Vindication?

Speaking of arrogant males…

I just learned that a certain pastor had one H*LL of a nerve trying to counsel other people’s marriages, considering that his wife was sleeping around behind his back during their entire marriage. Yes, he did know about it, because he confronted one of the guys his wife hit on, who told him to talk to her, because she was the one trying to instigate something and he’d told her to get lost, he didn’t do married women.

I never felt comfortable discussing my own “internal affairs” with this guy, and only spoke when spoken to. When my own marriage was breaking up, he summoned me to his office and ripped me a new one, told me what I could and could not do, and I more or less told him where he could stuff his coulds and could nots. I never felt even a twitch that suggested I should have listened to him–and now I feel just a little bit vindicated. Okay, a whole lot vindicated.

I could point to other people that he more or less destroyed with his meddling and bad advice. He consistently refused to see that there could be two sides to any story, and ALWAYS took the man’s part, lying and abuse notwithstanding. Needless to say, I stopped going to his church a very long time ago. Their website now lists him as “on leave of absence,” and some other guy I don’t know as “acting senior pastor.”

Doesn’t the Bible say something about elders of the church needing to have their own houses in order to be eligible to serve in that capacity?

Will he ever acknowledge the lives that he tried to ruin? Somehow I doubt it.

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Ewwwwwww!

My mother just told me that when her best friend died unexpectedly… the husband started hitting on her.

My father had just been put into a nursing home with his final illness, and the LAST thing my mother wanted in her life then (or now, some years later) was another old geezer to nurse through his final illness and watch die. No way was she going to give up her freedom for that.

Not to mention, the guy was about as homely as they came, and she said if he were the last man on earth she wouldn’t have wanted him. According to what someone else told her, it never occurred to him that she, or any other woman, wouldn’t want to go out with him.

Humph. The arrogance of the male of the species.

And It Gets Worse

Remember the young woman whose live-in boyfriend 260 pounds of useless fat had bought a plasma TV rather than help pay the mortgage?

(I neglected to mention last time that she justified his purchase of the TV on the grounds that “the business” was paying for it. The guy is self employed, when he bothers to work, and I’d like to ask the IRS just how a plasma TV is a justified business expense for an exterminator. I’d also like to ask the accountants among you if I’m missing something as to how that comes out of a different financial bucket than anything else. Can you say “enabler?”)

Well… the young lady is now approximately 4 mortgage payments behind. She has had the house up for sale in the newspaper for several months now, and has not gotten one single call. She has not listed it with a realtor because she doesn’t want to pay a commission. Somebody explain to me how that’s worse than foreclosure and having herself and her three small children kicked out onto the street in the dead of a midwestern winter. If she had a realtor, she’d sell the house in a heartbeat, because it’s a hot neighborhood right now.

Meanwhile, the boyfriend 260 pounds of useless fat has had his third DUI, and is about to do jail time for a hit-and-run accident he perpetrated, also while drunk in the early afternoon on a weekday.

Now she thinks she has found the solution to all of her financial problems….

Very Shiny Aussie DVD!

It’s heeeeere!

My Australian edition (region 4) Serenity DVD, in the shiny collector’s tin! Found it in my mailbox today.

And yes, it DOES play on my DVD player which has been hacked to “region 0,” meaning it’s region-free. The player also converts the signal to play on American TV. The only thing a little bit odd is that the picture is very slightly stretched vertically. It’s most noticeable with the Universal logo at the beginning; the earth is not exactly round anymore. But in the movie itself, it’s not really noticeable at all.

The first menu has the following language choices:

English
Magyar
Nederlands
Dansk
Suomi
Hebrew
Islenska
Norsk
Svenska

That’s odd… region 4 includes Mexico, South America and the Caribbean. Where’s the Spanish??? Do Spanish speakers not watch DVDs?

Interestingly enough, the only actual audio track besides English is in – Magyar? How bizarre is that? What the bleep is Magyar? I had to look it up to find out where they speak it. (It’s Hungarian.) Last time I looked at a map, Hungary was not located in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South America or the Caribbean. It is, in fact, in Europe, which is mostly region 2, except for Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union, which is region 5.

I listened to a little bit of the Magyar soundtrack. Hearing the “wrong” voices–speaking another language, yet–was rather jarring. From what I could tell, the Chinese was still Chinese, what Simon said to put River to sleep was the same (albeit in a different voice, with a different accent), but the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial was still in English. Apparently they kept the names the same–the first bit of dialogue on the bridge had “Kaylee” in the midst of a bunch of otherwise gibberish. At least, it sounded like gibberish to me, since I don’t speak Magyar.

The other languages besides English and Magyar are only available in subtitles.

The bonus materials disc includes different language choices: English, French, and Dutch. What happened to Magyar?

Approximate transcripts of the extended scenes not available on the American DVD are posted below the fold.

Not Rocket Science

The other day there was a newspaper story about how the foghorn down on the pier was stuck in the “on” position. Seems they turned it on when there was dense fog–and then could not turn it off, because there was something wrong with the switch. So, 24 hours a day, bright sunshine and all, the foghorn blared. Neighbors complained.

Um… I am not a foghorn repairman, nor do I play one on TV… but…

Couldn’t they just pull the plug???

Update: An item in today’s paper indicated that the foghorn in question is on a buoy in the bay, so pulling the plug would not be as easy as, er, pulling the plug. But still… the thing has to run on some kind of power, which can be cut off somehow.

And it has now been fixed, so it is no longer blaring.

Brilliant!

Someone with far too much time on their hands has done something so marvelously twisted, I simply have to share it.

Seremuppety is a Muppet cartoon of Serenity, featuring Kermit as Mal, Beaker as River, Fozzie as Wash (“Hey look! They’re sending us free lumber!”) and others you simply have to see to wrap your mind around.

Click here and then scroll just a little way down for the 8 episodes of Seremuppety.

I think you have to view each one individually; there doesn’t seem to be a “slide show” mode available.

Just to whet your appetite….

Go see the whole thing. But swallow your beverage first!

But What About The Humans?

I read with interest that no animals were harmed during the making of Serenity.

The American Humane Association monitors animals used in films and TV shows.

Serenityis a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) production, and therefore it was required to provide American Humane’s Certified Animal Safety Representatives on-set access whenever animals were used. During pre-production of the film, American Humane’s Film & TV Unit received a copy of the script and the daily call sheets. American Humane’s Animal Safety Representatives carefully reviewed these materials to determine whether any scenes or situations appeared to put animals at risk. American Humane’s Certified Animal Safety Representatives were then on the set to ensure the animals remained safe throughout production.

That’s all very well and good… but what about the humans?

Serenity’s actors did most of their own stunts. This included lead actor Nathan Fillion slamming his own face into a plexiglass floor for something like six or seven takes during the climactic battle scene, until his face started to swell up and director Joss Whedon called a halt.

Who was on set to monitor that no humans were harmed?

Just wondering.

Not The Method I’d Have Chosen…

… to lose 5 pounds.

Stomach flu. 2 days. Nothing staying down.

I don’t recommend it.

Seeming to be on the mend now (crossing fingers), eating soda crackers and drinking tea, and trying to muster up the energy to stand in the shower, because I cannot possibly inflict my present self upon the public.