Quote of the Day

You mustn’t believe in your own religion; I don’t believe in mine. Religions are like the fences that hold young saplings erect. Without the fence the sapling could fall over. When it takes firm root and becomes a tree, the fence is no longer needed. However, most people never lose their need for the fence."

-- Swami Muktananda

Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey has been making something of a comeback. It seemed that he had fallen back out of the limelight, largely living off his early success. However, after recently making a big splash with a video satirizing the NRA gun-enthusiast types, particularly poking fun at Charlton Heston, he is now coming out with, yes, a children's book. Who would have guessed?

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Jim Carrey is preparing to join the ranks of self-published authors with what he described as a "metaphysical" children's book about a wave.

The actor told HitFix that the book would be called How Roland Rolls. And although a major Hollywood name like Carrey would find it easy to land a mainstream publisher, he said: "I'm going to self-publish, because that's just the world right now and I think it's cool".

Carrey, who has one daughter and recently became a grandfather, said the book would be "beautifully illustrated". He revealed that it would tell the story of "a wave named Roland who's afraid that one day when he hits the beach his life will be over, but when he gets deep he's struck by the notion that he's not just the wave he's the whole big wide ocean".

-- ONTD

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Oh, yeah, he also has a role in the new "Kick-Ass" movie. He's coming out strong. Was he suffering depression or something?

More Censoring of Movies

Here is a news item reporting that our movies are being edited and shaped by the aesthetic dictates of the Chinese government, since the Chinese market has become enormous.

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Thanks to a population over 1.35 billion, the Chinese market is a highly profitable one for movie studios, but its government makes it a tricky one to wrangle. The Chinese government not only has a limit on the number of imported films it allows to screen in the nation each year, it also has very strict rules on what those movies can show. Earlier this year, we reported that about a quarter of Wachowski Starship's Cloud Atlas was cut for its Chinese release. Last week, news came that Iron Man 3 will have an edit exclusive to China to add in Fan Bingbing, the nation's most popular actress. And today we discovered that World War Z is undergoing revisions so it too can play better to the Chinese government.

The Wrap reports that Paramount execs have decided to change a minor plot point so as not to draw the ire of Chinese censors. In one scene, characters discuss where the horrendous world-shattering outbreak that caused a zombie apocalypse originated from, and someone suggests China. This might seem innocuous, but Argo has faced criticism for similarly brief references/possible offenses. So, the execs told World War Z's filmmakers to pick a different country to blame for its fictional end-of-the-world scenario.

As we mentioned, other movies have been tweaked to snag the Chinese market. It started with cutting brief scenes from movies like Skyfall, chopping sex scenes from Cloud Atlas, excising the Chinatown sequences of Men in Black 3, and creating and alternative version of Iron Man 3 with a Chinese-specific star. While unsettling, these changes only impacted the Chinese release of these films. With World War Z, we're seeing a new shift. What's unusual here is that Paramount is pre-empting potential Chinese complaints by changing the picture of their own volition before its even been seen by the censors. This makes a dangerous new precedent for major blockbusters that demand a big global box office to become financially successful.

-- ONTD

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I am actually not especially disturbed by this. It seems to me that our movies have been so heavily compromised by our own cultural mullahs for so long now that it hardly matters if there is an extra tweek or two. It's mostly all sanitized crap now anyway.

Daily Fun

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Monday, April 1, 2013

Another night of bad sleep. Tell me I didn’t see that coming! At least it wasn’t half the fault of Ms. Walker. Damn that Sammy! A little after four in the morning, he begins his damn yowling and just won’t quit.

Pi nods, “I know. I saw you give him a pretty good whack on the back side with your fist.”

It wasn’t that hard. I needed to release some of the stress. I was dreaming of drowning the bastard. To think, all I had to do was stay quiet and Sammy would have died on his own a few months ago. And this is how he repays me!

“And you didn’t take your walk.”

Exactly. I was feeling too beat up for that. And I desperately needed the extra thirty minutes of dozing.

