Review - Netflix Watch Instantly Movies - "A UFO Conspiracy"

This documentary is part "UFO Phenomenon Recap" and "UFO's-as-demonology," the latter of which really takes away from the first 75% of the film, which was really quite good.

I've watched other such documentaries before, and I've found all of them interesting.  Who wouldn't, given the subject matter.  However, this one left me wanting at the end, and sorely disappointed.

Let's look at the film more closely.

The last hundred years or so of sighting information was presented accurately, and without any type of implications being imparted to the viewer--save for the obvious element of We On Planet Earth possibly having been visited by extra terrestrial beings at one time or another.  *That* is, of course, the entire point of this film's study.

Stated another way, the first three quarters of the documentary didn't dive off the deep end into scare tactics, essentially letting the viewer decide for themselves.

Things broke down at the 75% mark, however, with an almost immediate segue (pronounced",seg-way") into the mentioning of Abrahamic viewpoints about "Satan", "demons", and "fallen angels"  Can anyone say "Nephilim"?  (I mean, what type of project would this be if it didn't delve into the "fallen angels mating with the 'daughters of men'" mythology?

Following the first mentioning of the creatures, the viewer is treated to a wonderful flash-frame-forward viewing of a series of demonic-like images, replete with the usual "Goat Horned 'Devil'" type of images.  Historically, images such as these took the place of the pre-medieval "Pagan Gods," such as Pan, Cernunnos, and the rest of the various Pantheons that existed before Christianity took hold of Europe in ages past, essentially being used by the early European Churches as "substitute imagery" for the "heathen folk" (read: Country Dwellers), who had very little influence upon the more powerful factions of the day.

The last 25% of the documentary is a cautionary tale, and we are "warned very sternly" by--get this!--A "Welsh Baptist" pastor from California!  What the heck?  A Californian, Baptist pastor of Welsh decent, complete with accent.  This guy took up TEN WHOLE MINUTES, and was the LAST PART OF THE MOVIE!

"Ouch!"  In a word.

So just what is this telling us?  That Baptists seem to know all there is to know about so-called demons, devils, and fallen angels and their semi-human offspring (from the 'courting' of early history's young ladies, so it would appear.)?

This reviewer thinks otherwise.

Summarizing, I found "A UFO Conspiracy" rather enjoyable for the first three quarters of the show, but ended up rolling my eyes at the end.  The addition of a "California-based 'Welsh' Baptist Preacher" ending the film just didn't cut the mustard with this reviewer.

There wasn't enough information presented before the segue into the last quarter of the movie; if more supportive information had been given to support the latter part of the film, I believe it would have made it more enjoyable, as well as supported the (assumed) opinions of the film's producers.  However, as it stands, it just didn't do that very well, as I see it.

The first 3/4 was informative and interesting.  The last 25% was somewhat less satisfying, meant more to provide a fear-response in the viewer, of the "believe in Christ or Go Straight To Hell" type of response.  At that point, I had, indeed, had enough.

I'm just glad that Welsh Baptist isn't served with Welsh Rarebit.  To me, the two would just clash too much! ;->

Be Well Everyone, and Thanks For Reading!  --Firefishe

Netflix Movie Review: Ghost From The Machine - Netflix

Being a ham radio operator, as well as a paranormal buff, I understand the concept.  The concept being that, electromagnetic imprints of long-term residents of certain places may remain after death, and, if you could energize the ionic space in question, well, perhaps something might just appear--and even, if one were not careful, they'd be a little naughty.

However, that's not what bothers me. It's not the concept, the technology, or the low-budget nature of the film, ergo, actors, props, devices, locations, and such.  All of the aforementioned were used, as I see it, with alacrity; I also thought the cinematography was excellent and highly believable for such a film.  I enjoyed the low-key nature of the environmental shots--the store, the neighborhood, inside the store, the school...  Ah!  The School!

Let's cut right to the chase.  This film had characters that were simply bullies, pure and simple!  The educational system of whatever town this was in had absolutely no tolerance for any type of 'going against the norm' relative to school attendance.  It was draconian, unsympathetic, and threatening; and not much else.

The Child Protective Services Man, and the woman teacher were--as all good movie stereotypical tropes from days of yore do tell us--black.  Black, and with an attitude, ten fathoms deep to their very core, with the "movie-typical, socialistic, fascistic personality tendencies."
The fact is, save for very few exceptions--if any...I can't think of any place on the silver screen where it wasn't--this type of character is always portrayed by a black person, or persons, and they all have "that liberal extremist, education-at-all-costs-or-death" type of attitude.

