"Finding Me"...A Poem
12 years ago
Monday, August 3, 2009
Harlequin is rotting her brain!
My wife's grandmother lives with us because she needs care. We love her very much, but Harlequin is rotting her brain! She is addicted to reading the "Love Inspired" line of novels published by Harlequin. Granted, this is the tamest of the romance novel genre, they are christian romance novels, so at least she is not reading filthy, raunchy, romance novels! But, still, Harlequin IS rotting her brain. I know this because she has several behavioral problems we have noticed now. It is natural for an elderly woman to enjoy recounting stories of their past, but they are now becoming more epic and more romanticized than ever! We know, because we have heard the same stories for years now and only recently have they started to resemble the books she reads. Yes, they are the same stories about the same people and the same things are happening to the people, but now in vibrant and engaging detail. This is not all, because not only does she add the characters' inner monologues but she also refers to herself in the third person now. I guess the old adage about "garbage in, garbage out" makes a little more sense to us now. She is now starting to retell stories about our lives as well. She had a phone call from a relative and told the story about how I met my wife. It was hard to listen to because she changed so much of the story! This is why I am telling you that Harlequin is rotting her brain!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Bulldog jousts with injustice on the 'net!
OK, so maybe I am chasing windmills and saying they are giants...
I have posted part of my blog at www.leakylounge.com regarding WB stealing the Quidditch World Cup. Here is what happened about 1 day after my new discussion thread was posted:
And so I sent a post to their suggestions board:
This is the response I get from your moderator.
Look, I am NOT making up the extra footage! It WAS in the original theater version. Granted it was not long, but you got to see Harry meet Barty Crouch's house elf, the other team's mascots (the girls who charmed all the men in the audience), Harry got to go to the Minister's box to watch the game, we met Ludo Bagman who made bets with people, we didn't see much of the game but we did see Krum do the wrongsky feint. Can't anyone else remember this?
Why are you locking my discussion thread after only 1 day? What, are you afraid that maybe I might get some attention? This is NOT enhancing my experience with your forums. I do get it that this movie was several years ago, but that does not mean that it can't be discussed! Are you trying to say that the rest of the fans on your site have such short memories that they cannot remember seeing the movie in the theater? I realize that what I am saying cannot make any difference in what has already happened in the past. So does this mean that nobody should say anything about things that are now past? Are you sending a message that our opinions about the past are not good enough to be on your website? I could rant on and on about this, but I just want you to see the injustice here. And you are censoring me.
----------------------
They made it so that nobody can even make any comments on my posted thread.
Let's see what happens next shall we?
Oops! I just received a personal message:
OK so here is a possible rule infringement:
1. Be nice. This is our most important and most strictly enforced rule. We respect and embrace everyone's right to disagree and the spirited discussions that come out of differences of opinion, but there is never an excuse to be rude/derogatory/insulting. Offending comments (and words) will be deleted right away and the offender warned; those who persist will be banned. The TLC forum, like the TLC comments, is to be a place where enthusiastic and intelligent minds can come together, something no one can do while fighting. Please take a moment to remember that without differences of opinion the world would be a very boring place.
Related: What is a flame? Flaming is outlawed on the TLC board. Flaming is different from criticism: criticism points out something that could be improved. Disagreement is not a flame. Flaming includes but is not limited to insults or harassment of others based on actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, age, race, ethnicity, religion, magical status or lack thereof, Hogwarts house, national origin, political affiliation, character preference, or "ship" preference. Do not post a comment that is that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy or hateful.
Was I flaming? I'm not sure. Was I expressing frustration? Yes! Was it not constructive criticism, I am not sure! I think that someone could benefit from the criticism if they chose to. I guess that we can't expect to share our feelings with fellow fans and commiserate over disappointing things. I guess I was being too negative...
By the way, how chipper was that message? Huh? Glad to have you here, but please don't talk to anyone about things from more than two years ago or we will stop you! Have a nice day.
Please, tell me I am not alone in my assessment of the circumstances here...
Where to go from here? I wonder...
