Caraccioli

Oh, yes. I used to watch TMC. I used to love when they did all the Oscar-winning movies during the month before the Oscars. For the most part, I never listen to/watch news. (Not having TV reception helps. Like Duchess and Patrick, I only watch DVDs on my TV. Unlike Duchess, I steer clear of video games. It's that getting hooked thing I was talking about before.) I do read selected parts of the editorial pages of Investor's Business Daily, but they're so slanted that it's more like entertainment than it is news...

(Note: Mission = Caraccioli) I am the worst possible judge for TV shows in that I don't even have TV reception. I concur with most of your statements above. When I did have it, I mostly watched Cartoon Network, AMC and random stuff on The History Channel so that doesn't help much. I mostly watch old shows based on the recommendations of Netflix, Duchess and my sister Kristine. Good shows...well, I really liked the first season of The Pretender as mentioned. Um...Power Puff Girls is fun. Kim Possible has some merit. Er, um...Cowboy Bebop had a good story arc. Samurai Seven was particularly good, even if it was just a Anime reworking of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. (Hard to go wrong with that story.) Do you see a theme here? Wonderfalls was magnificent. Ah...other than that, I've been watching Hogan's Heroes. That's a little older than 2000, though. I haven't watched 24 because I'm afraid I'll get hooked. [Edit] Perceiver is an MBTI term. (A personality test.) Perceivers like things open-ended. Judgers (which I'm) like things finished and complete. Both traits have merit.

Oh, I know this one...Shakespeare In Love! Based on this post (and having heard about this film about a hundred times in the past on the 'net), I decided to watch this film. It's quite good! I thought everyone was really good, but Gwyneth Paltrow was particularly so. (And I kept looking at Ben Affleck and thinking, "That's Ben Affleck! No, it isn't! Yes, it is! No, it isn't...") Well worth the time spent watching it. Now I want to see George Lucas in Love. Blackjohn, your quote (which is fine with me...if we go too long without a quote this thread dies) is either from a multi-layered somewhat philosophical film like Ran or some half-layered, completely negligible film like Starsky and Hutch. ("Hey, this'd be a great line for Huggy Bear!")

If I recall it correctly (it's been quite awhile), she asked him if he could see what color underwear she had on. So Supe is not entirely at fault.

Renault is such a great character for a slimeball. Rick is good too. (What a great movie. I first saw it about two years ago and instantly became one of my five favorite films.) That reminds me of another great Bogie quote... "All we've got is that maybe you love me and maybe I love you." "You know whether you love me or not." "Maybe I do. I'll have some rotten nights after I've sent you over, but that'll pass." (The Maltese Falcon)

Ok, disc 2 is better. I sorta' liked the episode where they went to the big ball and got into the whole duel situation. It was somewhat refreshing to see a female character who dressed in what she thought was beautiful, but actually failed to dress "properly" for a dance, yet managed to avoid suffering through a whole episode of self-doubt as a result. She just bounced along and talked shop with a bunch of guys. Tres cool. Also the lines, "You didn't have to wound that man." "Yeah, I know. It was just funny." (One thing Whedon does well is humor. Sometimes I get the notion that the humor isn't appropriate to the character, but it's usually funny all the same. (This time it was appropriate, though.) I really liked the episode where the girl claims to be Mal's wife. At last a character that I like: Mal. He didn't appeal to me very much until this episode. Now he has more character and (oddly enough) integrity. (The women are still iffy. The mechanic seems too cartoony and that dropping g's things sounds too artificial. The cool chick is still about as interesting and dimensional as cardboard. The hooker seems to be far too serious. Of course, River is still pretty interesting.)

4510 songs and counting. I'd guess 50-60% of which are movie scores and another 20% or so are self-help and instructional books on tape. The rest are a mutt mixture of pop, new country, jazz and whatnot. In lieu of listing 4.5K tracks, here's my officious iPod Top 25 list: 1. Jack Sparrow by Hans Zimmer from Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Soundtrack) 2. Bike Chase by David Arnold from Tomorrow Never Dies [Expanded] (Soundtrack) 3. Hamburg Break Out by David Arnold from Tomorrow Never Dies [Expanded] (Soundtrack) 4. Jarod Mouse by Velton Ray Bunch from The Pretender (Soundtrack) 5. Bad Dog No Biscuits by 菅野よう子 from COWBOY BEBOP O.S.T. 1 (Soundtrack) 6. White Knight by David Arnold from Tomorrow Never Dies [Expanded] (Soundtrack) 7. Get Em Goin' by Euge Groove from Just Feels Right (Jazz) 8. Camp Chippewa Edit by Marc Shaiman from Addams Family Values (Soundtrack) 9. Upstairs/Downstairs by George S. Clinton from The Big Bounce (Soundtrack) 10. Finale and End Credits by John Williams from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom [import] (Soundtrack) 11. Antonov by David Arnold from Die Another Day (Soundtrack) 12. Two Hornpipes (Tortuga) not really by Hans Zimmer from Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Soundtrack) 13. Rush by 菅野よう子 from COWBOY BEBOP O.S.T. 1 (Soundtrack) 14. Keiki Vista by George S. Clinton from The Big Bounce (Soundtrack) 15. Big Bounce Main Title by George S. Clinton from The Big Bounce (Soundtrack) 16. African Rundown by David Arnold from Casino Royale [2006] (Soundtrack) 17. Hovercraft Chase by David Arnold from Die Another Day (Soundtrack) 18. Old Devil Moon by Frank Sinatra from The Very Best of Frank Sinatra (Vocal) 19. The Tango by Marc Shaiman from Addams Family Values (Soundtrack) 20. Take It Easy by Travis Tritt from Rockin' Side (Country) 21. Space Lion by 菅野よう子 from COWBOY BEBOP O.S.T. 1 (Soundtrack) 22. Better Not by George S. Clinton from The Big Bounce (Soundtrack) 23. Dr. Evil by They Might Be Giants from The Spy Who Shagged Me (Soundtrack) 24. Southern Cross by Jimmy Buffet from Buffett Live (Rock) 25. Luck Be a Lady by Frank Sinatra from The Very Best of Frank Sinatra (Vocal) This list is very much weighted to what I've been listening to for the last 8-10 months, however. The crappy iPod software crashed on me last spring and I had to re-load it.

