Some Fruits of Solitude By William Penn (1682) Part 24 279-308 (Passion and Personal Cautions)

Some Fruits of Solitude By William Penn (1682) Part 24 279-308 (Passion and Personal Cautions)

Bonus: 

These dudes looks like they're having a great time rocking out.

Summary: Don't be too hot blooded.

Commentary: 

300. Haste makes Work which Caution prevents.

"Haste makes waste" is less work to say. 

Was going to also do "Ballance" today, but liked it enough to give it its own.

Pacing Notes

About a year ago, I said I was going to do the "boulders, pebbles, and sand" approach to divvy up the reading. Having used it for a while, I don't think it's working. With a long work (like Don Quixote) it can take too long to blog nicely every day. I did The Odyssey in chunks, and that works a lot better. On the opposite end, the tiny little snippets ones are also awkward to get through. To that end, I think I'm going to adjust things again. I'll try to keep one "boulder" and one "sand" in the rotation at all times. I'll do the boulder updates occasionally, like once a week. Likewise, the sand really slows everything else down, so I'll try to do it more as a "filler" in a blog than its own thing. Besides that, it's just on to the pebbles.

I haven't slept in over 24 hours.

"The Saga Begins" by Weird Al Yankovic (1999)

 

The bonus is the piece.

Summary: Oh my, my this here Anakin guy
Maybe Vader someday later, now he's just a small fry
He left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin', "Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi

Commentary: Went to a Weird Al concert this week. Obviously, "The Saga Begins" is a classic.

Al apparently got about 90% of the movie right just from internet rumors.

He has Stormtroopers on stage when he does it live, and they're all from the local 501st Chapter, which would probably be about the coolest thing you could do.

I like to think that Obi-Wan (especially sassy Clone Wars era Obi-Wan) would like Weird Al.

Don Quixote Part 2

More plot!
Less slapstick!
More Sancho!
NO LONGER SORROWFUL FACE!

I think I liked part one better.  

Closing out Don Quixote Book 1

I'm just going to close this out. Chapter by chapter is too slow for the style of commentary I do on this blog, and my reading pacing was a mess on this. I was enjoying it, but I wound up rushing it to finish a reading challenge, and got kind of skimmy. Now I've been done most of it for over a month, so I'm trying to blog it from rushed notes. So, DQ Book 1:

1. Is super episodic. More so than some actual serial novels. They just do random stuff for a chapter and it may or may not have any baring on what comes next.

2. Is a Tom and Jerry cartoon. It's just weird slapstick of them getting beat up (usually by goat herds) for like half the book.

3. The only parts anyone every remembers are in the first 50 pages. I dunno, everyone just loses interest after the windmills, I guess.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Doesn't feel fair to give it a numerical rating. Part 2 tomorrow!

"The Four Freedoms" by FDR (1941)

State of the Union: 1941

Bonus: 

What about freedom from autoplaying mid video ads? (I dunno, I'm on Firefox)

Summary: 1. Speech 2. Worship 3. (From) Want 4. (From) Fear

Commentary: 

 it is nevertheless clear that neither France nor Great Britain nor any other nation was aiming at domination of the whole world.

An actual British publication cover circa 1900

I never realized this was part of a State of The Union speech. I also thought it was later than 1940. I knew it was Roosevelt, but for some reason I thought it was from the '60s. I guess I could see Kennedy giving it. The Freedoms only show up for a few hundred words at the very end. Mostly, it's a speech asking Congress to support gearing up for WWII, lend/lease, etc. I don't think they were the main point at all, just the part people would eventually cling to.

 

I guess I should review The Odyssey movie

 Let me start by saying that I think Christopher Nolan is the most overrated director/writer/producer in movies today. Not the worst, just... kind of okay, but treated amazing. 

I will follow that up by saying that it was not even remotely accurate. Like, "loosely based on" would be appropriate. Also, Nolan really wanted us to know he read the Wikipedia pages for The Sea Peoples, Xenia, and Late Bronze Age collapse (we gotta talk about your title case rules, Wikipedia). Seriously, it's like the Netflix thing where you have to repeat yourself 6 times so the people folding laundry in the other room know what's happening. This post would be 100 pages long if I went over all the changes, so let's just go with, "WTF YOU CUT OUT THE NO BODY JOKE!?" and leave it at that.

Several The Odysseys worth of bytes have already been written about the casting. Lupita Nyong'o did fine. Double casting her as non-identical twins was questionable, but she acted well. Black lady as Hellen of Troy not an issue when your cast is multi-racial as a whole. Elliot Page, also non-problematic. Matt Damon ughhhhh. Does not have the gravitas to pull off Odysseus. Tom Holland literally just plays himself. Anne Hathaway, good job. Zendaya worked as this version of Athena, who was not particularly similar to the original, but fine in this version. Robert Pattinson was not having a good day. Usually a fan, but he was just vaguely off here.

For all that, I respect the actual, physical film making that went into it. Practical effects, minimal CGI, dozens of people running around doing stunts, all that stuff. I would rather go see a mediocre "real" movie than whatever green-screen fest Disney is planning to subject us to next. I dunno, soft recommend? Most people aren't as picky as me.