I actually just jumped to the end, right before the basement encounter with the "nasty couple."  It was true-to-form.  The young Guardian-Of-His-Brother pleading and begging with the "big, bad, CPS Agent," followed by the CPS Agent giving a short, sweet, catch-all  statement "all you had to do was get him to school on time."  As if that mere fact is the only important issue going on.

The grief wasn't even mentioned!

Gads, if the family death issues weren't enough!  Didn't these people have family or friends who were sympathetic enough to suggest grief counseling?  This reviewer has been through a nasty experience, myself, with a family death that had a similar alienation effect--although for different reasons.  Still, this film's "government teaching establishment characters" brought out an ire in me that few films have ever done.

Now don't get me wrong.  I absolutely L-O-V-E-D the science part of it.  That's what I think should've been focused upon more, and then the relationship issues.  Think along the lines of the movie "Solaris" and you'll get my meaning.

Now, I wouldn't have taken apart the fridge just to satisfy a hobby need.  However, these circumstances were a bit more, well, weird.  Grief does weird things to people at times, and this on-screen-fantasy might just be what could happen, given the proper instances.

So, in summary:

• The scientific paranormal premise was, to me, a sound plot device.  So were the people centered around the happenings the device was causing.  I felt there could've been a bit more interaction along these lines, as this is what the film was primarily about.

• The scenes were well done, overall, and I really felt like I was in the "relatively bucolic" neighborhoods portrayed.

• The biology teacher seemed like a Les Nessman of WKRP In Cincinatti fame type of character, but with a bit more self-aggradized arrogance, and not the least bit funny.  (Okay, I'll give his description of his classroom One Star for Effort!)

• The black woman cast as the principal (I wasn't sure on this one) was so stereotypically "movie trope," I was overjoyed that the one scene she was in didn't last long.  The close-up really got to me; I felt it was *that* horrible, utterly predictable, and trite.  (Which leads me to question:  Did the director have an issue with Minnesota's Child Protective Services, of which I've heard some horror stories?  "Socialist Fascistic" type of stuff?  Read:  "Nazi In A Mortarboard!")

• The real banger for me was the character of the Child Protective Services Agent.  I don't think this actor had much to do, other than act mean, be threatening, and pander to verbiage equaling nothing more than ultimatums, as if "someone as young as the surviving eldest son" couldn't figure it out, eventually, with a bit of sympathetic counseling.  (Empathic wouldn't hurt, either!)  My interior loathing was really drawn out by this character, and it was not a pleasant experience.

So the movie ends with the older son's younger brother being ignominiously driven away by an unsympathetic authority figure--who didn't even have a part in understanding the other part of the film--which, to me, is what the tale was really about.

I found the 'custody/threat' sub-plot non-engaging and detrimental, drawing the viewer away from the technical/spiritual elements of the main plot device, and ending the movie with a non-plussing sort of feeling

Still, I enjoyed most of it.  I give it a Net Total of Three Stars.

-THF

Withdrawn From Kaplan

Summary Update

1. Kaplan University = $33K for an Associate's, 66K for a Bachelor's.
2. Loan debt of $31K+ already incurred, ergo, NO MORE LOANS!
3. Working on a smaller Missouri Technical College where I can use ONLY GRANT MONEY!
4. Above being held up due to Financial Aid Verification issues related to taxes.
5. Waiting on 2011 W2 from USA Truck so I can file my 2011 return.
6. Wishing I Had Money!
7. Wishing I Had Talent To Earn Money
8. Tired Of Being Held Back By Every Circumstance.
9. Wanting Relief From Disabilities.
10. Desiring New Path and Experiences To Get Me To Where I Want To Be.

 --THF

Kaplan University

Hello Everyone, The Humble Fishe here, back from another long hiatus.

Summer's come and gone, and a lot has happened in the world.  In my corner of our planet, I've had a nice Holiday season and New Year.  So, with a new season of life upon me, I figured it was time to continue my educational pursuits.

You see, I made a promise to myself a few years ago wherein I promised myself that I would earn a college degree by the time I'm 50!  That promise remains, as yet, unfulfilled.  So I'm trying again.

I've chosen  Kaplan University's Online Information Technology Associate Degree program (to start), and their Bachelor Degree program to round out my first--and probably last--college educational endeavor.  I may or not need to get a Master's, but Graduate degrees are another matter, have different dynamics than the undergraduate programs, and have their own inherent nuances, challenges, and politics.

