Bryce Moore's Blog, page 178

The Czech Republic is Changing Its Name

And in the “I thought this story was on the Onion, but it wasn’t” department for the day, the Czech Republic is sick and tired of people not knowing its name. (Really?) And so they all got together and decided to change it.

I imagine it was was an epic brainstorming session. They could be anything they wanted. The sky was the limit. And to prove that this was done by committee, they ended up with . . .

.

That’s right, folks. They were sick of being called Czecho or Chechnya, so they switched to Czechia. Because no one will have a problem with remembering *that* name at all.

I don’t know if they’re ready for the fall out. Because if this really catches on, then people will call them Czechians, speaking  Czechian. And *nobody* will confuse that with Chechens at all.

But whatever. People can be called what they want to be called, and countries can follow suit.

I convened a panel to change my own name, actually. But we came up with changing it to “Idiot,” and I ended up deciding not to go through with it. Just because plenty of people call me that anyway didn’t really seem like the best reason to switch it . . .

Happy Friday, folks. Have a great one.

Handling Rape at BYU

Sorry in advance for the downer of a topic, and trigger warning clearly, but this is something I came across yesterday and it’s really troubling me. The Salt Lake Tribune published an article two days ago detailing a terrible approach BYU has in the way it handles rape cases.  It’s a bit of a read, but I really encourage you to read it to get the full context of what’s going on.

For those of you who don’t click through, the basics are this: when a student at BYU makes a rape allegation, that student is also turned over to the Honor Code office to see if she was violating any honor code rules before the rape occurred. Let me restate that one more time to be sure it’s clear: a girl says she was raped. She tells the school. They tell the honor code office, and the honor code office looks into the rape, checking to make sure the victim wasn’t doing anything she shouldn’t have been doing before she got raped.

Doing what, exactly? Well, maybe drugs. Or drinking alcohol. Or getting too physical.

Because honor code. Can’t let those pesky students think they can get away with breaking the honor code just because they happened to have been raped afterward.

This is flat out unacceptable. Period. End of story.

First and foremost, it’s potentially telling the victim that the rape might have been her fault. “If you hadn’t been _______, then you wouldn’t have gotten raped.”

Sorry. This is never the case. Rape, by definition, is a person being forced to have sex against his or her will. A person could be lying in bed, clothes off, having a wild make out session with someone, and if that person suddenly changes her mind about what’s going on, then that’s it. Sex needs to stop.

“But what if she was dressed really provocatively?” “But she was totally leading him on.” “You can’t say it’s not partly her fault.”

I got a whole bucket full of Nope here for people making these sort of statements. Rapists rape. They consciously choose to ignore someone saying “no,” and have sex with that unwilling person anyway. Let me use a different example to make my point: say that I love fried chicken. It’s a well known fact that I just want to eat it about every day. And one day, my friend brings some of the world’s best fried chicken to school for lunch. I see it. I smell it. I want that chicken. So I reach over and grab it from his hands and scarf it down.

Not my fault, right? He knew I liked fried chicken. He shouldn’t have brought such great fried chicken for lunch. If he’d been smart, he would have brought oatmeal or a tuna sandwich. Right?

That makes no sense. It’s his chicken. He can offer it to me, but I’m not entitled to his chicken, no matter how much I like it or how great it smells. And say he thinks about offering it to me, but then I say something belittling, or he changes his mind? Do I get to eat the chicken then?

Why in the world would I have any “right” to? And who in their right mind would yell at him for bringing chicken to lunch in the first place.

Sigh.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the other big problem BYUs approach in this situation is creating: it’s protecting rapists by discouraging rapes from being reported. If a girl knows she was out doing something against the honor code, and then she gets raped, she’s faced with terrible choice: report the rape and get kicked out of school, or stay silent and suffer and let the rapist walk around free.

How can BYU not see this is unacceptable?

The article has an interview with a girl who was on LSD right before she was raped. And she got kicked out for breaking the honor code. Not for getting raped, but for being on LSD. And sure, taking LSD can be a reason to be kicked out of the university, but BYU should look at it this way: if she really is an habitual LSD user, she’s probably going to get nabbed by the honor code sooner or later. Deal with it when it comes up later.

