Odette Toulemonde the movie

Seeing it on the rack in the movie rental section has prodded my memory… I wrote an absolutely scathing review of the movie a while ago. For your edification:

Odette Toulemonde, a review

In French class, we were required to read a short story and watch a movie, both named “Odette Toulemonde” (by Eric Emmanuel Schmitt, if you’re interested). I reacted very badly to it, and I don’t know how I wrote a 450 word comparative essay on it without burning the thing to fine, gray ashes.

Odette Toulemonde is a sweet, snappy (or should that be sappy?) love story about a successful Parisian writer and a Belgian sales clerk. The writer is named Balthazar Balsan and the sales clerk is named Odette Toulemonde (a funny name, by all accounts). It’s a nice story, well-written, but just not for me. I don’t like saccharine.

My major objection is not, however, contained within the overly sugared contents of both short story and movie. It is that the story purports to tout the overplayed and underrepresented (at least in literature) value of happiness and its absolute independence from money, status and other social factors while representing some really repugnant conservative/male-centric views. In short, the age old cliché: money doesn’t bring happiness (Inner cynic: it does, you moron) is used to cover some glaringly odd (or insulting, depending on how sensitive you are) items of interest.

Sichuan Earthquake

However, I’m sure you’ve all heard/read/seen the devastation caused by an earthquake in Sichuan. Current death toll counts in the tens of thousands, and will rise. The area, due to rubble, aftershocks and intense damage, is cut off from the bulk of aid that is available. Many places are only reached by helicopter.

Meanwhile, the bodies are piling up, food and water supplies are short, and people have no homes. It is summer, and the heat will make pestilence that much easier to spread. Added to the almost wholesale destruction of infrastructure in some areas, I’m sure you can imagine what kind of lives people are scratching out right now.

Iurgnotmis has set a page of links to various charities that are taking donations for the aid relief effort. Keep in mind that most organizations do take a percentage of fees for housekeeping and administration costs.

Thank you so much,

Sevenses

(It sickens me to say that some people have suggested this is karmic retribution which deserves another post entirely - will get back to you on that.)

Fallacies

The amount of utter random crap I’ve seen lately on forum boards, discussion threads or facebook topics (should have seen this one coming, methinks) on subjects ranging from fanfiction to Tibet to the best poutines in town has been very interesting and lolcat worthy. Yes, I know, if I bothered to venture out of my own little bubble of safety and lala-ness I would see that most netizens think spelling and punctuation apply to other people, are astoundingly agrammatical, rude, into capslock and bad at logic.

However… this will hopefully help you distinguish between what actually is a valid argument or not. Taken from a handout in law class, this lists a common number of illogical lines of debate.

If people persist in being idiots, then feel free to claim ‘troll’ and move on. There are better things to do with your life.

Fallacies that occur in writing:

Bandwagon appeals: if everyone is doing it, it must be right. Or, since everyone is doing it, what’s the harm in it?

Begging the question: the claim itself is actually used as proof to support… the claim.

Oversimplification: common or garden variety statement that doesn’t do justice to the complexity of an issue.

Either this or that: nothing is ever that simple, not even George Bush’s intelligence.

I’m gone for four days…

… and the world explodes.

Currently on ye olde radar:

- The Clinton-Obama-never-ending-contest-of-doom. At this point, dudes. It’s redundant to say anything. Mostly what can be said has already been spewed out there. My adding some verbal diarrhea to this subject doesn’t do anything…

- Montreal people rioting over their home team’s win. Get this. Their hockey team wins, after a lot of tension as to whether they’ll beat the Boston Bruins, and what do they do? They torch cars, beat up police, and scare lots of people on Ste. Catherine’s. Good going, drunken hockey fans. I knew I could count on you for a good, sensible time.

- And J.K. Rowling decides that the HP Lexicon is debasing, pilfered, and badly put-together. Plus, she’s suing Steve Vander Ark for copyright infringement, among other things. I think most of this was Warner’s doing - because which super-popular fantasy series hasn’t sprung more than a few encyclopedic compilations by fans? Admittedly Tolkien is dead and Gaiman is flattered, but how much richer than disgustingly rich do you want to be? Yes, it’s her baby. But she’s used it herself to keep the facts straight during writing - which she has admitted to. I have zero use for the Lexicon, having long stepped out of that particular fandom, but if she honestly thinks fans are out to rip Harry Potter off and make money, she’s going to lose a lot of fans. (Plus, SVA has lots of loyal fanboys, as evidenced by the showing at Prophecy. Just a warning.)

And you may have noticed that the layout has changed… I got tired of the comment thread running waaaaaaaaaaay down where the sidebar ends, so I did a bit of switching around. Am self-professedly bad at this whole CSS/html thing, so it’s pretty much the original layout provided.

Exams. Ha. Do not study the night before. That is all I’m saying.

Sevenses

Some Jang Geun Suk Pictures

This post is entirely dedicated to how cute JGS is. So… skip if you like, but I think you’ll stop at one point and paw your screen.

All credits to soompi and the people who made them.

Come on. Isn’t that cute?

The Dork Factor. It kills.

You know, this was taken at a Hong Kong photoshoot a few days ago. He looks exactly the same as he did a few years ago. I want to know what potions he’s drinking. Or if there’s a portrait in some attic somewhere.

Everyone! On count of three - one, two, three: AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!

That’s it for today’s episode of fangirling. I figured you guys would want something light after all that fuss about Tibet.

Love,

Sevenses

P.S. Apparently Song Yuri bought Kang Ji Hwan a shi-tzu puppy for his birthday. Aww. And then he named it ‘Yinok’. More aww.

Quirks and Oddities

Did you know that in the Canadian Criminal Code, ’alarming Her Majesty’ is included with other serious criminal offences such as treason, sedition, piracy and murder?

