Friendship

Not Having Sex's a Bitch*

*swiped from Chana

A Series of Fortunate Movies

DH and I take advantage of seeing movie whenever we can. It's been a wonderful few movies because we all enjoyed them all. I even get to bring my baby to the movies so he won't have to miss a meal. In the order we saw them this week.

First, there was THE DEPARTED with Jack Nicholson, Leo Dicaprio and Matt Damon. It've very disconcerting to watch as I keep forgetting Matt is NOT Jason Bourne anymore. At least not here. Leo was fantastic. That boy can act!

IMDB trivia:
As research for his character's occupation, Matt Damon worked with a Massachusetts State Police unit out of Boston. He accompanied them on routine patrols, participated in a drug raid and was taught proper police procedures like how to pat down a suspect.

Second, was THE GUARDIAN with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. This film reminded me why I had such a huge crush on Kevin. You'll be drooling and breathless in this movie. The water scene are fantastic!

Best described as the US Coast Guard version of "Top Gun" with a little "An Officer and A Gentleman" thrown in, "The Guardian" is a passable diversion with the recognition of having parts of the aforementioned films. Kevin Costner plays an aging USCG rescue swimmer whose team is killed in a horrific rescue mission. Immediatley prior to this terrible event, his wife (Sela Ward) also announced that she cannot take anymore. His first love is always the rescue mission. This leaves Costner an obviously emotional wreck. His commender gives him a choice - quit or take a position as an instructor at the USCG training facility in Louisiana. Reluctantly he takes the position. Moving into the school, he immediately increases the 18 week curriculum that routinely fails half of the people that attend. Here he meets a young man (Ashton Kutcher) with unlimited potential, but with some secret that seems to hold him back as a team player. Delving into his past, links are found that make him a psychic twin to the older man. Thrown into the midst of the story is a romance with a local girl (Melissa Sagemiller). Rescue missions punctuate the beginning and end of the story with the training sessions the center of the film.

Summary written by John Sacksteder {jsackste@bellsouth.net}

Factual errors (Goof which won't spoil): Based upon published and televised procedures in Alaska - every fishing boat is required to prove to the Coast Guard that there are survival immersion suits for all members of the crew and that each crew member can get into their suit in less than a short period like 90 seconds. There are a number of scenes of rescues by the Coast Guard in Alaska where a number of the "rescuees" are not in survival suits even though the plot gives the impression that the crew being rescued had plenty of time to don their suits which would have prolonged their ability to survive until the Coast Guard Helicopter with the rescue swimmers could arrive.

Last night, we saw a third movie. JET LI'S FEARLESS.

Already a boxoffice hit in Asia, Jet Li's Fearless, directed by Ronny Yu (helmer of the Hong Kong classic The Bride with White Hair), is Jet Li's final martial arts masterpiece, capping a tremendous body of work in that genre. Jet Li's Fearless reunites the actor and martial arts superstar with producer Bill Kong (Hero) and action choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (Unleashed) as he portrays martial arts legend Huo Yuanjia, who became the most famous fighter in all of China at the turn of the 20th Century. Huo faced incredible personal tragedy but ultimately fought his way out of darkness and into history, forever defining the true spirit of martial arts. His self-discovery, and the choices he made, inspired his nation.

I sure hope he's not quiting because there's no other good martial arts guy in the wings yet.

Trivia:
Huo Yianjia is portrayed as having no surviving offspring after the murder of his daughter. In fact, he has been followed by seven grandchildren and, as of 2006, eleven great-grandchildren.

Going to movies on week day nights is like having my own private showing. I am starting to really like it a lot.

