Introductions have been discontinued due to lack of interest.

Peeves in movies:

Japanese horror movie American remakes. Seems like Japanese horror comes in two brands - Godzilla and ghosts. Nothing wrong with either, but culturally their stories just don't translate. And leave it up to American filmmakers to pretend that these remakes are something that they're not.

Blair Witch movie techniques. It wasn't effective in the original, it isn't effective in the reuses. The only thing that goes through one's mind when watching is how contrived the amateur filmmaking looks and how much more entertaining it would have been shot as a "real" movie.

Movies that go out of their way to emphasize how disfunctional and depressing family dynamics can be. A prime example is "Brothers Three", but there are countless others. I suppose it's a way to try and make what is otherwise ordinary filmmaking of ordinary people "interesting".

Movies that show children as heroes, saving either the world or family relationships. Inevitably, parents and/or grown-ups of all ilks are shown as dolts, slow-witted, with anger as their only emotion. Children are NOT intellectual, intuitional, emotionally stable, and far-sighted individuals. They are selfish, controlling, impulsive entities that need adults to learn how to be human. That goes double for teen-agers.

Any movie which aims at an intelligence level of a ten-year-old boy, but uses emotionally-stunted adults (almost always male). And then to call them comedies. Those emphasizing potty humor, dumber than dumber humor, American Pie humor, etc.

Really haven't had much going on lately to report on. Or rather, plenty going on, nothing interesting to report on. Either way, there won't be much here either.

Let's see, what have I been watching from my myriads of recorded TV series I have on DVD's?

In the morning, before my wife gets up I'm about halfway through the second year of the series "Millennium". Probably the series which most changed directions and styles of all series with the possible exception of "Lost". Or perhaps I should say "The X-Files" since it's made by the same guy as "Millennium".

At night, after I go to bed, before I go to sleep (well, usually), I've started re-watching "Carnivale". Goofy story about good and evil, except who is good and who is evil? Does it depend on the predefined roles or should it depend on the final outcome of the individuals' actions?

We were watching "The Amazing Race" during dinner (to avoid having to watch "Raymond" for the hundredth time), was just starting the 2nd season when the new shows started in September and now we seem to be catching up on the ones we miss the night before.

Watched "Resident Evil - Extinction" today. Not a bad copy, but not good enough to keep. Which is about the same description I'd give the movie itself. They seem to have lost the concept of the evil they were intending to portray and it's just a caricature, highlighing the girl in the red dress.

Watched "War" this afternoon. Excellent copy, good story but an almost laughable twist at the end. Talk about confusion about good guy-bad guy.

Yes, I know, I watch too much TV. On the other hand, none of that TV centers around sports, so that's good. Right?

See you later.

Well, another holiday weekend is gone.

Not that it meant much to me. Being retired means never having to note holidays. 3-day weekend? 4-day? Mine are all 7-day.

The only effect holiday weekends have for me is to screw up the TV schedule I'm used to. Is it that they figure that some many more people are watching that they need something special? Or that so few regular people are watching that they can put on just any old crap?

I do have one question about holiday weekends, however. Who, in their infinite wisdom, decides that because we have an extra day home that we want to have a marathon of an old out-of-date TV series? And who decides which series? And why?

Anyway, back to normal today.

More later.

Philosophical time.

Each of us has our own individual "world view". This view ranges from the macro to the micro. We have opinions concerning everything from communism vs. capitalism to whether men can wear pink without being considered feminine.

It occurred to me the other day that this world view that we have can be shaken rather severely, turned upside-down or sideways. And that this usually occurs because of a single incident, a moment of clarity, a random thought that blossoms into a new philosophy. At least, it CAN happen that way.

There was a time when I have my hopes, dreams, ambitions. In my early forties I came to the realization that these were not to be. I also realized that it was necessary to do more than just have these hopes, dreams, ambitions. You have to take actions to make them happen. And that they each have a cost. A cost I hadn't been willing to pay.

