I’ve read about this movie in the past and knew it was supposed to be a powerful piece of video documentation. It’s not quite a documentary, it’s not quite a news piece, it’s not quite a movie… It’s a very intense look at the life of a soldier in Iraq from the eyes of the soldiers. Film maker, Michael Tucker, lived with “the Gunners” in Uday Hussein’s bombed out palace and went on raids with them for terrorists and insurgents and bad people.

It’s much like a “Real Life” show on TV only you know from the start this isn’t “Reality TV” and is NOT scripted. You get to meet and know the people in the 2/3 Field Artillery and see what they go through on a day to day basis.

There are the goofier parts where one soldier, Wilf, plays his guitar doing a Jimmy Hendricks imitation of the Star Spangled Banner from the roof of the palace while helicopters fly around, but for the most part it’s Americans exerting themselves on a foreign country for some reason that is never made clear. At the end of the movie one soldier says something along the lines of, “We’re not here to protect the USA, we’re just trying to stay alive.” Some of the soldiers interviewed during the course of filming died shortly after filming ended.

I’d recommend seeing this movie whether you lean right or left, whether you support the war or not, because it’s a pretty good, non-partisan view of what’s happening on a day to day basis. I didn’t get the feeling the film maker was for or against the war. He was just covering it. It was a very much the opposite of Michael Moore’s movie, Farenheit 911. It’s far better in my opinion too.

Take the chance and watch it. It’s not an easy thing to view, but it’s worth it. Don’t worry, there’s no bodies, no blood, and no one gets shot on camera, but you get the feeling it could happen at any second. It’s pretty intense.

A wall of lights and vents.

Wow! I can barely see my car under that drift!

Oh goodness… This was truly a dreadful movie. I really like Johnny Depp as an actor, but I’d have to say this was not only just a bad film all the way around, it was also one of Depp’s worst films.

First of all, I didn’t think using the same dude to play all the Oompa Loompa’s was such a cute idea like everyone else seemed to. I thought it reaked of “budgetary concerns” – not artistic license. I’d rather see a hundred different Oompa Loompa’s! Second, I didn’t like ANY of the songs they sang. Third, I thought Depp was ineffective as Willie Wonka… At least compared to Gene Wilder! Now HE was a great Willie Wonka!

The special effects were state of the art computerized graphics, the acting was hum-drum, the kids were easier to ignore than hate (like in the Gene Wilder version!). I was also not terribly impressed with the occasional reference to the earlier film. It was basically like they tried to “imitate” the success of that film rather than recreate the story from the ground up. It failed pretty badly I thought.

That upsets me because not only do I usually really like Depp’s roles, I also like Tim Burton’s work most of the time. I’d say it was worthy of a “pass” and just skip it if you haven’t seen it. Stick with the Gene Wilder version of Willie Wonka and you’ll have a much better experience!

Ok…. I’m totally humiliated and embarassed now, and I’ve done it to myself… I deserve any and all stupid crap everyone wants to throw in my general direction… It’s probably not a surprize to anyone close to me that I’m closing the office I opened a year ago and am job hunting again. I’m looking for work see, and the following happens today…

I’m digging through the online ads in the Tulsa World Online, and when I see something I think either A) I like, or B) I’m qualified for, I copy and paste it into a text document so I can gather up all the job descriptions all at once, then go through them and email the ones I can email, then call the ones that need calling, and lastly I personally visit the ones that need to be personally visited. Seems pretty logical, straightforward and simple. Right? Yeah… You’d think so… The project went awry though and I didn’t realize it until about 12 hours later.

See, for each job listing that I copied and pasted, there was a date it was listed, the section from which I grabbed the job and description, then the job and description. On ONE of them I screwed up and I’ll deal with the fallout tomorrow…

What happened was this… I copied a job for an admin/management position at Coca Cola! I thought the description of the job really didn’t match the title of the job very well, but I thought – “Hey! I could work for Coca Cola and boss people around (“Bring me a PEPSI!!!! No, a Bud Light!!!”).”

