Haiti and "Acts of God"

I am not a particularly religious person myself, though I see the need and the use of it for many, many, many people. Perhaps nearly every, or even absolutely every, person. Yet despite my own lack of religion, I ain't got no quarrel with God.

I don't see how war could be "evidence that God does not exist" because their is evil in the world, nor do I see how famine could be evidence of the same thing, nor murder or rape or thievery, crime in general, poverty, or even suicide. Because all of this is what people do to each other. They are our sins and our fault. Not the fault of any God.

What could be the fault of God, are often called "acts of God" are things such as Earthquakes, volcanoes, avalanches (sometimes), hurricanes, tornadoes, et cetera.

But, as I said, I ain't got no quarrel with God. These things happen. Even in churches, people point to Haiti's earthquake as something to help those people with. And they are right, to a degree. Haiti needs help. But the earthquake is the least of the problem. That is just one symptom of a greater problem that's been perpetuated by people. Corporations and greedy powers the world over have been taking advantage of Haiti and helping keep their economy in the shitter. That is what should have gotten international attention decades ago. That is what needs to change. Before that does, any earthquake relief is being squandered and simply going into the pockets of the wealthy. Haiti ain't gettin' much of it.

I ain't got no quarrel with God, and I hope I'll be strong enough to maintain that position after a horrible natural disaster affects my life more intimately. What I do have a quarrel with are people hurtin' people and animals and plants and life in general. Even though it hasn't affected me very intimately. We are cruel to each other.

Why?

The Prince of Egypt (movie, little background)

The Prince of Egypt is a fun movie. The animation style is very reminiscent (or, rather, antecedent) of The Road to El Dorado. They are both Dreamworks animation adventures, after all, but it is a pretty style.

Unfortuneately, the animation style is the best thing I can say about The Prince of Egypt. It was "Fun but Flawed". Since I have fairly limited experience with any older story of Moses, wether orignial or in the English translated versions of the Bible, I am unsure how much of my crtisism is toward that or this. It was kind of Dreamworks (Disney could learn a thing or two here) to put a little disclaimer in the beginning that admitted to using artistic lisense. Disney, however, if they used such a thing, would rarely be able to say that they tried to remain true to the spirit of the original tale. The only movie of theirs I can think of which could claim to have much similar with any "original spirit" was The Lion King with Hamlet.

The way that The Prince of Egypt was made does make me think that the original story is a parable that has little to do with historical fact. Perhaps there's a little historical relevance, but it's probably on par with the historical relevance to the Norse Creation Myth. It is, instead, a story with a purpose, like any number of the parables in the Bible such as David and Goliath or Noah's Arc. I suppose there are too many miracles, and too little understanding of psychology on the part of God, for me to think otherwise even though I will admit the possibility of its being factual.

It is not my favorite pariable of the Bible, either. Most pariables have a lesson. And, as many writers say, fiction can be more than fact, sometimes. The pariable here seems to be: cross me and I'll KILL you, for I am a mighty and powerful God! Hu-Rah!

NOTE: I apologize if much of this sounds offensive. That is not actually my point. Though I am not religious, really, myself. I have no quarrel with any God or Gods there might be and hope they have a sense of humor. I feel I give God more credit than this story because I assume, as a creator of humans and our bizarre psychology, he would understand it far better than the entity in this movie and could have concocted a better plan for getting the Hebrews out of Egypt using the pharaoh's half-brother and brother in spirit.

The Sandlot (1993 move, rewatched)

I always wondered, as a kid, how much of the Sandlot was true. I never figured very much, but I had this notion that Benny "The Jet" was a real baseball character who they just put in the movie.

But no, it's all fake. Imagine my horrible disappointment! Mr. Mertle isn't based on anyone, either!

The movie is still very fun, though I admit I am biased. I remember the movie from my childhood so it has some intrinsic nostalgic value. For a child, it is a great movie and it constantly tells you so. As an adult, this consistent reinforcement of "We got in the biggest ___ any of us had ever been in" get's tiresome. In the first five minutes of the movie, the narrator tells the audience this twice with regard to "pickles". I wanted to make a joke about this with my word-rating of the movie, but it's not really "the [anything] anyone has ever seen". Besides, that's a really long phrase to use. Instead, I think I'll just say that this is a "sentimental" movie.

The movie is episodic with very little transition from one story to the next. A little attention to transitions could have made the movie flow a little better. The child acting detracted from the flow as well. Kids are rarely brilliant actors. Since their characters were written pretty two-dimensionally, they didn't have the material to do much better, though. Some of the character's are really funny (particularly "Squints" just because of the faces he can make), and they all have a good line here or there.

Bridget Jones the Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

I had started reading this book just after I finished the first Bridget Jones book and apparently reached my limit for listening to neurotic fictional women half way through because I put it down in favor of You Suck and Death Comes for the Arch Bishop, books I didn't particularly enjoy. Yay, me! I finally finished the damn thing.

Originally, I had some pretty harsh notes on the book. I verbally abused it pretty bad. Now that I'm through it, I'm not quite so harsh on it. However, the beginning is maddening! The ending makes up for it a bit, but I think I'm still gonna go with my original idea for the rating of "Gaaa!". Through most of this book, Bridget Jones isn't on "the Edge of Reason", she has hurled herself impressively far off that cliff. She's a bleeding psychopath!

While the first book was really like a new version of Pride and Prejudice, the second one is more like a modern version of Jane Eyre(head). 'Cause she's a bleeding airhead. I apologize to fans of that book, but if you relate to this woman, you should probably go get yourself some therapy. Perhaps take some of the moral advice that comes with the ending of this book and cease being able to relate with Bridget any longer.

Now I just need to watch the second movie and I'll have completed a study of Bridget Jones. I'm never gonna read the column, though, so I suppose I finish with a Bachelors.

Jerry Maguire (1996 movie)

What a fantastically popular movie this is! For being so... dull and "Unimpressive" most of the time.

Jerry Maguire is pretty predictable most of the time. It's got a real feel-good message, which could be really useful to a lot of people, and an all-star cast. But mostly it's got a lot of sweaty-faced monologues, bare butts, desperately heart-wrenching scenes. A little too desperate. They become noise and lose any of the power they could have had.

I don't understand Jerry at all. He has this epiphany, but he's still pretty gripped in befuddling behavior. He's the main source of speeches, at every occasion. He's interesting, but only for a little while.

There are some funny parts, and some unique scenes, I suppose. I was bored with Renée's performance, enjoyed Tom's, actually, even if his character was tedious, but was most impressed by Cuba's. He was the most fun and had the best character. He had his contradictions in character, but everyone in reality does, too.

That's all I can say about it, really, without using a barrage of unnecessary metaphors.