Inglourious Basterds

I give this movie two thumbs down. For those of you that follow me on Twitter, you probably saw my opinions of this movie at about 1 am CT this morning when it finally ended and I tried not to rip my eyes out and/or find Quinten Tarantino and punch him in the face. For those of you that don't know the plot, it's basically about a group of Jewish-American soldiers in Nazi-occupied France during WWII. They're sent over to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by brutally killing (and by their own accord, scalping) Nazis. There's also a story that eventually intertwines with theirs about a Jewish woman who escaped being massacred with her family and ends up owning a cinema that is forced to host a Nazi movie premiere (oh, sweet irony). It sounds like a decent enough plot, but having seen it, I'm finding myself asking (not for the first time) why Tarantino's so revered as a great movie-maker.

• It's not funny. At all. One of the "funnier" characters, Col. Hans Landa (played by Christoph Waltz), is simply annoying. He doesn't make any sense as a character, one moment appearing slightly homosexual, the next a womanizer, the next a ruthless murder, the next a nice man that loves good French cuisine, and the next a babbling idiot. There's no continuity to his character and his lines that are supposed to be funny simply aren't.
  
• Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) really grated on me the most, I think. He's supposed to be this American Hero from Tennessee, killing Nazis (or as he'd say nat-si's) and disturbing the order of the Third Reich. However, he comes across as a dumbass who's only interest in life is senseless killing. I understand that death is a necessary by-product of war, blah blah blah, but that doesn't mean that soldiers are bloodthirsty. Pitt's character certainly is violent and bloodthirsty, though, and it's to a point of being slightly disgusting. I mean, I can handle blood (I wanted to be a surgeon for a while) but parts of this movie that made me gag. On top of that, I was actually kind of insulted at the portrayal of American military men as all being bloodthirsty, not very intelligent, cruel, and so ethnocentric that they refuse to learn another language. His treatment of Diane Kruger's character was also less than wonderful, bordering on torturing her for something she couldn't have controlled. The only redeeming quality of this character had nothing to do with the movie -- instead, it proved once again that Brad Pitt is a great actor. If I didn't hope for better, I would be tempted to think that this movie was made entirely to show off Pitt's acting skills, and not to actually be worthwhile entertainment.
  
• Also, I'm slightly disappointed in Diane Kruger's role in this movie. She seemed an utterly pointless character, serving only as a pretty face to differentiate from the endless supply of annoying men and a big name to draw more viewers in the US. If they wanted her for that that, they could have had her play Melanie Laurent's part (though Laurent is pretty enough to play Kruger's) and had her kill two (or three) birds with one stone -- being pretty, drawing viewers, and actually moving the plot along.
• That reminds me -- this movie is painfully long. Length wouldn't be bad if it were like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which has an endless supply of explosions and running to keep you entertained for the 150 minutes it's playing. Inglourious Basterds though, even at a mere three minutes longer, felt hours longer because it's mostly people sitting around chatting. There's a lot of planning in this movie, which while it would have happened in real life (if this movie were remotely true to history), is incredibly boring to watch.

All this is to say -- please don't waste your money seeing it. Because I'm a student, I luckily only wasted $4, but I still wish I hadn't;I could have spent that $4 on a grande iced white chocolate mocha with soy from starbucks and read a good book for three hours (Freakonomics, Atlas Shrugged, This Child Will Be Great...), which would have been an infinitely better way to spend my time.

Why I Love TAMU

Today was the kind of day I needed here at the wonderful Texas A&M, especially now that all the sophomores-graduate students of TAMU are posting annoyed Facebook statuses about all the traffic now that the freshman have arrived and have no idea where they're going. (Really, it's awful. They should take the bus until they figure out where everything is.) Today made me laugh, which I definitely needed to remind me of how much I love A&M.

Classes start in one week, meaning this week is Howdy Week, aka the week of FREE STUFF here at Texas A&M. But instead of reveling in FREE STUFF, today my wonderful room mate and I decided to go hunt down the buildings our classes would be in because there were a building or two we'd never been to/heard of. If you know anything about TAMU, you probably know that former-President George Bush Sr.'s Presidential Library/Museum is housed here. One of my classes happens to be near it (which is unfortunate, because it's very far from main campus), over in the business school. Confused as to where this building was because it apparently has two names, we walked into a random building, hoping someone in there would be able to help us out.

Have I mentioned by the way that it's 100+ degrees out, we're dressed in oversized sunglasses, workout shorts, and t-shirts and I even have a tiny little stain on mine from some coffee I'd spilled earlier? No? Well, keep that in mind.

Again, we walk into this random building. It's surprisingly crowded. I glance down the hall to my left, and there are at least 30 students dressed very nicely holding folders and looking at Ayla and I rather curiously. Then, an even more nicely dressed (think very nice business suit) man looks at us and says "Howdy, are you here to register for the business convention?"