So I went to Coca Cola with my resume, filled out an application where I WRITE BY HAND everything that’s typed and printed so neatly in my resume, take a preliminary TEST where I have to get like 40 out of 55 or 60 questions to even qualify for the job (I only missed two!) and then go through an interview…

Ok. So I’m sitting in the office with the person doing the hiring and he says, “Well now, which position are you looking for? We have several.”

I said, “Administrative/Office Manager that was advertised in tulsaworld.com.”

He said, “(dumb look on his face) WHICH one?”

I said, “Administrative/Office Manager.”

He said, “(dumber look on his face) There wasn’t a position for that advertised. Where did you see that?”

I said, “Tulsaworld.com.”

He said, “Hmmm. Now I’m concerned! I’m sorry, but we don’t have a position available for that. (Looking at his computer screen, typing, trying to pull up tulsaworld.com).”

We spoke for a few minutes and he explained that he monitors and posts all those advertisements, and that he’s really curious as to how there could be a position posted on the internet for a position that’s not available… I told him I’d email him the link if he wanted me to. (Lately the tulsaworld.com web site hasnt’ been very reliable due to a flood in the Bank of Oklahoma basement on Monday which caused power outages across downtown Tulsa, and the site has been difficult to load.). He said he had positions like driver or dock worker available – which I might have been interested in 20 years ago…

Anyway, we spoke amicably about things and liked each other it seemed, and parted company agreeing that he’d hang on to my job application and test results and if I wanted a job I could have one if I wanted to drive a Coca Cola truck for $9 per hour. I told him I really appreciated that, but I thought I’d keep looking for a managerial position, and he understood.

When I got home I explained the situation to Vivian and she said, “Um, I think you were looking at the section of JOBS… The job title isn’t ‘Administrative/Office Manager,’ it’s ‘Cashier.’ It’s just listed in the ‘admin/office manager’ section…’”

That probably explained why the description of the job didn’t match the title of the job in my mind… I had to go through all my job searches over the last few days to make sure I hadn’t done the same thing with like ONE DOZEN other searches…

I’ll talk to the guy at Coca Cola again tomorrow and explain I’m a FREAKIN’ DUMBASS!

This gives the job hunt a very good head of steam…

If this article doesn’t chill you to the bones over the level of “dignity” the Republicans have brought our country after that blasphemer, Bill Clinton, nothing will… I am just amazed that the conservatives cry over the “liberal media” and this story comes out on perhaps the staunchest of conservative news web sites! And if that article isn’t enough to turn your stomach just think back to the glory days of Republicanism and Ronald Reagan! Jeez. I’d love to have the bad old days of a balanced budget and only ONE crime coming out of the White House – specifically a “crime” against Clinton’s wife and lies trying to hide it… Yes, Dubya has indeed brought integrity back to the White House, and I’m glad he brought all his pals along to help out.

UPDATE: ICK! I just also found this article… Don’t read it if you LOVE taxation!

The news was talking about all the fires around Tulsa last night. Well, ONE OF THEM WAS IN MY NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR’S YARD!!!! Talk about scary! The neighbors from across the street knocked on our door and said, “The yard next to yours is on fire!”

Well, if you’ve seen grass fires before, this won’t surprise you, but I’ve never seen one in mid-town Tulsa before. I ruined a $100 pair of shoes clawing my way through bushes and fences with a water hose to help put this damn thing out. It got within 15 feet of my shop! (Not the one in the picture! Mine is to the left – out of frame…) I’ve got a lot of crap in that building!!!

In the end, I’m upset I ruined the best pair of shoes I’ve ever owned, but I Ithink I’ll get another pair for my birthday on DECEMBER 10!

Ahem…. Oh, ignore the wild branches growing out of the bush on the left of the picture… That’s common in this area. There are trees that are damn near impossible to kill! A small stump can sprout a hundred branches and grow like mad!

Anyway, this was about grass fires… Pay attention to the charred spot in the next door neighbor’s yard, not the wild tree… I wish that died in the fire…

Vivian and I went to see the new movie by George Clooney, “Good Night and Good Luck,” about Edward R. Murrow’s reports about McCarthy during the Cold War. While the movie itself left a LOT to be desired in general (it had no plot, and was basically a documentary that fell short of being a documentary), it mirrored in a shocking and surprising way the similar behavior between McCarthy and the Bush administration. In a nutshell, if McCarthy was questioned or disagreed with he responded with fierce, scathing, accusations that to be critical of him or what he was doing obviously meant you were either A) a Commie, or B) a Commie-sympathizer.