It was a moment of clarity. And it took quite a while to integrate this new view of the world (or at least one small part of my share of the world) into my philosophy. To come to grips with the fact that you can be anything you want to be, if only you're willing to pay the price. And that I wasn't.

Other changes have occurred to my "world view". As a matter of fact, I realized that they come all the time. But as one gets older they come less often, with more difficulty. And I suppose that's what they mean when they say that older people are "set in their ways."

What set all this reflection off was watching the end of the third year of the TV series "The Wire". I came to realize a number of things. One, that whether you taling about a gang selling drugs, a developer created a new community, or the election of a mayor, that the same principles are being exercised.

There are ways of doing business and inevitably they include "dark" elements. Elements like betrayal, revenge, con-games, manipulation, etc. All human activities involve both the "enlightened" element AND the "dark" ones.

Two, that one can work as hard as one wishes in achieving an end and still have it pulled out of one's grasp with little fanfare. It might be lost by the machinations of another individual or by pure chance. Either way, all that work was for nothing.

And third, that there are many "problems" that can never be "solved". That they are not so much problems as aspects of human nature, perhaps of nature itself. The drug war cannot be won because there is no finite enemy to defeat. The same with the war on Terrorism.

Prostitution will always exist because sex will always exist. Drugs, of one form or another, will always be around as long as there's a person seeking escape and a profit to be made from supplying it. The items and activities we use in our "sins" will continue no matter how many "sin taxes" or "sin laws" we pass.

For we are sinful creatures. Sin is our animal instinct. Given all this, I realized that we can make changes in the way in which we handle such "problems", with varying degrees of change in some aspects of the business. But to attack the "problem" completely, we must go against our basic nature. Which seldom happens.

I gotten to the point in my life where I'm going to leave the crusades against or for whatever might be popular to be for or against to the younger people. I'm just don't have the physical or mental energy anymore.

So my latest change in "world view" is to realize that it doesn't matter that I don't really have the control over much in this world, that it's all the same regardless of what we talking about, that changes have good and bad elements, that much that needs change is just human nature.

And my big conclusion? That this is all OK. That all I can do is what I can do.

See you another time.

Tuesday: We had the appraiser in to appraise our house for the reverse mortgage. A nice older lady who seemed to find our condo a nice place. Hopefully, it'll get us more money in our line of credit. We'll see.

My wife had her sister over for a girl's day. They watched their kind of movies and my sister-in-law stayed for dinner (baby back ribs with cole slaw and mashed potatoes - all fixed by me, of course).

Wednesday: Our day to do nothing. Ain't old age/retirement great.

Thursday: We took my wife's first trip out of the condo after her hip replacement (excepting, of course, her trip to have her staples out). We visited her mother and father in the assisted living/memory care apartment they have. They're 95 and 89 and on this visit her mother never did get it really straight that my wife was her daughter.

Friday: My day to visit with the old guys at the senior center (I'm the youngest member of the "Woodchucks"). The member who normally picked up the blind member wasn't there so I did it. And delivered him back home, of course. He became blind due to blood clots that formed behind his eyes. Really nice, intelligent guy, used to be a stock broker.

Saturday: Tomorrow we visit our friends in the morning and play some cards. They live about 25 miles from us so I'm sure my wife will be pooped by the time we get home. Promised her we'd get corn dogs at Superamerica on the way home. That's one thing I like about her, she's a cheap date.

Monday is the weirdest day of the week since I retired. It is a relief, however, to not have the strain of the "it's Monday, back to work" syndrome.

Today, because my wife had her hip replaced two weeks ago and she's my usual barber, I decided to drive over to a nearby small town to an honest-to-god barber. It's been so many years since I had my hair cut by a barber (when I last did it cost $1.50), I had completely forgotten that barber shops are closed on Monday, to compensate for being open on Saturday.