Ayla and I pause. I consider what I'm wearing versus what everyone else is wearing.

To be perfectly honest, I was tempted to say yes in a very serious voice. That moment passed and I was VERY tempted to say, "Really, dressed like this? Really? REALLY?"

Instead, our crafty response was: "If we are, do we get anything free?"

I think we said the right thing.

(If you're curious -- yes, the guy laughed. Yes, we found the building we were looking for. And yes, the picture is from a statue near the Presidential Library, and yes that is part of the Berlin Wall at the feet of the horses.)

Quotes and the like

(Yes, that photo IS mine. Ask permission before using.)

I found the quote in that picture in Travis' tumblr and liked it so much I decided to Picnik it (yeah, I used that as a verb, like Google; let it happen). I've realized how all-encompassing loss is recently now that I feel like I've really lost my hometown. I feel that that part of my life is over now, you know? That chapter is closed and done, and while I'll never be done wanting to go back and visit, I'd be okay never living there again. It makes me kind of sad though, it feels like I lost my childhood and all the illusions that come with it.

That's about all I've got to say today, but here are a few quotes I'd like to share (I'm kind of a quote-fanatic).

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring." -- Marilyn Monroe

"I cannot believe the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. I think it is above all to count, to stand for something. To have it make some difference that you lived at all." -- Leo Rosten (I've quoted this one before.)

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." -- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Life is beauty, admire it. Life is bliss, taste it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it."
-Mother Teresa

"The supreme happiness of life is that conviction that we are loved for ourselves -- say, rather, loved in spite of ourselves." -- Victor Hugo

"Well-behaved women rarely make history." -- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Changes

Yesterday, my best guy-friend "Techie" (as I'll call him on here) got me thinking about how much I've changed in the past year. He's blogging on this subject today too as he drives back to college in Lubbock, and I thought I might reflect and write on it too as I get ready to start my second year at TAMU. After all, they (who the heck is "they"?) say that you change the most your first year of college. I mean, you're off on your own for the first time, all that jazz. I can see it in all my friends and it's only through major blessings that most of us have grown up in a way that we can all still be friends and not have major conflicts despite how much we've changed. But, I digress.

The truth of the matter is that I know I've changed. I know that I've changed a lot, probably the most of anyone in my group of friends. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm almost an entirely different person, except maybe my sense of humor. But because I can see that very broad view, I can't see the details of exactly how I changed. So I enlisted (yes, enlisted) a few friends to help me out with this examination of my former vs present self.

My best girl-friend Cyndi would like to tell you that I'm more organized now. I'll tell you that I've always been very organized, just in a very unconventional way. My bedroom was what I've always called "an organized mess" and it was true. Sure, I might occasionally discover furniture I didn't know I had (I have a specific memory of a time that I was forced to clean and found that a chair in my room that I didn't know was there), but I knew what was in each pile and could easily find anything I needed (well, except chairs, apparently).

Techie says that I'm more headstrong now after a year away at school. He says this is a compliment, and I entirely believe him, but let's dissect that. According to Google, headstrong means, among other things:

• habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition (that doesn't sound too complimentary...)
• stubbornness (better.)
  
• Determined to do as one pleases, and not as others want (best.)

Okay, I can see that. I've always been fairly independent (my mother would be more than happy to confirm that -- and give you too many stories for my comfort to explain her point) but I definitely shed some people and some twisted idea that I had to let others make decisions for me. Granted, I still find myself tweeting "Hey, twitterverse: what should I have for lunch?" But, I suppose that's not quite the same as "Hey, random people I go to HS with that barely know me: should I go to college?" (No, that never actually happened. But it's an example.) I make decisions more, and sometimes I actually have a rationale behind them. Even further, I insist on them if I think they're right. For instance, I'm going to China in a few years. Everyone I've told this to has been like "Why China?" Because I have to, that's why. Simple as that. I know it's dangerous, but I'm going. So, yeah, headstrong sounds about right. [The photo is of Techie and I before leaving for freshman year last summer. My hair is so short because I donated it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. Again, I digress...]