Better to leave the Graduate degrees alone for the time being and concentrate on the more immediate need of obtaining my Associate Degree.   And what an Associate Degree it is!  At $33K, it's quite the two-year.  The thing is, I  haven't found any way to be reasonably successful with local colleges, and I'm online all the time, anyway, so I figured that "it's time to just go private!"

Private schools are more expensive than their public counterparts, but they also often provide more personalized service than their public counterparts.  Online education is different from in-person education.  I believe that online teaching should take advantage of the medium, and not try to be a "mere copy" of an in-person classroom experience.  If I wanted that, I have a plethora of local choices from which to choose.

Well, I choose Online, instead!

I'm more comfortable in the privacy of my own home, where I can concentrate.  Since I have ADHD and other "cognitive learning disabilities" to begin with, this makes more sense from a "quiet and central place to work and plan" point of view.

It does present the challenge of all the adherence to the attendance of live, online seminars (of which many of Kaplan's online courses are made up of), and navigating the online environment's homework portals, library, and other such matters, but to a person who's used to working with Arch Linux, I don't see this as being much of a problem, let alone, a challenge.

Point-and-click to the correct item on the web page, hit the Submit button, and you're there!  Homework 101's done for the week!  (At least, that's the simplified version ;->.  There are almost always exceptions.  Still, I deal with these things pretty decently for most, if not all, items.)

I'm still in the preliminary stages of the application process, and won't know more until tomorrow, Friday.  I need to get through the Financial Aid process, and this will either make or break my ability to participate at Kaplan.  I can be only hopeful that a positive attitude will get me through the process, and onto the more important elements of class participation.

I look forward to keeping everyone updated.  I shall add more as time progresses.

Best Regards,
The Humble Fishe

Buggies, Buggies, Everywhere!!!

There is a name for a boxspring when it is infested with cockroaches and other insects:  G-A-R-B-A-G-E!

Alas, that is what I had to do to our current boxspring--a piece of furniture that has been broken for over a year now and needed replacing aeons ago:  THROW IT OUT!

AND I DID!

Into the dumpster it went, and now resides, awaiting the morning trash truck to come and take it away, and crush it's little buggy innards out of existence!

The wife and I are now, by proxy, going to need a new bed.

I'm sticking to my guns on this one and buying quality!  Queen minimum, wood frame, with heavy duty wood slats.  My wife and I are not small people, and we both add a bit of...errr...'gravity' that necessitates a firm foundation, with a boxspring and mattress that won't fall apart!

The first bed was free, kindly given to us by Very Very Good Friends' parents when we first moved into our apartment.  We were extremely grateful to get that frame, boxspring, and mattress when we did, but it has worn out, and the time has come to purchase a new sleeping system.

ONE MAIN PROBLEM:  BUGS!

The entire apartment is a breeding ground for cockroaches and water bugs--at least, that's what they look like to me.  They're a little black, pear-shaped insect with a red mark on it's back.  (And no, folks!  It's *not* a black widow spider. Spiders are larger and have eight legs, not six! ;-)  Just thought I'd mention that!

And right now, I'm Tired, Buggy, and just washed my face, shaved, and am sipping on a nice 'Mountain Holler,' Save-A-Lot's version of Mountain Dew.  It's not bad at all!  It's not Cherry Coke, but it's still not bad! :-) 

I'm happy this is done for a while.  I need to complete this over the weekend, but for now, I'm taking a break!

I'll be back later with more stories from Bugville!

Warm (and Buggy) Regards,
--Stephen 

Geocache: Deciding Against

This one started out as a late-evening cache hike, but turned into a bit of an adventure for the Firefishe.

My tagline reads Caching in On The Journey, and boy did the Journey kick my butt!

I got to the historical marker in about twenty minutes, and, thankfully, the sun was still up.  I had a backpack on with two LED 2-D-Cell Maglight flashlights with freshly charged batteries, drinks, and money, of course, so I was prepared in advance.

My Garmin Dakota 20 is always loaded with the latest updated caches, ala GSAK's GC.com API interface, so I'm always up to date.  I also recently updated my free maps from garmin.openstreetmap.nl, as well as the usual 24K topo maps from the gpsfiledepot.com.