I have posted part of my blog at www.leakylounge.com regarding WB stealing the Quidditch World Cup. Here is what happened about 1 day after my new discussion thread was posted:
 Today, 03:16 PM Post #4 | |
One Half of the DDD  Posts: 7,798 Joined: 3:31pm August 30, 2006 Location: Siriusly Dreaming Somewhere    | I did see the theatre version which didn't include the scenes described by Bulldog7128. However, as we are not now able to watch the theatre version and compare it with the DVD version it's unlikely that this topic will be able to come to a productive conclusion. I am therefore going to close it. Please continue to enjoy the other discussions in Argent Scrim's Dreamteam, LL Mod Manager -------------------- |
And so I sent a post to their suggestions board:
This is the response I get from your moderator.
Look, I am NOT making up the extra footage! It WAS in the original theater version. Granted it was not long, but you got to see Harry meet Barty Crouch's house elf, the other team's mascots (the girls who charmed all the men in the audience), Harry got to go to the Minister's box to watch the game, we met Ludo Bagman who made bets with people, we didn't see much of the game but we did see Krum do the wrongsky feint. Can't anyone else remember this?
Why are you locking my discussion thread after only 1 day? What, are you afraid that maybe I might get some attention? This is NOT enhancing my experience with your forums. I do get it that this movie was several years ago, but that does not mean that it can't be discussed! Are you trying to say that the rest of the fans on your site have such short memories that they cannot remember seeing the movie in the theater? I realize that what I am saying cannot make any difference in what has already happened in the past. So does this mean that nobody should say anything about things that are now past? Are you sending a message that our opinions about the past are not good enough to be on your website? I could rant on and on about this, but I just want you to see the injustice here. And you are censoring me.
----------------------
They made it so that nobody can even make any comments on my posted thread.
Let's see what happens next shall we?
Oops! I just received a personal message:
| Posting in Argent Scrim's, Today, 03:38 PM | |
| One Half of the DDD Posts: 7,798 Joined: 3:31pm August 30, 2006 Location: Siriusly Dreaming Somewhere | Hi Bulldog7128  to the Lounge, its great to have you here. You've joined a great forum for discussion about the Harry Potter books and I think you'll have a lot of fun with like-minded folk. I hope you're enjoying the discussions and that you're finding your way around. I just wanted to let you know that I have had to remove one of your posts because it didn't include a new discussion point about the HP movies and was more about your experience of visiting the theatre and reiteration of your original post. Having discussed your thread with other mods I have closed it because, as fans no longer have the opportunity of seeing Goblet of Fire in the theatres, we cannot give an informed opinion on the content of the theatre version compared with the DVD version. For instance my own personal memory is that the film I saw didn't include the scenes you describe, I can't prove that it didn't just as you can't prove that it did, so the potential for a meaningful discussion isn't really there.Leaky is a huge place and as you're new here you might find navigating a bit difficult to begin with (I know I did  ). To help you we've got loads of roadmaps here at Leaky so I'll give you some links to hopefully make things easier. First - the rules that speak of how to conduct yourself, what we expect of all our posters, when to open new topics, etc. The second good place to look is our FAQ. Third - we've got an amazing amount of discussion that has been amassed over the past couple of years that the lounge has been up and running so the sitemap may come in useful. You might also find it helpful, and interesting, to pay a visit to HP101 which has threads for the most popular topics under discussion, and will give you links to join in some of them, and Knockturn Alley which is a forum dealing with technical issues.If you have any questions or problems please feel free to PM either me or another mod and we'll be happy to help. Hope this has been helpful, I look forward to seeing more of you in the threads. Happy posting!  Dreamteam, LL Mod Manager |
OK so here is a possible rule infringement:
1. Be nice. This is our most important and most strictly enforced rule. We respect and embrace everyone's right to disagree and the spirited discussions that come out of differences of opinion, but there is never an excuse to be rude/derogatory/insulting. Offending comments (and words) will be deleted right away and the offender warned; those who persist will be banned. The TLC forum, like the TLC comments, is to be a place where enthusiastic and intelligent minds can come together, something no one can do while fighting. Please take a moment to remember that without differences of opinion the world would be a very boring place.
Related: What is a flame? Flaming is outlawed on the TLC board. Flaming is different from criticism: criticism points out something that could be improved. Disagreement is not a flame. Flaming includes but is not limited to insults or harassment of others based on actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, age, race, ethnicity, religion, magical status or lack thereof, Hogwarts house, national origin, political affiliation, character preference, or "ship" preference. Do not post a comment that is that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy or hateful.