Because right now? You’re blaming the victim, and you’re discouraging people from reporting rapes. I get that you’re concerned girls will claim rape so that they don’t have to get booted for having sex, but statistics show false rape claims are few and far between. People know it’s a terrible allegation to make, and they just don’t make it without cause.

What would I like to see BYU do? Make a very public statement about how it abhors rape and will do everything in its power to ensure rapists are caught and prosecuted on campus. Give anyone making a rape allegation a free pass when it comes to the honor code. They’ve been raped, for crying out loud. Do they really need a lecture now on what they were doing before hand? Do they need to be “punished”?

Think this article is just a red herring? A one-off blip that doesn’t imply a larger problem? Then what about this article from 2003 that states 90% of rapes aren’t reported in Provo? Maybe there’s a connection? This article claims BYU’s a great place because it’s so safe. Maybe it’s safer than it seems because it discourages crimes from being reported? Think it’s just because it’s Utah, and there must be fewer rapes in Utah in general? Think again.

But all this is peripheral to the problem. There’s a clear right and wrong decision for BYU to make here, and they’re going with the wrong one. I hope it’s because they’re just tone deaf, and that they fix the problem quickly. Because I’d hate to think they pondered very long on this and still ended up with the current policy. Or that they leave it as is.

Very disappointed in my alma mater at the moment, and hoping they get a clue somewhere and fix this ASAP.

The Wire 4:11 and 4:12

I had hoped to be able to finish the season for this week’s post, but it’s been a crazy few days, so it’s just the normal 2 episodes this time. Sorry about that. But they’re great episodes. (Well, they don’t make you feel great, but they are great as far as compelling television goes.)

Episode 4:11

I’ve always loved the fourth season the most, but it’s got a whole lot of storylines in it that really hurt. I think some of this is because I just love the characters in this season so much. The teen actors do such a great job at making them all come alive and be really believable, and they go through so much . . .

This episode does have one big highlight, and that’s Lester finally finding the bodies. It’s a great payoff to a plot that’s been going on since the opening scene of the season (with Snoop buying the nail gun), and in true Wire fashion, it doesn’t lead exactly where we’d expect (more on that in the next episode.) Still, it was fun to watch, and even more fun because of the details.

We know how capable Lester is. How dogged he can be. But we also remember him in season one, content to sit there and work on his dollhouse furniture. And lately in homicide? He’d been working on a lot of furniture. So to see him back out and about, in the thick of things again, was a great change and a sign of hope. But other than that pay off?

It’s a hard episode to watch, just because of what’s happening on the screen. From Bubs and Sherrod getting beaten to Bunny’s class getting shut down to everything in between. There’s not a whole lot of brightness in this episode.

The biggest thing for me was actually the huge deficit the schools turn out to be running. $54 million that Carcetti is suddenly saddled with, just as he committed the rainy day money to the police department. You can have all the good intentions in the world, but being $54 million in the hole will bring an end to those soon enough.

Depressing.

But hey. At least Omar seems to be around to make life difficult for the drug dealers. Right?

It’s a 4/5 for me on this episode. But wait until the next one . . .

Episode 4:12

As hard as 11 was to watch? 12 is even harder. It reminds me of the first season, when Wallace was killed. Except this time, we’ve got terrible, awful things happening every way we look.

Randy’s foster mom is badly burned and he’s headed back into the system again. But this time, he’s been labeled a snitch, and those labels don’t tend to go away. If he thought life was hard before? I don’t have a good feeling for him in the future. And the sad part is that he was surrounded by people who really wanted to do what was best for him, from Carver to Prez to Miss Anna. Just one exception.

Herc.

I could throttle that guy sometimes. (And after all he’s done, he still has the nerve to remind Lester that he (Herc) is the Sergeant, not Lester. As if witnessing the Mayor having sex somehow gave Herc not just the stripes, but the knowledge of how to lead other effectively. Argh!)

So Randy’s in deep trouble. But look at Dukie. He’s being “promoted” out of his support system. Congrats, son. You’ve done so well, we’re going to mess your life up. Oh, and also evict you from your home. Good job!