* * * *

Coming out of my nap today, thinking, as usual, about my friendlessness, I had a new thought about my loss of e-friends.

Did I chase the last of them off with my book-blogging? Or is it merely a coincidence that my e-life completely flatlined when I got into book-blogging?

I’m thinking it’s a coincidence, but I’m not sure. I wonder if my book-blogging looks disturbingly retarded: this guy that just copies his books onto his blog? I still fancy that my book-blogging is kind of neat, and that I would be interested if others were doing it, doing a book that I am interested in but cannot get around to reading on my own, or even doing a book I love, to see it bit by bit like this. But maybe that’s just weird of me. I don’t know.

* * * *

The sun is so bright and shiny. I am afraid we’re not going to get any rain at all this week. Again. That’s really, really bad. I better water those trees tomorrow, on our one water day.

* * * *

You know you are getting jaded when you find yourself getting excited over a picture of a hot, young girl but then feel oddly disappointed when you see the label on the picture informing you that it is “ young legal porn”.

* * * *

It’s almost warm enough for the air-conditioner. I wonder if one of the advantages of having Walker here is that Pop will be the one pressing to put the a-c on. That would be nice.

* * * *

I am looking for an online word-processor. Google has been disappointing me with its “Drive” program. Whenever I double-space, such as for a new paragraph, the program chooses to triple-space. It’s a hassle to straighten it out on my blog posts, having to eliminate all the extra lines.

I remember when I was blogging on Blurty a couple of years ago and a friends suggested such a website. I just now went looking for it. I could not find it, but I was pleased to go through those blogging days on Blurty. It looked fun. Simple. It became a bit more involved than what my “Daily Notes” of today are, as I allowed myself an appreciable liberty with pictures, including pornish pictures. But I can see myself going back to that again, if not necessarily on Blurty.

If I ever become thoroughly and irremediably disenchanted with my book-blogging and news harvesting, I can see myself going back to the early mindset of my first months of blogging on Blurty. A kind of expanded Daily Notes, a Daily Notes plus a little fun, something light and easy, a free-going conversation with myself. Yeah, I am really kind of feeling the temptation of that. One way to see the appeal of the idea is to think of it as the one-blog system. It would be as if I only got on the Internet and joined the blogosphere today, and I would never think of having multiple blogs. Just one blog, for me to freely blurt on.

Before I leave the issue of my troubles with Google behind, it is worth summarizing the problems. The first big one: Google only lets me have censored e-searches. Then, they are now closing out their RSS-Reader program. And now the word-processor is fucked. It is as though Google has become another MicroSuck.

* * * *

Pi says, “You know, Monk, considering how much time your dad and his girlfriend spend in his room, it looks like a major concession to you, like they are leaving you the run of the house.”

They are a little gentle now. But how long do you expect that to last? How long do you think it will be before she wants to watch the morning soap operas or the talk shows in the big room on the big-screen TV? And watch yet more brainless TV in the afternoons? How long, do you think?

“But you are letting your paranoia run a little free, aren’t you?”

Maybe. I certainly hope so. But would you really bet the family farm on it?

* * * *

Ms. Walker says to Pop, “I left the fan on in the bedroom so it will be cool.”

A real smart one, isn’t she? A good match for Pop. They can go to Mensa meetings together.

Pi says, “Yeah, but she is obviously a pretty nice old lady. You, sir, are indeed a bit smart. Personally, I think I prefer ‘nice’.”

I just want to be able to get a good night’s sleep sometimes. Am I really the bad guy?

“I wouldn’t say ‘bad’, buuuut... I think you may be a little iffy.”

* * * *

They are forecasting storms for five in the morning.

Daimon says, “I don’t suppose you will be keeping the cats inside tonight.”

Heh, after last night? Hell no! I’ll take my chances this time.

“I’d be willing to bet money: you lose this time.”

Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised. I’d bet on some significant rainfall myself. But I am still going to take my chances. And, in any case, it is too late to get the cats inside anyway. They are well-fed with the plate outside. We’ll just have to see what awaits us on the other side of this night.