The thought that there might be places not open 7 days a week, or at least 6 days a week, is so foreign nowadays. As is the idea of working your whole life for a single company. Nowadays you have to move from one company to another every two years or so just to keep your technical skills current. And to get any kind of significant raise. And to get ahead of the curve in lay-offs and company mergers/closings.

So, things change. "Future Shock" is here for sure for me and those of my generation. It's not the world I signed on to inhabit. In some ways it's better (the sound in theaters, for example, or the longevity of CD's versus vinyl), and in many ways it's worse (like so many single mothers, so few committed relationships, so many alienated teen-agers).

And it's impossible to communicate these differences and their effects adequately to those of younger generations who have only experienced half of them. Their outlooks are not my generation's outlooks and so everything is seen with different filters.

For example, to say that the average person was happier in the 50's inevitably brings out the retort, "except for the black person."

And what can I say? I wasn't black in the 50's. I don't truly know. But I've been watching the HBO series "The Wire" and Afro-American's as represented there don't seem very happy either. That is, if the person lives long enough to even notice they're unhappy.

You know, perhaps the person with the retort confuses happiness with freedom. And the two aren't the same. Some of the most unhappy people I've seen are those with the most freedom. And I found that when I became old enough to decide not to exercise all my freedoms so frequently and with such abandon, then my happiness index went up.

So maybe happiness comes from choice, making the right choice of what to do with all those freedoms we crave so much. Maybe in the 50's we didn't have as many freedoms, so the choices were fewer and easier. And maybe that made us happier.

I don't know. I earned my stripes as an adult in the 60's, about the wildest decade we've seen in a long time. I wouldn't trade my experiences from then for anything, but I'm sure glad I'm not still stuck in the chaos that passed for a society in those years.

Till next time.

So the grandchildren (3 of them, ages 8-13) were over. They decided to play a game of "Chutes and Ladders". Now that game is for smaller kids so it was bound to cause trouble.

Wasn't long before they became bored (well, maybe not the 8-year-old), and thought it would be great fun to tease each other. You know, moving the others' pieces, taking turns out of order, just generally being pains-in-the-butt. Or, at least the older girl did. That's not exactly how the younger boy reacted back, however.

His 8-year-old masculine solution to any teasing by older sisters is as might be expected, on the violent side. Take a pillow and smash the game, along with many angry remarks, of course.

So they decided it was time to stop playing. But it was obvious that the boy's anger wasn't entirely gone yet. I tried to address it, figuring him first, the girls next. He decided it wasn't right that I was telling him to calm down, telling him to curb his anger, that it was necessary to inform me that he hadn't smashed the game, that it was all the girls' fault. Then they cut in, defending themselves with even more lies.

Now I know about masculine anger. I've put my fist through enough walls, doors, etc., to realize that it easily gets away from your control. There are a number of things that will instantly spark my anger and the one that does it the easiest is not being listened to when I'm expressing my opinion. The second is being told I don't know what I'm talking about when I know I do (like whether a game was smashed and who did it). And third is being lied to, especially in a stupid manner.

So, my anger ignited. Luckily I learned one night at about 2:00 A.M. with a sick, crying baby how to control such anger, throttling it. BUT, not before I used my most out-of-doors, drill-sergeant type voice to issue a single word - "MICHAEL!!". As the sound reverberated off the walls, everybody, even Oma, instantly stopped talking, arguing, even moving.

As I continued, calmly, to explain that I wasn't angry at him, that I just needed to remind him that I was in charge and that I decided how the discussion would go, everybody relaxed a bit. I then explained my position, that I understood what the girls had been doing and I would deal with it later but that his anger needed defusing first.

And it was an uneventful afternoon, we watched a movie, Michael was a bit more fidgety than usual but his anger had been quelled by a larger, albeit shorter, one. My son's comment on hearing about it was "I remember that voice, I've heard it. I've even used it a few times."

Anyway, 8-year-olds can be tough. And so can 65-year-olds.

See you next time.