And then there’s Namond, who’s literally left in tears after realizing he just wants nothing to do with the corner life, even if his mom wants him to. He’s been pretending as long as he could, but he just doesn’t have it in him anymore.

As opposed to Michael, who is embracing the corner life completely. Yes, he offers to stay with Cutty until the ambulance comes, but Cutty realizes there’s nothing that can be done for him at this point. He made his decision when he chose to go to Marlo for help and not Cutty or Prez. And Michael might be frustrated that Cutty tells him to get going, but what else was the man supposed to do?

Compare each of these characters to the boys they were at the start of the season, and it just breaks your heart. (Especially when you’ve got a son approaching that age . . .)

But all of that pales in comparison to Bubs. Sherrod’s death is just brutal. Bubs had been building his life back up as best as he could, and it looked like he was going to be able to help Sherrod do the same. To get some redemption. But instead, his efforts to get rid of the man who was tormenting him backfire, and Sherrod dies instead. Bubs was always a character that you thought couldn’t get any worse off. But then he does. So sad.

And the bodies that were finally discovered last week? It takes the whole episode to decide what to do with them. Because it’s not about doing the right thing. It’s about doing the politically expedient thing. Solving murders doesn’t matter as much as not having the murders counted in the first place. And true, Carcetti tells them to get the bodies out and do the right thing, but he’s also sure to add that there better not be any bodies undiscovered until later.

But maybe I’m just grumpy from everything else that happened in the episode.

It’s an easy 5/5 for compelling TV, even if you feel like you’ve been steamrolled after watching it.

One episode to go this season . . .

Adventures in Hospitals

Sorry if this is a bit scrambled. I’m operating on not too much sleep, and I was sick to begin with. Denisa started having a stomachache yesterday around 4pm. Bad enough that she just had to lie down and didn’t really want to do anything else. I dragged myself out of bed and took care of the kids as best I could (thank goodness for well behaved children), and hoped that she’d get feeling better soon.

She didn’t.

At first we thought it was some buckwheat sprouts that she’d eaten. I gave her a priesthood blessing (along with a friend who came over at the drop of a hat to assist), and that helped some for a bit, but she was up pretty much the whole night in pain. We were close to going to the ER a couple of times, but each time she thought she could pull through it.

So this morning we headed to our doctor’s. (After yet another friend stepped in to watch the kids.) The pain had subsided a bit by the time Denisa was in the office, but the doctor wanted a CT scan, just in case it was appendicitis. That’s when the lovely insurance system kicked in. Three separate phone numbers and multiple explanations later, and we finally had the scan approved. Mind you, Cigna still insisted on talking to Denisa and telling her that if she’d just travel 45 minutes farther away, she could have it done cheaper at a different hospital.

I was livid. You’ve got a person literally moaning in pain, and you’re holding things up because you want to jump through some red tape? Ridiculous.

But we got over to the hospital, and we got the CT scan done. By this time, Denisa was actually feeling a fair bit better. The pain had gone, and she was even able to keep down the pint of fluids they made her drink for the scan. We waited for the results, confident that this was just a case of bad buckwheat.

And then it turned out she had appendicitis after all.

It’s been a crazy day. Juggling kids, sitting in waiting rooms, making phone calls. (And the reception in the hospital leaves much to be desired.) She’s in surgery even as I type this, but they expect it to be fairly routine. I’ll keep you updated if anything changes on that.

In the meantime, if you could keep her in your thoughts and prayers, I’d be grateful.

Movie Reviews from the Sick Bed

I haven’t been seriously sick since October. It’s been a good run, but that run’s at an end now, alas. I’ve been in bed for the past three days. Yuck. But that also means I’ve had the time to watch some movies! So lucky for you, here’s a couple reviews for a snowy (in Maine) Monday.

The Drop tells the story of a bartender caught in the middle of a robbery on his bar. Some unsavory types are circling around, trying to see if they can’t take them for all they’ve got, and his mafia bosses aren’t buying it. It’s a gritty movie, starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, and James Gandolfini (in his final role–he died a month after shooting wrapped). Overall, I enjoyed it. It’s a bit slow in places, but it builds tension and mystery quite well, and the plot took some unexpected turns. Well acted, too. 4/5, but fairly bloody.