Thursday Thirteen Vol. 2

Thirteen things you'll learn if you read WILD SWANS THREE DAUGHTERS OF CHINA, a biography/autobiography written by Jung Chang as Serendipity saw it. 1. This book is about China, and particularly about the author's grandmother, mother and herself during early 1900s to late 1970s. A lot of fascinating things in this book. A few of which I will post here. It was considered one of the duties of a wife to help bring up her husband. 2. During early 1900s, sons are valued. My great-grandfather was the only son, which made him of supreme importance to his family. The story of his wife, my great-grandmother, was typical of millions of Chinese women of her time. She came form a family of tanners called Wu. Because her family was not an intellectual one and did not hold any official post, and because she was a girl, she was not given a name at all. Being the second daughter, she was simply called "Number Two Girl". 3. I am so glad I don't have to do this. But her greatest assets were her bound feet, called in Chinese "three-inch golden lilies" This meant she walked "like a tender young willow shoot in a spring breeze..." My grandmother's feet had been bound when she was two years old. Her mother, who herself had bound feet, first wound a piece of white cloth about twenty feet long round her feet, bending all the toes except the big toe inward and under the sole. The she placed a large stone on top to crush the arch. The process lasted several years. 4. More about bound feet. In those days, when a woman was married, the first thing the bridegrooms family did was to examine her feet. Large feet, meaning normal feet, were considered to bring shame on the husband's household. 5. Background on binding off feet. The practice of binding feet was originally introduced about a thousand years ago, allegedly by a concubine of the emperor. Not only was the sight of women hobbling on tiny feet considered erotic, men would also get excited playing with bound feet, which were always hidden in embroidered silk shoes. 6. Once bound, they can't allow the feet to grow again. This is the part of the part of the book where I was positively cringing. Men rarely saw naked bound feet, which were usually covered in rotting flesh and stank when the bindings were removed. The author then tells us of her grandma always in pain, and how she would sigh with relief when she can unbound her feet, and how she'd set about cutting off dead flesh from her feet. The pain also came from toe-nails growing into her feet. 7. Interesting beliefs about hell. ..clay figure whose tongue was being pulled out at least a good while simultaneously being cut up by two devils with spiky hair standing on end like hedgehogs and eyes bulging like frogs. The man being tortured had been a liar in his previous life... ...a woman being sawed in half by two men. The woman was a widow who had remarried... 8. During the reign of Japanese terror, eating rice could get your arrested for being an "economic criminal" 9. Mao , leader of nationwide peasant uprising who swept away a rotten dynasty and become a wise new emperor... It was under Mao that China became a power to be reckoned with in the world, and many Chinese stopped feeling ashamed and humiliated at being Chinese. 10. Chinese years so much for peace, they say It's better to be a dog in peacetime than a human being in war. 11. There was American terror We were told that the Americans were waiting for a chance to invade and reinstate Kuomintang, and that in order to defeat an invasion by them Lei Feng had trained day and night to overcome his weak physique and become champion hand-grenade thrower. 12. Then the beauty goes out too... Mao had instructed that grass, flowers, and pets were bourgeois habits and were to be eliminated. 13. There's so much more in this book. Books were major targets of Mao's order to destroy. Because they had not been written within the last few months, and therefore did not qoute Mao on every page, some Red Guards declared that they were all "poisonous weeds." Like I said, this is an awesome book. While there might be a lot of uncomfortable truths in this book, it's a fantastic read. It's worth my time, and I'm more enriched for having read it. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! *** View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Alternative Career & Slippery Slope

Your Porn Star Name Is...

Sweetest Sin Here I am having such a hard time coming up with a name that would look good on screen! It all comes down to not having enough time, but not wanting to do the things I need to do on my list. A quizz comes handy. Look at that...the stock picture even looks like me a few pounds ago!

What's Your Porn Star Name?

And this one is slippery slope! I do like the sentiments, and I think it's worth reading. On the other hand, isn't life like this anyway? On the other hand, does anyone believe in destiny*?

*des·ti·ny
n., pl. -nies.

1. The inevitable or necessary fate to which a particular person or thing is
   destined; one's lot.


2. A predetermined course of events considered as something beyond human power or control: “Marriage and hanging go by destiny” (Robert Burton).


3. The power or agency thought to predetermine events: Destiny brought them
   together.