Was I flaming? I'm not sure. Was I expressing frustration? Yes! Was it not constructive criticism, I am not sure! I think that someone could benefit from the criticism if they chose to. I guess that we can't expect to share our feelings with fellow fans and commiserate over disappointing things. I guess I was being too negative...
By the way, how chipper was that message? Huh? Glad to have you here, but please don't talk to anyone about things from more than two years ago or we will stop you! Have a nice day.
Please, tell me I am not alone in my assessment of the circumstances here...
Where to go from here? I wonder...
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Warner Bros. stole the Quidditch World Cup
All of us Harry Potter fans have the Goblet of Fire DVD by now, right? Why is it that when we watched this movie in the theaters we were able to enjoy the Quidditch World Cup in all of it's splendor, yet when we wanted to take that joy home and keep it on DVD, we were cheated! Doesn't anyone remember this? They didn't even include it on any of the extended scenes on the DVD set. We didn't get to see Barty Crouch's house elf that stole Harry's wand. We didn't get to witness Krum's awesome flying skills in the game. We were left dumbfounded by the brief intro by the Minister of Magic and Krum doing a fly by, then cut back to the tent (AAAAWWWW!). When I first watched this at home with my family, we thought there was a defect in the DVD we bought. When I emailed Warner Bros about this travesty, I had no real response from them. After some web surfing I found others in an uproar about it. They said that Warner Bros did not promise a "theatrical version" on the DVD so they could savagely cut out anything at a whim! There have been many other discrepancies that others have noted in all of the Harry Potter movies. But it seems to go unnoticed. I just would like to know when I can get a "full" version of the movies that is NOT missing parts!
This is not an isolated incident. It happens to tons of movies all the time. The studios get to decide what can be allowed in the theaters and what can be allowed in the homes. Not only that, but they can have different versions of these for different regions. So if you are in the US your DVD can have different scenes than someone in Europe. For all we know different US states could have different versions. They probably think they are personalizing them for different demographics or something! Hey, how about including all the versions on the DVD and allowing us to decide which we like?
OK, so the studios have lied to us by showing one thing in the theaters and handing us something different to take home. Is that where it ends? No! How many times have you sat watching your television, when you are hit with a new movie preview! You are amazed! You must see it! It is so (pick an adjective: funny, action-packed, etc.) Now, you wait the month or three until it comes to a theater near you. You have built up your expectations about this movie. Then, you sit for two hours and come out of the theater stunned... not in awe of your expectations being met, but rather in the let down you feel. You have just been duped into spending money to sit for two hours and watch something that only has about two minutes of content that live up to what you wanted in a movie. Why is this? Because the advertisement either misrepresented the movie, like made it look really funny when it was really serious with two minutes of funny. Or the quality of the writing or acting or everything was so bad that the two minutes of clips in the commercial were the only highlights in the movie that were any good at all. No matter what the reason, you were sold a false bill of goods. If the movie was a car it would be a "lemon". Oddly enough, nobody cares that you just spent a big handful of your hard earned cash on two hours of your life that you now wish you could get back!
OK, more to add to my rant here...