Hair, by director Milos Forman, was a fair bit different. I’d heard a lot about the musical over the years, and figured I’d give this one a shot. From a plot perspective, it leaves a fair bit to be desired. “Pretty trippy” is how I described it to Denisa after I’d finished it, though the end comes together quite nicely. I just wish there seemed to be more holding the different songs together than what’s here, though from what I’ve read, the actual musical is quite different than this. Still, Forman directed Amadeus and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, both fantastic films, and there’s enough to like in this movie for me to give it a 3/5. Though maybe that’s the cold medicine talking? I liked the music.

Falcon Rising was just plain awful. It’s an action movie that takes place in Brazil, but it ended up being a waste of time. The acting was abysmal, and the action scenes were few and far between. When they finally strolled around, they left a fair bit to be desired. Just a disappointment all around. I probably wouldn’t have finished watching it if I wasn’t lying in bed, sick as a dog. 1/5. Avoid.

The day is still young. Who knows what I’ll watch next . . .

Various Sundries for Your Friday

I’m at meetings and underway all day today, so no real time to blog. However, a few quick points:

First, I was 194.6 this morning, which means I’m officially normal weight again. So let there be much rejoicing (that doesn’t involve anything high in calories.)

Second, I’m sick somehow, which is no fun. It’s nothing serious yet. Just low energy levels and a sore throat. Hoping it doesn’t get worse.

And third, I introduced my kids to Animaniacs this week. They were skeptical at first (they’ve had bad experiences with some of the things I hyped up before), but I’m overjoyed to report that the show is still flat out hilarious. (Except for Good Feathers. They’re still awful.)

And so I’ve had these two songs kicking around my head for the past few days. Enjoy:

A Few Thoughts on School Budgets

It’s that time of year again. No, not baseball season. School budget season. And my local one looks set to be another real firecracker. Last year it was a squeaker, with a huge outcry against the growing costs to fund the district. The budget passed (with a few trims to the proposed increases), but this year promises to be even more contentious. They’ve been holding meetings around the area to let tax payers voice concerns, and while I haven’t been able to attend those meetings, the general reporting on them (and the comments on those stories) shows that many are even more upset than last year.

I understand and I sympathize. Taxes have been going up while salaries haven’t kept pace. (And if you’re on Social Security, it’s even worse.) However, clamoring for cuts without specifically identifying where those cuts should come from doesn’t help the situation at all.

As a librarian, my first instinct is to turn to information. And with a bit of Googling, an older draft of the proposed budget is available online. Yes, it’s out of date, but it gave me a chance to take a look at the budget and see what areas could considered for cuts, and how much those cuts would save.

I’m going to delve into local numbers now, so if you aren’t local (or don’t care), feel free to skip the rest of today’s post and come back tomorrow when I’m back to pop culture, movie reviews, writer updates, and general sweetness and light. If you are interested, then read on.

First, to set the stage: there are about $1.5 million in fixed cost increases that are pretty much unavoidable. The state mandates require the budget for special education to increase by $900k. Hands are tied. That number’s going up, or the district goes out of compliance. (Though one could ask what happens if we go out of compliance. It’s a fair question, and I don’t know the answer. But I’m going to assume the answer is “Very Bad Things We Don’t Want to Happen.” And with that in mind, I’m accepting this $900k increase as a given.) The rest of the increases are from already signed and approved teacher union salary raises and the like.

Beyond that, there are $724,000 in additional requests for new hires, new projects, etc. (I’m getting this current information from this article on the informational meeting in Wilton the other night.)

Let’s be sticklers and assume we say no to all of those additional requests. Let’s also assume that the goal is to not increase the budget by a penny when it comes to the bottom line. Never mind the fact that this might mean some very worthy projects never come to fruition. Times are tight, etc.

So if the goal is to not increase the budget, and we must increase some areas by a total of $1.5 million, then we need to find $1.5 million elsewhere that can be cut.

Fine.

