARED there like the movie made out - because by showing his hands to the religious jailbird the first time, the scars would have been present! They WOULDN'T just suddenly APPEAR to the guy! Remember, changing the past caused those changes to take effect from WHEN they occur. BANG! Plot flaw! If I was to go back and watch it again, there would probably be a lot more plot flaws that I didn't pick up the first time! Oh well, it was a nice movie, and hopefully if they ever do something similar again, they'll get that part right! :-) I also got to see 'AutoFocus' - which is about the life of Bob Crane - the guy who played Hogan in Hogan's Heroes. Bob Crane's Step brother tried to have the movie stopped in production. He was unsuccessful. Basically, Bob (Greg Kinnear) was a radio DJ who was also a happily married Catholic with three children. After he lands the job as Colonel Hogan in Hogan's Heroes, he meets up with John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe), who is an electronics geek (guru/genius - which ever word you like). John introduces Bob to the world of VIDEO which was just coming in at that stage. Bob gets a video camera! Bob (influenced by John) ends up getting involved with women outside his marriage. John uses Bob's celebrity to help pull the chicks, and together they start to video all their sexual conquests together. This eventually leads to Bob getting a divorce, and then later marrying Patty who plays Hilda (Maria Bello) on Hogan's Heroes. The Hogan's Heroes series played for six seasons - then got the boot. Eventually, even Patty gets tired of him, and leaves him. Another divorce - more allimony payments. Bob's life ends up being a shallow existence with him and John travelling around, doing the usual thing - drink a lot - pull chicks - video it. Eventually, one night, while he is asleep, someone comes into his hotel room and bashes him to death, and ties an electric cable around his neck. As the voice over at the end said, the small town police were not used to such things, and mess up the crime scene. Little forensic eveidence can be used to track the killer. Years later John is accused & charged with it and subsequently set free due to lack of evidence. So no one to this day knows who actually killed Bob Crane. I was a bit amazed by this movie - it has a LOT of naked women in it - I mean a LOT. (More than normal movies - less than a porn flick I assume.) The movie mainly focuses on that part of his life. I can see why his step brother would want the movie banned/stopped etc. Obviously there was more to Bob Crane than the 'sex and video' part of his life. We really don't see much of his interaction with his own kids etc. I am sure a lot of people could write a lot more about Bob from other view points without delving into this side of his life. Obviously though, any movie about the life of Bob Crane would need to touch on this part of his life. After all, it's so much a part of his life and is the part that killed him. Surely there must have been some part of him which was struggling with his fame and tormenting him with his torn loyalty to his wife/family and trying to please his fans (while getting his rocks off with almost every woman he came across - no pun intended!) I enjoyed the movie, and I think the people chosen to play the parts of the 'Hogan's Heroes' cast were well chosen! I was a bit put off by the scene where Bob has a laps on set and imagines Colonel Klink and Sargent Schultz basically kissing Hilda and sucking her boobs! DID something like this actually happen in real life? I don't know how we'd ever know, as there seems little left behind by Bob except the sex videos of the girls him and John were bonking. It seems it was more put into the movie to add another sex scene which didn't contain Bob or John. It was probably meant to convey his confusion at that point in his life. Anyway, I think the performances of all in this movie were outstanding. (Greg Kinnear & Willem Dafoe, do these guys ever put in a bad performance?). Bob Crane's real son (Bob Crane Jr), plays a reporter in this film [just incase any of you are trivia buffs were interested]. It was likable and I think it captures the pathos of a life which spiraled out of control, eventually leading to the murder of Bob Crane. I think the end conveys the emptiness probably being felt by Bob and the dependency that Bob and John had for each other. We missed about three chapters towards the end, as the DVD from the store was so crap. (We used two different DVD players to see the movie - and the three chapters towards the end were cactus! I wonder what happened during them?) I don't have a star system to rate movies - but I think both of these are worth watching. 'The Butterfly Effect' as it is a very original movie with some great ideas. 'Autofocus' as it is a must for any Hogan's Heroes fan over 18 (R rating in Australia) who is interested in the life and times of Bob Crane. [Or for the pervert who wants to see boobs under the pretense of being a Bob Crane fan]. :-)

MONDAY

Crap start to the week. Weekly meeting - was a waste of my time as per usual. I think I might be in a little bit of trouble, as I waited till the end, then left without handing in a form I have no intension of ever handing in. Two hours worth of BULLSH*T!!!! Why do I bother? Placed me well and truely into POBB (P***ed off beyond belief) mode! I left to go do something productive. I was phoned, but was driving at the time. I was then sent a text message askign me to phone the office, but I ignored it. I am waiting for them to actual stick something in writing (like an e-mail), as I want some physical evidence of the sort of crap and threats I get from them. I had more important things to do. I was sending my Passport off to have the British High Commission put the 'Right of Abode Certificate' in it. Once that is done, I have nothing to stop me from going to the UK - unless the Government stops me leaving or the plane crashes or something. All of those are highly unlikely. Got home and was so very upset by the crap of todays meeting that I had a large milo and a large packet of twisties followed by three bread rolls and a glass of fruit juice. Ah, why do I have a weight problem again? Time to continue with Plan A (Escape to UK), and leave this forsaken rock behind! :-)