Hollywood versus reality

Aw geeze! I just saw the trailer for "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown. I'm honestly astonished that it appears to be even more anti-Catholic than "The DaVinci Code" was. You hear the words "the truth" thrown around in the trailer alot, which is so ironic given the flimsy plots of all of Dan Brown's books.

It looks like it will present itself as some sort of heroic movie pushing the question of science versus religion driving the two things into a strict either/or situation rather than seeing their compatibility.

The plot of the story is just completely absurd. The whole irony is that people will get pulled into the whole "religion versus science" debate and have doubts about religion, yet will fail to miss all the poor science and non sequitur moments in the actual plot of the book.

This will be the new controversial film of the year because you can tell the studio is going to hype this with all the advertising they can. Of course the other irony is that the movie will try to tell people not to have blind faith regarding religion, but obviously if they are going to see the movie, they will have proven that they have blind faith about the advertising. Sadly, this film will be a blockbuster, mainly because of the advertising, not because of the content. Don't believe me, just look at what happened with "The DaVinci Code." The media and controversy surrounding it made it a blockbuster, but the critics and most moviegoers said the movie was lame. I'm sure this time the studios have hired actual writers to clean the script up. And people say that those who follow religion are just dumb sheep. Ugh.

I would say that this is the perfect time for the Church to emphasize more the compatibility of scienc and religion, as it always has.

For instance, do you know where the theory of the Big Bang came from? A Catholic priest named Georges Lemaitre.

Hopefully Amy Welborn is writing a new book as we speak. LOL.

RS

When students get bored.

My semester in Rome (way back in the day) was a lot of fun. But after awhile, you see so much art, you do get bored. So I got some friends to pose with the art.

Headless statue(s) at the Roman Forum
New meaning to the term "Art theft"?
Pitti Palace, Florence, Italy
RS

Stress release

Because sometimes you just need to see some surfing rats.



RS

Is Ronald McDonald really trying to kill me?

No, he's just trying to steal from me by trying to nickel and dime me.


Had a goofy little experience at McDonalds today. I found it interesting given all the hoopla about McDonalds and health, especially around the time Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me" was released.

As a side note, the movie was actually pretty good. I sort of expected some bleeding heart liberal truth bending attack on the fast food industry like you'd get from Michael Moore. Yet, this did not go in the direction of a Michael Moore flick. The gimmick of the flick is the 30 days of nothing but McDonalds. But rather than it being a war on fast food companies, it really just calls people to realize that we have to take responsibility for ourselves and can't rely on corporate America to look out for our best intrests when they are trying to look out for their own (profit). It just shows corporate America for what it really is: business and making money. That in and of itself is not evil, it's just the nature of business. A company cannot survive if it does not make money. It's also a good little motivator to help you think about your diet.

Anyway, with all the media McFlurry (pun intended), one of the "results" was that supposedly McDonalds would not longer have a "supersize" option. Well, that's not really what happened. They just took away "supersize" and instead made all their combos have options of small, medium, or large. Or some weird "upgrade" thing for only a few cents more! So, really just getting the large or upgrade, you get the "supersize." This actually helps them, because they can post the price of the smaller combo so it looks cheaper, then you upgrade it and pay more anyway. Almost a hidden cost, yet you asked for it.

So I just ordered the combo, I didn't say "supersize," or "large" or anything like that. And it is supposedly McDonald's policy to not even offer to upgrade anymore. So when I pull around and see the lady is about to hand me the ginormous 55 gallon drum of diet coke that comes with the large combo (and the price was more than advertised even with tax), I have to ask her what size I was about to get. She told me large. Interesting. So, I told her I had only wanted the medium, she "downsized it" for me and gave me back the difference. Of course who would really expect McDonalds to suddenly care about all that stuff. Overall, they just want my money. (Had they been "smart" they would have given me the large combo anyway and just given me back the difference, that would have had a much more likely result in repeat business which would have been greater than the little difference they "saved" by downgrading my combo.)


Now, I realize that McDonalds is not healthy. Their main value is that they are convenient. That's really the only reason I ever go there. I rarely have a craving for McDonalds, and unless the french fries are done just right, I never think "I'm Lovin' It" while I'm eating it. [gasp!] (I must be growing up!)

Now to just get over my love of Starbucks hazelnut lattes.


RS

Mona Lisa with MS Paint

Now, I have always found MS Paint to be simple, but extremely frustrating to use. Probably because you have to have such a steady hand when "drawing" with a mouse.

This guy has used MS Paint to make the Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" which took him two hours, but he has sped up so you can watch it in under 5 minutes.



I've seen several videos like this, so I guess a lot of it is shading and patience. So, I figured I would give it a try. Just compare mine with the end result above. This time, I took my time (it still only took me about 10 minutes).


[snicker]

Yeah, maybe I should just stick to blogging.


RS