I’m going to put on my Budget Nazi hat and go through it with a red pen of terror to see how we can come up with that money.

Volunteers are for chumps. Let’s cut support for them all. That saves $26k.
Elementary athletics? Kids can just run outside for free. Cut it! Another $64k saved.
Same for the $14k in elementary intramurals
$289k in secondary athletics? Raise gate prices for all attendees instead. Or make students pay for all of it out of pocket. This is school we’re talking about, not some sports league. Never mind that parents will be outraged. We must save money.
$76k gone in secondary co-curricular too.

Where are we now? We’ve irritated a good number of families in the area. Surely we’re about there, right? Oh. We’re only at $469,000? Over $1 million to go?

Here’s the thing. We’re not going to get to $1.5 million by trimming or slashing or cutting peripheral things completely. That’s not how budgets work. We need to look at core things. The way we do business in the district.

Transportation is almost $2 million in the proposed budget. We currently make 2 bus runs to pick up students: one for pre-k through fifth grade, and one for 6th grade through 12th grade. Could we combine those trips and make it just one bus run instead of two? How much would that save? Would we need more buses to be able to fit all the students on one run? It’s also true some parents might be uncomfortable having seniors on the same bus as their Kindergarteners. That would be tricky, but probably doable with care. 25% of this line would save $500k.

Administration comes to a bit less than $2 million. Could that be cut? Possibly. We’d have to look at how many positions we have right now and see if some could be trimmed. But just saying it’s too high doesn’t get us anywhere. Put specific cuts on the table, and analyze what impact those cuts would have. 10% is $200k. How much worse off would we be with 10% fewer administrators?

IT and its accompanying administration come to another $1 million. Are there areas there we could cut? Trim it by 10%, and you’ve saved another $100k. What impact would it have? What would are students not be able to do because of the loss?

Even making these drastic cuts, we still just come to $800k. Barely half of the needed $1.5  million

Teacher positions could be cut, which would result in larger class sizes. Offerings could be pared down, which would result in a worse education. Music and sports could be axed, which would be a real blow. From what I’ve been reading, people have been moving to the area because our district is doing such a good job with special education. Does that mean perhaps we could do a worse job with it and still maintain whatever level of education we need to provide to meet minimum standards? I don’t know, but it’s a question that could be answered.

Running a school district is a complicated business, as is balancing a budget. My hope is we can move the discussion away from pitchforks and torches and general calls for “LOWER TAXES” and more toward centering it around actual proposed cuts and their accompanying costs. Because what will naturally happen when we move away from generalities and toward specifics is that the people affected will get involved.

Propose cutting sports and music, and you’ll get those proponents engaged in finding a way to avoid that. Propose cutting libraries and see me roar. (I’d roar about sports and music too, for the record. Life long band geek and football fan here, folks.) Propose cutting janitors. Or teachers. Or administrators.

Whatever you do, propose something. Because then we can discuss it and come to a solution. It might not be a solution everyone likes, but it’ll be the solution moat of the people like, and that’s what living in society is all about, isn’t it?

In the meantime, I’m going to go build a bunker to get ready for this . . .

 

The Wire 4:9 and 4:10

Episode 4:9

As bright as everything was beginning to look the last few episodes, here is where I feel the light at the end of the tunnel starts to look more like a train than an actual light. Front and center to that is Michael and his story arc.

Through the whole season, we’ve seen different institutions reach out to him to try and help. You’ve got Cutty, his friends, Prez, other people at the school. And you’ve got Marlo. Each of them claims to have Michael’s best interests at heart, but he’s been struggling to tell which really do.

And in the end, he goes with Marlo. Why? Because Marlo is a known quantity to him. He knows exactly what Marlo wants out of him, and he compares that cost with the current cost (living with his molester and putting Bug in danger), and he’s decided it’s worth paying,

It’s upsetting when he does it, of course, but really, isn’t Michael just going with the same choice most of the characters in the show go with? Better the known evil than the unknown whatever. Herc is certainly of that mindset. He can’t see anything that isn’t plopped down in front of his bald head, blinking with neon. (And because of that, he’s now gotten Randy in potential deep trouble, and Bubs is seriously hurting.)

