Good Things In Beloit

On the plus side, we do have THIS going on:

THE BELOIT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

We went down to Bagels & More on Friday night to see GOD IS AMERICAN, a film about the John Frum religion on Tana. The treatment of the movement in the film was very superficial and manipulative, but the footage was great, including sequences of Mount Yasur and the cinder plain, and the annual ceremonial parade and flag-raising. Very cool stuff.

The other short feature, THE WAITLIST, frankly sucked. It's a tepid, stupid movie featuring dozens of selfish dimwits with more money than brains talking about their precious films. For instance, the 'filmmakers' ask people what their favorite 'film' is, leading to cringe-inducing monologues from 'hip film majors'. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

But over the weekend Central Christian Church is opening their state-of-the-art auditorium for movie presentations, and is presenting kids' movies for free, so L and I are goin' to the movies!

Temporary Update

I'm not posting as I'm trying to keep this blog positive, and there is not a lot of 'positive' going on in South Central Wisconsin.

I can't make comments about a place I've only lived in for less than 5 years, unlike the Chicago area, which I lived in my whole life... although I can't resist: You people who voted for Obama, expecting the filthy politics of Chicago to somehow vanish?

Welcome to it. It's why I got mad at that stupid Swedish woman last year. I knew, and here you are. Burris, 'nuff said.

Today's quote, from a grade-school principal:

"So this kid walks into the building with a paper bag with four one-pound propane canisters duct-taped together, with feeder wires into all four, with a thermostat attached to it and a motorcycle battery, and part of the wrapping is from model rocket engines.

"This six-year-old walks into the office with it, and says, "What's this?" and the staff member says, "Oh, I don't know", and walks it to the maintenance man!

"He says, Call Dr. M! And call the Bomb Squad!"

Me: "Holy Smokies!"

What happened is, local pyros are renting out their questionable 'skills' to burn houses for insurance money, as the mortgages are worth nothing.

Why the US should be keeping an eye on Europe...

...and why I love international rap and have given up on the pathetic ghetto crap that pervades US rap.

You don't need to speak French.

French Rap.

The eyes have it

When I went for this job last year, I was getting really bad eyestrain and headaches. It seemed weird, so I went to the eye doctor for a look, and discovered that my focal depth is somewhere out in the boonies. She was surprised, and said so. Well, what she told me was, "You have perfect vision, 20/20 or better, but your focal ability stinks".

What I actually have is an extremely deep depth of field, and I focus my eyes typically about a quarter-mile ahead around me, flicking back closer when I see motion. Something the eye doctor probably didn't notice was also the fact that not only is my focal depth wildly deep, it's short-term: I 'see' with peripheral vision, rarely focusing on anything or anyone for longer than, say, a few seconds.

I don't see things, or people, or objects or colors; I see motion and movement. I think it freaks people out at the job when I'm sitting behind a desk reading a book and also watching the room at the same time, with my peripheral vision. See, I'm not watching a particular person, I'm tracking motion, and you don't have to look directly at something to track it's motion. In fact, it's better that you don't.

A good part of the issue with the kid last week, and something I feel kind of bad about, is that despite his actions, he really didn't think he was being monitored. In fact, I was sitting with my antiquated laptop, happily typing up reports, while watching him and his buddy pass notes with my peripheral vision. He didn't think he'd been seen, whereas in fact I knew what he was doing the entire time. I do this all the time. It's not that I don't see things, it's a matter of deciding what to do about them...

I'm also notorious for driving along with people, and suddenly pointing to a treeline half a mile away and commenting, "Flock of wild turkeys at the treeline", when they can't even see them at all. Or pointing out deer, people, things at ridiculous distances. Why? Well, really, my vision isn't so spectacular, and I can't pick out stars in the daytime like WWII Japanese pilots could, but since I look for movement, most of the time it doesn't matter.