So you pay for your family (4x$10+) to see the movies in the theater. This is an investment. Of course you are at the mercy of the theater company in the sense that they intend to make you sit there for two hours with no available food or drink but theirs at a ridiculous high price which means you are probably doubling your theater investment. So if your tickets are $10, and you have 4 family members that is $40 dollars. If each person wants a drink and a snack (candy or popcorn, etc.), let's estimate another $10 dollars for each person, making your investment $80 so far. OK, so you are a real big fan of Harry Potter and you want to get some kind of momento offered by the movie company (WB). We bought Hogwarts badges for $13 per badge (2 badges makes $26). So, now our investment has gone up to $106. Of course we bought the book when it first came out but I will not include that since it had nothing to do with the movie company. This is a conservative estimate considering we bought all the books all the DVD's and many more collectors' items. So after our $106 investment, according to the movie studio, we are not entitled to take the movie home with us for our personal enjoyment. Instead we wait at least a year and finally get a television advertisement teasing us with the promise that we can take home the movie we loved in the theater. Now after another $25 investment (I don't remember exactly), we finally can relax knowing we have our own copy of the movie we love! Only... WAIT A MINUTE!!! It's missing scenes! "Honey, are you sure that we bought the right DVD set? Was it the cheap one or the more expensive one? Oh, yeah we made sure to get the one with all the extra scenes, right?!" Only, we don't get what we paid for do we? They cut the Quidditch World Cup sequence SO BADLY that our whole family agreed that it must have been a faulty copy of the DVD, so we immediately drove back to the store to ask them for another copy, after doing so, we saw that it was the same, so I thoughtfully went to the Warner Bros website to complain to the DVD support team that we felt that we were supplied with a faulty copy of the DVD. Maybe they had a mishap during the mass production of the DVDs. Well I did not get a real response from them so I did some searching and found that their policy is that they are not claiming on the DVD packaging to be supplying the consumers with a "full theatrical" version of the movie, and therefore are at liberty to alter it. Does the injustice only ring in my ears? Is someone giving me crazy pills, or what?!? I mean, I realize that this is several years ago, but it still hurts me today! And it only reminds me of the fact that these injustices continue with other movies. Probably every movie you have on DVD has been altered in some way. I bet that families all over the place have arguments about movie trivia because someone remembers something from the theater version and the other person remembers it from the DVD, but they don't match! Is one of them wrong, or are they crazy? No, they both saw what they saw when they saw it, but they did not see it in the same version. Hah! Go figure that one out!
This is not an isolated incident. It happens to tons of movies all the time. The studios get to decide what can be allowed in the theaters and what can be allowed in the homes. Not only that, but they can have different versions of these for different regions. So if you are in the US your DVD can have different scenes than someone in Europe. For all we know different US states could have different versions. They probably think they are personalizing them for different demographics or something! Hey, how about including all the versions on the DVD and allowing us to decide which we like?
OK, so the studios have lied to us by showing one thing in the theaters and handing us something different to take home. Is that where it ends? No! How many times have you sat watching your television, when you are hit with a new movie preview! You are amazed! You must see it! It is so (pick an adjective: funny, action-packed, etc.) Now, you wait the month or three until it comes to a theater near you. You have built up your expectations about this movie. Then, you sit for two hours and come out of the theater stunned... not in awe of your expectations being met, but rather in the let down you feel. You have just been duped into spending money to sit for two hours and watch something that only has about two minutes of content that live up to what you wanted in a movie. Why is this? Because the advertisement either misrepresented the movie, like made it look really funny when it was really serious with two minutes of funny. Or the quality of the writing or acting or everything was so bad that the two minutes of clips in the commercial were the only highlights in the movie that were any good at all. No matter what the reason, you were sold a false bill of goods. If the movie was a car it would be a "lemon". Oddly enough, nobody cares that you just spent a big handful of your hard earned cash on two hours of your life that you now wish you could get back!
OK, more to add to my rant here...
So you pay for your family (4x$10+) to see the movies in the theater. This is an investment. Of course you are at the mercy of the theater company in the sense that they intend to make you sit there for two hours with no available food or drink but theirs at a ridiculous high price which means you are probably doubling your theater investment. So if your tickets are $10, and you have 4 family members that is $40 dollars. If each person wants a drink and a snack (candy or popcorn, etc.), let's estimate another $10 dollars for each person, making your investment $80 so far. OK, so you are a real big fan of Harry Potter and you want to get some kind of momento offered by the movie company (WB). We bought Hogwarts badges for $13 per badge (2 badges makes $26). So, now our investment has gone up to $106. Of course we bought the book when it first came out but I will not include that since it had nothing to do with the movie company. This is a conservative estimate considering we bought all the books all the DVD's and many more collectors' items. So after our $106 investment, according to the movie studio, we are not entitled to take the movie home with us for our personal enjoyment. Instead we wait at least a year and finally get a television advertisement teasing us with the promise that we can take home the movie we loved in the theater. Now after another $25 investment (I don't remember exactly), we finally can relax knowing we have our own copy of the movie we love! Only... WAIT A MINUTE!!! It's missing scenes! "Honey, are you sure that we bought the right DVD set? Was it the cheap one or the more expensive one? Oh, yeah we made sure to get the one with all the extra scenes, right?!" Only, we don't get what we paid for do we? They cut the Quidditch World Cup sequence SO BADLY that our whole family agreed that it must have been a faulty copy of the DVD, so we immediately drove back to the store to ask them for another copy, after doing so, we saw that it was the same, so I thoughtfully went to the Warner Bros website to complain to the DVD support team that we felt that we were supplied with a faulty copy of the DVD. Maybe they had a mishap during the mass production of the DVDs. Well I did not get a real response from them so I did some searching and found that their policy is that they are not claiming on the DVD packaging to be supplying the consumers with a "full theatrical" version of the movie, and therefore are at liberty to alter it. Does the injustice only ring in my ears? Is someone giving me crazy pills, or what?!? I mean, I realize that this is several years ago, but it still hurts me today! And it only reminds me of the fact that these injustices continue with other movies. Probably every movie you have on DVD has been altered in some way. I bet that families all over the place have arguments about movie trivia because someone remembers something from the theater version and the other person remembers it from the DVD, but they don't match! Is one of them wrong, or are they crazy? No, they both saw what they saw when they saw it, but they did not see it in the same version. Hah! Go figure that one out!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
If a tree fell in the Blogosphere, would there be a tweet?