Josh has been one of my closest friends for the longest period of time -- since seventh or eighth grade (wow, does he probably have a wealth of memories of embarassing things I've done for TAT). So, while he could probably tell me longer than just a year, he instead gave me a very long description of the past year, which I couldn't possibly paraphrase, so I'll just quote it here: "It is very clear that Christ is prevalent in you life. I knew He was a year ago, but its a big difference in a very good way. I don't know how to explain it, but you seem to just communicate love in how you carry yourself, how you converse, your countenance... a year of college and Christ has changed your perspective of people, and also yourself." He's entirely right -- God has been a big part of the growing up I've done in the past year. I see myself in a different light now, that's for sure -- I'm a small part of a bigger picture. As Shakespeare wrote in As You Like It, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts..." I have my part to play, and I know that it is to attempt to love unconditionally and it's part of why I'm going to China. Sure I'm scared, and this was never part of my dream for my life (ask anyone -- a year ago I abhorred the idea of China; it was the one country I never wanted to visit) but hey, I don't get to pick anymore. Jeremiah 29:11 says "'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" I try to remember that verse everyday, and apparently people (or Josh, as it were) noticed.

I think this entry ended up being a lot longer than I intended. But that's okay, I suppose. Maybe one of the other changed from the past year is that I'm much more verbose than I used to be. Oh, who am I kidding, I've always had a penchant for talking too much.

How did you guys change your first year of college (or your first year on your own)? If you're not there yet, how did you change in the past year?

Joseph Kony

I realized recently most of my entries in this blog have been falling more into the "Life" and "Happiness" categories than "Liberty," which is bad because when I started this I intended it to be a balance between the three, since liberty and freedom (or the lack thereof) around the world is really important to me. So that being said, here's a long over due post on a man named Joseph Kony and the horrific things he's putting the youth of Uganda through.

When you Google "Joseph Kony," a lot comes up. Wikipedia comes up first of course, informing you that he was born in Uganda circa 1962-5, and is head of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). At first glance, this seems okay. I mean, take the name "Lord's Resistance Army." Okay, that doesn't sound too bad; kind of sounds reminiscint of the Crusades or something, right? Like he's trying to be some ultra-good Chrisitan guy spreading the Word right?

Yeah, not so much. The LRA is a guerilla group that is responsible for one of African's longest running conflicts; it began it's violent rebellion in Uganda back in 1987. Since then, the LRA has commited horrific crimes against humanity (International Criminal Court's phrasing, not mine, though it's valid) including violent attacks on the people of Northern Uganda and abducting some 30,000 children and forcing them to fight in his army. It's been reported that he tells these children that he abducts that if the draw crosses on their chests made of oil, they will be protected from bullets when they fight. The kids are forced to abduct, rape, and kill anyone and everyone, sometimes their own friends and families. Despite the fact that Kony allegedly stopped attending church at the age of 15, he does think he's doing the good Christian thing -- in letters regarding peace talks, he mentions that he needs to consult the Holy Spirit before making decisions. The LRA also claims to be guided by the Ten Commandments and Scripture and during peace talks, Kony would be preceeded into the room by men in robes sprinkling holy water. “Yes, we are fighting for Ten Commandments,” “Is it bad? It is not against human rights. And that commandment was not given by Joseph. It was not given by LRA. No, that commandment was given by God.”

I'm not even going to try to conceal my disgust at that comment -- that doesn't sound like the God I know. I don't think there's a mainstream religion that has God saying "hey, go massacre hundreds, kidnap kids, abuse them, then force them to do the same thing to other kids, potentially kids they know." As for fighting for the Ten Commandments? I'm pretty sure (though, please, correct me if I'm wrong) the Ten Commandments don't command people to form armies and rape/massacre thousands. In fact, I'm pretty sure they say something along these lines:

• Exodus 20:13: You shall not murder. Hmm, justify that one for me, Kony.
• Exodus 20:15: You shall not steal. I'm pretty sure other people's children fall into that category.
  

In October of 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced arrest warrants for five members of the LRA -- Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti, and three generals of the army. Kony's indictment included three 33 charges: "12 counts are crimes against humanity, which include murder, enslavement, sexual enslavement and rape. There are another 21 counts of war crimes which include murder, cruel treatment of civilians, intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population, pillaging, inducing rape, and forced enlisting of children into the rebel ranks." ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Ocampo was quoted saying that "Kony was abducting girls to offer them as rewards to his commanders." The US declared Kony a terrorist after 9/11/01, and in 2008 put him on a list of "specially designated global terrorists," which carries some financial penalties. December 24, '08: The UN reported that members of the LRA massacred 189 people and abducted 20 children from a celebration sponsored by a Catholic Church (ironic much?).

So far, he's eluded arrest. But now, a group called The Rescue, part of Invisible Children, is lobbying to get Kony arrested and the thousands of children he has enslaved freed. If you have a Twitter, and have for more than six months, you probably remember the trending topic, #therescue. That's the group I'm talking about -- they did a symbolic "rescue" of cities across the US in April then lobbied in D.C. back in June and were noticed. I'm honestly not sure what they're doing now, if anything, since D.C. was titled "How It Ends" but the fight definitely isn't over -- Kony is still out there, still abducting and killing children. For more on it, go watch the video that started The Rescue and see the kids for yourself.