(Author's Note:  If no one has heard, there are a ton of free, highly detailed and up-to-date maps available for the Garmin Colorado, Oregon, and Dakota series of GPS receivers.  All legal.  All Free!  All from public-domain information!  I'm waiting to buy an Oregon, so I can use 3D maps, a bigger display, geotagging camera and voice recorder, but for $230 plus a Garmin Chirp geocache beacon, the Dakota 20 package I bought worked out beautifully for my budget, and still gave me a great system!  I'm loving it!)

Back to the hike.

I solved the puzzle easily enough, and was going to just walk the streets to where I needed to be ( had been there before, but didn't log my first DNF earlier this summer when I tried this the first time.)when I came across something I had never seen before:  A New Bike/Walking Path!  Apparently, this is part of the Jefferson City Greenway, which is a paved biking and walking trail within the general city limits of Jefferson City.

I recalled that I was out on an adventure that evening, so I didn't hesitate when I was across from the Jefferson City High School and the new (to me) bike trail just seemed to beckon me to 'take a chance.'  Well, that 'chance' led me up and down so many hills, that my legs were like toast at the end of the evening.  The hike took me, ultimately, to the bottom of a hill where lay a little community park I never knew existed.  Aurora Community Park or something like that.

Since the new trail ended there, I had no choice but to go up the street--anything to break the monotony of the trail--and follow it a bit, but where I ended up was news to me!  I ended up in a part of town I'd driven in a few times, but never thought I'd ever end up hiking in, it's just not 'that kind of neighborhood, if you know what I mean.  Not really dangerous, mind you, just more given over to vehicle traffic than foot traffic.  The sides of the roads don't always have sidewalks, and one has to step over to the curb to let cars by now and again.  Not really pedestrian friendly, but what can you do?

I was glad to see the Jefferson Street Break Time convenience store, and bought a huge Landshire microwave-ready burger, the big one that's nearly six inches in diameter!  That burger and a one-liter lemonade hit the spot!  I was ready to go again after about a half-hour rest period, most of it spent sitting outside on the curb near the car wash in the rear of the building.  It was good to see lots of people after almost two hours of trekking in unfamiliar streets!

Well, to wrap it up, I made my way via more familiar streets, to the part of the Greenway trail I knew went directly to the cache area from the opposite end of where one usually parks to get to this cache.  Good thing, too, as there was a car that seemed to be going back and forth along the street next to the sidewalk I was on; when he went out of sight, I did a quick jog to the Greenway trail, went down a hill, and was glad when I was below eye-level view.

So I make my way to where the cache is supposed to be, and my GPS takes me up a slope (I won't say which one, and there are many!) to within 3 feet of Ground Zero, but alas, no cache!  Not even in mega-bright-white LED lighting from my mag light.  So, and because I had forgotten my red lenses for the lights, I decided to wait until a daylight excursion can be made, preferably on a Sunday afternoon when things are quiet and not many people are about.  I do try to protect the integrity of the caches I hunt, and have been doing so since 2002! :-)

Well, that's it!  I'm writing this on 20 OCT 2012 on an early Saturday morning.  I'm hoping to get out later today, weather permitting--and in possession of the family car--and get this one logged!  My 46-year-old body is not as peppy as I'd like, and regular visits to my gym are in order, so I can do more like this, but man!  What a rush!  I felt better, albeit achey, after three-and-a-half hours of pure exercise I haven't done in months!  I Love Geocaching!

Thanks for a Grand Adventure R-L-P!  I'll be back to log this one soon!

Warm Regards From,

Firefishe
Caching In On The Journey

Just a quick note to say that things seem to be getting better.

Last week's entries were a bit on the down side, and since this my personal blog, needed to be placed where I could get things down and work them out, through writing, which is largely what this blog is about.

This blog is not about numbers, how much money I can make, or how popular I can make myself.  It is--so far as it goes--my place to be, and,  when necessary, honest with myself and anyone else who cares to read it.  Even brutally honest when I am in need of it.

I may delete things I don't like, I may keep them 'forever' (so far as Blogger let's them stay up, of course), but so far as blogs go, this is my own personal opinion space, my place to let out my fears, frustrations, and angst.

It is also a place for me to foment positive and growth-inducing commentary, on my life, or any other aspect of life in which I may have an interest.  There are other blogs for other things, like making money and building popularity.  This is not that blog.

This is the blog of The Humble Fishe, where I 'gently suggest' pathways that can enhance my growth, as well as communicate to others, as the need arises.

That said, I still wish well all who read this, and choose to share in my life's journey through space and time.  On Earth.  And Beyond.

Blessings and Light To All
Love and Light
--The Humble Fishe