To Blog or not to Blog, that is the question...
Whether it's nobler to b*tch and moan about everything under the sun...
I recently did some websurfing to research the Blogging phenomenon, due to the fact that my son and daughter decided that it was something they are now highly interested in. In my browsing I saw statistical numbers and differing reasons that people think that blogging will either increase or decrease in popularity. None of the numbers are really important other than to give a vague sense of proportion. The singular blogger is a leaf on a tree in a forest full of trees that are full of leaves. Yes, in some sense the leaves are within view of other leaves as well as in view of the rest of the forest in some remote capacity. The old saying goes "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there, does it make any noise?" I guess you would have to ask yourself as the leaf on the tree among a vast forest, whose attention are you trying to attract and what are your expectations? Do you think the world will turn its gaze upon your blog and suddenly there shall be a spark of recognition in the communal consciousness that puts you under its awe inspiring spotlight of attention? More than likely, this blog (like the majority of personal blogs) will only be seen by my family and close personal friends (not that many). I don't believe it will leave much in the way of an intellectual footprint in the world. Mainly because of all the others screaming for the readers' attention. Also, because the average internet user has the attention span of a flea (if that). So, again the question of to blog or not to blog? I have started this blog to voice my insignificant point of view to the few people willing to take the time and effort to read this. If I find the necessary interest and urge to continue posting my thoughts here, I will. I am not certain if this will be affected by my possible readers or not, but will appreciate any interest shown. I hope that this was not a waste of your time as well as mine...
Sincerely,
Bulldog
Whether it's nobler to b*tch and moan about everything under the sun...
I recently did some websurfing to research the Blogging phenomenon, due to the fact that my son and daughter decided that it was something they are now highly interested in. In my browsing I saw statistical numbers and differing reasons that people think that blogging will either increase or decrease in popularity. None of the numbers are really important other than to give a vague sense of proportion. The singular blogger is a leaf on a tree in a forest full of trees that are full of leaves. Yes, in some sense the leaves are within view of other leaves as well as in view of the rest of the forest in some remote capacity. The old saying goes "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there, does it make any noise?" I guess you would have to ask yourself as the leaf on the tree among a vast forest, whose attention are you trying to attract and what are your expectations? Do you think the world will turn its gaze upon your blog and suddenly there shall be a spark of recognition in the communal consciousness that puts you under its awe inspiring spotlight of attention? More than likely, this blog (like the majority of personal blogs) will only be seen by my family and close personal friends (not that many). I don't believe it will leave much in the way of an intellectual footprint in the world. Mainly because of all the others screaming for the readers' attention. Also, because the average internet user has the attention span of a flea (if that). So, again the question of to blog or not to blog? I have started this blog to voice my insignificant point of view to the few people willing to take the time and effort to read this. If I find the necessary interest and urge to continue posting my thoughts here, I will. I am not certain if this will be affected by my possible readers or not, but will appreciate any interest shown. I hope that this was not a waste of your time as well as mine...
Sincerely,
Bulldog
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