Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

We are leaving for the cottage now, back on Dec 26th.  I HOPE we will have internet access there and I will be able to blog every day, but if not, hope everybody has a fantastic Christmas and I’ll write again when we get back…………………………Willie

Well, it’s been 10 days now since I got cut off from commenting on the Huffington Post, which essentially means I seldom look at the Huffington Post, because screw them, but I still have a mixture of feelings about it.

On the one hand, I figured I would just follow news links from my facebook page more and if anything was important, somebody would share it there.  That hasn’t really worked out.  My friends are an eclectic bunch, but maybe too eclectic.  After browsing through the photos of cats, and food, and DIY projects, and the jokes, and the never ending inspirational postcards, and the people promoting their books, and their events, or other people’s books and events, there’s not as much  discussion of the news as I’d thought.

On the other hand, the few times I’ve clicked  back over there, either after following a link or  just to see what was going  on, which makes me feel kind  of pathetic, like staring through an ex-girlfriend’s window, I’ve realized how much  is NOT going on over there.  That is, it too has become more about entertainment than about news, an internet tabloid.

The headline I saw today was “Can Human Civilization Last Forever?”  I didn’t even read the  article.  It’s late and I want to finish this blog so I am just going to make fun of the headline.  First, whenever the headline is a question, that means they don’t have the answer.  Or, they’re trying to be cute.  But, in this case, they don’t have the answer because how could anybody have the answer to that.  We can’t predict 10 years down the road with any degree of accuracy, much  less forever.

Second, there is that word “forever.”  No one will ever be able to  say they’ve  lived forever, even if we invent a live forever pill.  They will just be able to say “I am 3.2 billion years old,” because you never know, the next day they may get hit by an asteroid or choke on a tooth pick.  Nothing is forever, because it will never be forever.

Then, the most questionable of all questionable phrases in that very short sentence: Human Civilization.  I suspect 100 years from now people will have so many cyber implants that they will seem almost  non-human to us.  100 years from then we will have total mind-net interaction and be all one hive mind like the borg, although there may be a few brave, stubborn people hiding out in the mountains of Idaho or in the freezing colonies of Mars, because we still have Amish people on Earth today  and they are about 300 years behind the times.

So, if we evolve into something post-human, does the “human civilization” phrase still apply?

Lastly, there is the first word: Can.  It is always a good idea to remember that there is a big difference between can and will.

Just watched “The Night Listener” with Robin Williams and Toni Collette, which might have been a total snoozer with lesser actors.  As it was, it was an intense, interesting film.  I’d give it about a 7 out of 10.

Robin Williams was great, but Toni Collette made the film. In this scene, she is going to try and kill him.

Like some people, I’m always trying to guess what’s going to happen next.  People who don’t do that may actually derive more enjoyment from the movie and, in fact, be better people, but it goes against my nature.  Films, books, random people you see on the Metro, they are all a quiz for me, a test between me and the world.  Can I figure them out?

I thought it would be like One Hour Photo, which also starred Robin Williams and was a work of genius, weirdness throughout and then a denouement in the final seconds which was the best final seconds denouement since Citizen  Kane.  Usually I don’t even avoid spoilers, because I’m kind of a blabbermouth, but in that case, I will.  One hour photo was a great movie.

Anyway, this was a little bit like that in that when you see Toni Collette in the final scene and she’s not blind at all and she’s telling the lady how her son lost his leg, you realized that none of it was for real, but it wasn’t the dramatic denouement of One Hour Photo, because  that was totally a predictable ending.

Why is it I like Robin Williams doing serious movies, but with Jim Carrey  I keep expecting him to devolve back into his comedic self?  It makes it hard for me to watch. Although I have to admit “The Truman Show” and “Eternal Sunshine of the  Spotless Mind” were great movies, I think I’d have liked them even better without him.

With Bill Murray, I just don’t like his serious stuff at all.  With “Lost in Translation” and “Broken Flowers,” the films ended with  me wondering when the action was going to start.  I’m not watching any more Bill Murray movies unless somebody can promise me it’s going to be funny.

I don’t know why.  Some actors can cross genres, and some can’t.