Ok, this leads me to one of the things I've wondered about on occasion. How, exactly, could Superman see the color of Lois' underwear in the movie Superman? He might have been able to measure the dimensions of her pelvic bones, but unless "X-ray" means something different on Krypton... Even that new "backscatter imaging" X-ray machine that airports are playing with only reveals shadowy images. I suppose they could recolor the image, but that's still not able to accurately show you the color of Lois' underwear. Am I thinking too hard again?

I spend a lot of energy,unfortunately,on this. Further unfortune is actually eventually finding out. This superpower,I fear,would drive its possessor starkers. Wasn't it in one of the Hitchhiker's books where a whole planet had been given the ability to read each other's minds so they had to resort to talking loudly all the time about nothing to thwart this ability? (Otherwise they would go insane as flintlock jack suggested.)

Well, I've only about 10 minutes to answer this and I could use 30 (or 3 hours or a month...) Interesting thought 1: Some psychologists have discovered that not only do our faces reflect our emotions, but it also works backwards. To wit, our emotions can reflect our faces. In other words, if you smile, you feel better. They've done several studies on this. Ergo, if you want a trait Interesting thought 2: If you want a trait that you do not have (or, more appropriately, do not perceive yourself to have), it works similarly. I don't know of any studies on this (point of fact: I haven't researched it) but I have seen it. If you are a coward who wants to be brave, you must first believe yourself to be brave. Is it lying to yourself? I don't know. Our brains are very complex tools. Tools!. You cannot work effectively with a tool unless you're willing to experiment with it. Interesting thought 3: If an action fires off positive neurons in your brain that enable you to do what you could not do before and the action is positive, does it matter what it took to do that? (I don't know. It's just an interesting thought. I have done it to good effect, myself.) Interesting thought 4: There is a big difference between fooling yourself that you're doing and doing. Interesting thought 5: Arrogance is a negative trait, not a postitive one. But what is the definition of arrogance? An on-line dictionary says this: "overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward inferiors." This seems entirely different than gaining confidence in yourself by standing up and speaking. (BTW, the intelligence comment was not meant to imply that you become more intelligent by standing up & speaking. It was more of an encouragement to people to take up public speaking.) Interesting thought 6: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness which scares us. We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous. But honestly, who are you to not be so?" - Marianne Williamson Sorry that's so long. If I had more time, it would be much shorter.

I would just like to note that this is one of my favorite avatars to date. Every time I see it on one of my posts I grin like an idiot. (Well, not every time, but a time here and a time there - it's sort of a random occurrence, really.) That's it. Move along, there's nothing to see here. Caraccioli, El Presidente & First Tiger of G.R.O.S.S (Of which Calvin will never again be a member )

Apropos of nearly nothing, some of the above reminds me of a favored quote... "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." –Theodore Roosevelt

That makes it your turn to offer us a quote to guess.

Magellan is pretty calm around Verbinski-esque ship explosions. Good cat. Good pirate. I want a monkey. ("Haven't you always wanted a mon-KEY?")

Thanks! Actually, that's only a small slice of it. I don't link back to the main site from the speaking part of the site for various reasons. I have always thought the Toastmasters philosophy on public speaking (which is similar to the Dale Carnegie philosophy) was very good. When you learn to speak effectively in public, you build your self-confidence and often begin to improve yourself in other ways as well. (And now we've come full circle - one way to help reduce insecurity is to learn to speak publicly. For whatever reason, most people who are willing to get up and speak in front a group and can do so effectively are assumed to be more intelligent (whether rightly or wrongly is another debate).)