Dubya seems to use the same tricks…

“While it’s perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war,” the president told the supportive crowd, “the stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges.” He said the troops in Iraq deserve to know “that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them.”

Dubya directly challenges those who are questioning him right now. For example, judges that don’t “rule” the way the President thinks they should are “activist judges creating legislation from the bench.” Now, after the grand jury and with evidence that Scooter Libby lied to that grand jury, and with ongoing investigations into others within his administration including Karl Rove, he relies on McCarthy-like spins to deflect the criticism and questions reminding everyone (formerly the rest of the world, now his fellow Americans) “If you aren’t with me, you’re against me” and therefore you’re A) un-American, and B) a threat to our troops abroad. Which is total BS…

I’m left with the feeling that Bush considers his re-election a sign that everyone agrees with him without question, and that Americans will or should stand behind him just because he’s President. Bush himself has said he’s no student of history, which is unfortunate considering the scandals past President’s have been involved in. He could have learned a lot about how NOT to do things.

Bush is the highest Civil Servant of our country, not a king. He represents the USA as our elected leader, but his behavior is that of an ignorant, bully that looks from my perspective like he’s being led around by the nose by his cabinet (Rove and Cheney specifically). Without them, Bush is nothing. His strongest character trait is that he finds intelligent people with which to surround himself – thereby making himself look smarter and more competent. They play along too, allowing Bush to take credit for the team’s efforts.

As a last item – consider if Bill Clinton had behaved like Dubya has behaved over the last 5 years. He would have been crucified 10 times over by Republicans. Why are we (and Democrats) allowing Bush to behave like this? Why are they only NOW stiffening their spines enough to speak out against Bush’s policies?

The Democratic party needs more people like this.

I had a perfect view of the Veteran’s Day parade yesterday. I was on the second floor of the building at 5th and Boulder watching as everyone passed below. I have tons of pics, but I felt like this one was the most appropriate to post… I might be wrong about this, but aren’t they holding the flag “face down?” Shouldn’t the stars be on the other end? Hmmm…

UPDATE: 11/13/05: I did a little research on the flag and found out some interesting details! First of all, the “direction” of the flag pictured above is basically fine – the flag is not “face down,” BUT get this: What does the Flag Code say about displaying the flag horizontally, as before a football game? Section 8c. reads, “The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.”

And, another note about the flag that’s sorely abused these days: Is it okay for an advertisement to use the flag? No. Section 8i (see below) reads, “The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever.”

Wow! I wonder how many Politicrats know that!? They’re not allowed to use the flag to advertise themselves!!!

In the past couple of weeks I’ve watched “Crash” and “Batman Begins” on DVD. I was disappointed in Crash and absolutely loved Batman Begins. Here’s why…

Crash: Overt plot focussed on nothing but racism and how all people – ALL PEOPLE – are racist to some degree… We all distrust “others” to some degree. In the same way Freud said all humans act on sexual impulses, Crash says we act on racial impulses. I like Don Cheadle. I like most of the actors. I even liked the basic plot – the interaction between social groups. I just didn’t like the movie overall, and I thought the script and direction were weak. EVERY single time something “big” was supposed to happen, every time the plot was supposed to take a twist or reveal something to the audience, I anticipated it 10 second ahead of the actual event… It just wasn’t a very good movie…

On the other hand, Batman Begins, WAS a good movie. In fact I loved it! I didn’t even KNOW the actor who played Batman, and the plot was A) interesting, B) believable, and C) well executed! Not knowing the actor who played Batman left me with no preconceptions about the actor and his capabilities. The plot was well thought out, well executed in script and the cinematography was awesome! Gotham rocked! Good and bad! Dark and light! The special effects were appropriate, the science fiction was – again – believable and, well, basically it was a great movie! If you have little kids, it might not be for them since it’s a very “dark” movie with hallucinogenic special effects and all, but dang! I loved it! Batman was NEVER supposed to be a “happy” or “colorful” type character!