That must be one heck of an alarm.

Stumbled across that while working on a case file thing - but I’ve found some other sites detailing the incongruency of laws around the world, particularly in North America.

1. Strange Laws of the US, sorted by state.
2. Strange Laws around the world, sorted by continent.
3. And this tidbit from Australia really takes the cake.

Go have a look and let me know if your stomach hurts from laughing really hard too.

Enjoy!

Sevenses

Tibet ramblings

Having found myself getting involved in myriad debates and emails and discussions about this storm of controversy and mainly condemnation of China, I figured I might as well as unite everything I’ve been saying - it could fill reams of pages, but I’ll try to keep this one short. (Lol, and coherent.)

A month ago, nothing much was happening on this front… and the US economy continued its flailings, Obama and Clinton were busy throwing mud at each other, McCain was doing his thing, Harper added to the amount of carbon dioxide and other noxious gases spewing out of Canada, Dion went on being useless, Putin goes on with his agenda, and so on …

And then Tibetan teens and other angry people throw rocks and attack the Han Chinese, and bam! The media explodes all over how Oppressed The People Are.

The problem is that as long as people hear what they want to, they won’t stop. Especially if they’re not too smart and easily led (read: more than half the world’s population, unfortunately.)

What I’m getting worried about is the backlash from self-righteous ‘westerners’ who think they’ve got something to say to every Chinese person, now that they are confirmed in their superiority… this will give every supremacist bigot another reason to pick on Chinese people. (As evidenced by a very loud, very rude and very dim person on the bus this morning. Up yours, jerk.)

My biggest issue is the utmost hypocrisy the media is indulging in - by presenting themselves as the most impartial, unbiased human rights lovers ever, they somehow carefully ignore the other side of the story - and the other side isn’t a small minority, it’s a rather large country with some very vocal and (increasingly) angry people.

Tibetan protesters assert their independence by snatching the Olympic torch - they get kudos. Chinese people who try to protect a paraplegic girl who had the torch in hand? Arrested or labeled as violent oppressing Communists. Go media. I wave my flag at you. (Unfortunately my flag says ‘fuck you’.)

Vatican worried that Muslims are outnumbering Catholics

According to statistics, right now, Muslims make up 19.2% of the worlds population, beating the Catholic 17.4%.

A high ranking church official commented, “While it is known that Muslim families continue to have many children, Christian families are having fewer.” (He also said, “For the first time in history, we are no longer on top.”)

Source: The Guardian Weekly. Vol 178 No 16.

Well. That clears up a few things, don’t you think?

a) That pesky birth control issue, in which the church has always maintained a firm stance.

b) Climate change! Let’s all have babies and use up the world’s limited resources! Because, as we all know, potential Catholics deserve to be consumers just as much as potential Muslims.

c) Lalala, what xenophobia? Next thing you know, they might do population analyses based on nationality, and we all know who would win, right?

d) HIV doesn’t happen to good Catholics. God takes care of that.

Okay, enough of this concern for fellow humans. Take me to someplace where I don’t have to worry about concern. Yay for dramaland.

Love,

Sevenses

About Lær meg å kjenne

So, I did a bit more footling around, because the song that played during the last episode is so beautiful.

The video I watched on youtube (ever the master of information transmission) explains that the song is a traditional Norwegian song about a fisherman who returns home to find it all burnt down and his family killed. Instead of indulging in paralysing grief, he composes this song about his fate.

I think understanding the lyrics really make it that much more relevant to episode 24.

Download link, posted here again, for your edification: MegaUpload.

Lær meg å kjenne

(Traditional)
Arranger: Jørn Dahl
Singer: Sissel

Lær meg å kjenne dine veie
og gå dem trøstig skritt for skritt
Jeg vet at hva jeg fikk i eie,
er borget godt gods, og alt er ditt.
Men vil din sterke hånd meg lede,
jeg aldri feil på målet ser,
og for hvert håp som dør her nede,
får jeg et håp i himlen mer

English translation:
Teach me to know your ways
and to walk them trustingly step by step
I know that what I own,
are borrowed goods, and everything is yours.
But if your strong hand guides me,
I will never see the wrong goal,
and for every hope that dies down here,
I will receive a greater hope in heaven

Credit: http://www.sissel.cc/laermeg.html

It’s also interesting because this song was apparently recorded on the fly - and turned out so well the first time!

In other news, the ficcies are coming along, don’t worry. (Oh, and happy April Fools!)

Love,

Sevenses

Still not over it

I’ve been told that I have been exceedingly mopey these past few days. (Gee, people, could you guess why?)

Remember at the end of 23’s recap, I said, “What will episode 24 bring? I have this vague feeling CH will relent in the end. Either that or everyone dies, and that can’t be possible, so I go for the happy end.”

AHAHAHA. DEAD OF IRONY.

Nonetheless, I have successfully diagnosed myself with the five stages of grief, in regards to Gil Dong and Enok (not to mention the most awesome group of people ever, the HBD!)

They are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Pris was there during my denial phase, ‘Oh no they didn’t!’

You were all there for my giant, capslock-filled anger stage, I think.

I seem to have skipped the bargaining stage altogether in favour for a longer depression period. Not even Korean food with two awesome friends did that much. So… walking towards acceptance as I listen to the soundtrack over and over again.

After that, expect the fanfic. I will not just lie down and let my heart be stomped over, dammit.

(As I type, I’m listening to the fire arrows song and tearing up. Still not over it, I guess.)

Hugs to all of you who are feeling the same.

Love,

Sevenses

P.S. The fire arrows song is called ‘Lar Meg a Kjenne’ - it’s Norwegian, and therefore out of my realm of translatability. But I’m sure if you google the song you’ll find lyrics. Here’s the download link - it’s MU.