I work with urban/poverty kids and I can see what you were saying with insecurities and how people deal with them... I would be interested in knowing how to obtain your success concepts newsletter... these are good kids, just coming from dysfunctional backgrounds (most of them a good hug and consistent/fair discipline when needed, turns them around almost overnight) their upbringing has really, really done some serious damage to their self worth. If you can please pm or email with the info... every bit helps... thanks. Thanks for the interest! I have friends who work with inner city groups. I think that people like you who express an interest helps to build their self-esteem as much as anything. If you want to be added to my newsletter list, feel free to shoot me a pm with your email addy in it. I'll send you last month's (which was a bit more technical than normal - it was about public speaking. I get requests for all kinds of topics, so I vary them a bit.) I also catalogue my articles every so often on-line at my website. You can view many of the past articles here. There's even one about piracy if you look hard enough.

Perhaps it should be, "On, period woman!" Hmm. Nah. "On" "Period" "Woman" (On.Woman?) No. Oh, never mind. Semantics.

Wow! Are they still around? I can remember playing them back in the late 70s or early 80s. AD&D was always my favored game. (Say, where did that RPG thread go? I wonder if it's still around?)

I tried to read that, a number of years ago, but it defeated me. Maybe one of these days I'll make it all the way to the end. When I first started reading the Preface to the 20th Edition, my eyes started rolling into the back of my head. I remember thinking, "Oh, no. I hope this whole book isn't full of text in the same style as this pretentious eyewash." But then he changed tone in the middle of his preface and adopted a decent story style. He does go on and on (and on and on and on) about his misery of having used the male pronoun in generic sentences, though. Hey, mister...It's your book, if you really feel that badly about it, change it for the 20th edition! Don't try to allay your perceived guilt by diffusing it among new readers and then explain how it shouldn't be changed! Just do it and be satisfied or don't and keep mum. Fortunately, once the book started proper I found I quite liked it. The points are so well ensconced in the text that I keep missing their importance, however. (I always take notes on factually-oriented books. I have scads of notebooks full of notes.) The text just flows along and I float with it, forgetting to look for important points. I think I am now slightly more aware of the reason I like certain kinds of complex instrumental music. (I never really knew what a canon was before I started reading this.) Any book that can help me explain myself to myself is of interest (to me. )

You have squirrel pirates! You should be proud. "Aye, lads. We'll take tha' garden amidships and fight to the last man if'n it be the last act we commit. Arrr." (Did I just write in movie pirate?)

I completely, totally agree with this. In fact, it's why I'm a libertarian (small "l"). I feel people should always take as much responsibility for themselves and their actions as they are able. (And most people are quite able.) For the minority who aren't able and require assistance, the remaining majority are all quite capable of supplying that without an extra middleman. (Even they need to be given responsibility as Black Pearl so eloquently pointed out a few weeks ago in the story about the boys and the baseball game. BTW, thinking on that, it's probably a Master's view while the boys who were helping the boy to win were adopting a Statesman's view.)

Finished both Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists and The Thin Man this weekend. I started Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter. This is a huge freaking book, so I think that'll be all until I get bored with it and have to start a 3rd book again.

You enter the realm of what motivates people to do one thing yet say another. I'm sure we've all done this at one time or another. Look inside yourself, see if you've ever done that, then ask yourself what your motive was. It might be similar to what motivates this person... or not. And just because someone preaches something yet does another thing, if they thing preached is valid, it is valid no matter what the motivation of the preacher. And... hell, everyone is human. Everyone makes mistakes. For whatever reason, we seem to be built with an dash of incongruency. It's baked in and disguised so well that we often don't even realize when we're being incongruent. Our mind is structured so that we either don't recognize it, or, if we do, we create elaborate reasons to explain why two clearly incompatible ideas that we hold actually make sense. On a (somewhat) related note, I was recently talking to someone about the problems related to insecurity. As I see it, much misbehavior and animosity seems to stem from a personal feeling of lack of self-worth. It takes many forms. Some people seem to feel the need to brag and grandstand, others to berate other people (to elevate their self worth in comparison), others to do things to excess to prove their self-worth (work, make money, achieve and every other "positive" addictive behavior you can name), others to find ways to hide from themselves (drinking, smoking, drugs, lying and every other negative addictive behavior you can name), others to involve themselves in other people's business ("THEY need fixing..."), others to falsely accuse people of things, still others to engage in classification and delineation or the creation of "-isms" (in whatever form this takes: racism, homophobia, sexism, etc.) and so forth. So how do we solve a self-inflicted, intensely person problem like this? (I don't have an answer. It's one reason I like to write a monthly newsletter on success concepts and try to teach people how much potential they have through trainings. Not that I don't have my own share of insecurities, mind...)

Actually, that reminds me of the Frangipani-scented soap (made by Key West Aloe) they always had at in my favorite place to stay in Key West. Alas, the sold the place out and turned it into condos. I understand the urge, but I sort of miss the place... (I didn't actually use the soap because it was perfumed, but I'd unwrap it anyhow - mainly for the scent. It was a vacation smell...)

Can you say, "Global Warming"?