It’s hard to take the leap of faith and trust people, mainly because everyone seems to be playing some angle, somehow.

How depressing was it to watch Prez succeed with these kids, only to suddenly be forced to “teach to the test”? All the same issues he’d seen at work in the police department, still merrily having their way here in the land of education. Just plain depressing. But why do the teachers do it? Because it’s the only way they can get funding. And they need funding to teach, so . . .

Juking the stats doesn’t seem like a bad idea on paper. It’s playing the game to get what you want. But it’s also putting the short term benefit in front of the long term good. It’s what I’ve heard phrased as putting the how in front of the why. What you do doesn’t really matter, when you get down to it, as long as it still gets the why done. The goal is teaching the kids. That should come first. Instead, they focus on the how. How will they teach them? By getting funding. How will they get funding? By doing well on the tests. How will they do well? By focusing only on that.

And then in the end, you’re just teaching to the test, and who cares about the teaching of the students?

Another solid episode. 4/5

Episode 4:10

I think this is the episode where the cyclical nature of this show really started to emerge for me, and it did so through one key scene: Partlow beating Michael’s step father to death. Partlow is a man we don’t know much about. He’s a paid killer for Marlo, he seems to be generally soft spoken, but he’s also ruthless. Willing to do whatever Marlo wants him to.

And now we find out he was almost definitely abused as a child.

Of course, The Wire doesn’t come out and have a big scene where Partlow opens up about his past. Nothing blatant about this at all. We just have him understand that Michael was being abused, and then we get to see how Partlow responds to that. Up until now, he’s always been almost nice with the way he kills people. Short, quick, and tidy.

Michael’s step father is anything but tidy after Partlow is through with him.

The amazing thing to me is that the show was able to do all of this without ever needing to come out and say what had happened to Michael or Partlow. By reading between the lines, we can understand all of it. It’s perfect show don’t tell. And by allowing us to see Michael’s sneer at his mom when he tells her his step father is never coming back, we get to see what Partlow might have gone through to get to where he is now.

The show is cyclical. Seeing Partlow is seeing Michael’s future. Seeing Michael is seeing Partlow’s past.

Once you know to look for that, you see it all over the place, and it’s something that’s only going to get strong the closer we get to the end of this series. Kima and McNulty. Bunk and Omar. Bunny and Daniels. Daniels and Rawls. Daniels and Burrell. McNulty and Lester. There are parallels between all these characters, and often what one goes through at one point, another will go through later on, or already went through. In each case, that says something about both characters.

Have I ever said how much I love this show?

Finally, I wanted to take a minute to give a shout out to Bubs, for getting back at Herc, even if just a little bit. I can’t stand Herc. He infuriates me as a character, mainly because he’s such an idiot, and his friends and associates allow him to keep doing his thing. He’s ruining Bubs’ life, messing up Randy’s, screwing up the Marlo investigation . . . He’s like the Wire’s version of Amelia Bedelia.

That said, this was a great episode. Another 5/5 again at last. What did you think?

All Hail the Mighty Victor!

March Madness has come to a close. It was a strange tournament this year for me. My picks were really spot on for the most part, with one glaring error: my pick to win it all (Michigan State) lost in the first round. Despite that, I held on with my other picks so that I ended up coming in 3rd place. It’s a moral victory, really. Though in my immediate family, TRC beat me to come in second, and then of course, there’s the grand prize winner: TommyBoy#Happy=)

(Did I spell that right?)

He was the only person to actually believe Villanova would win it all, which I find odd. I mean, they were a #2 seed, and out of 16 entries, only 1 person went with them? Tournament brackets truly are a strange science.

What does TommyBoy win? The right to design a post-apocalyptic character for my UTOPIA book,  of course. Think of it as sort of a Mad Max-esque, body modified, steam punk-ish person. Maybe he/she has a metal clamp for an arm, or breathes through a ventilator, or has a flamethrower built into their body somewhere. Tattoos? Crazy hair? Go for it. I might have to tweak things to make it fit with the story (no guns, for example. There are non on board the ship.), but I’m going to try and work with whatever I get.

Also, name the character! So far I’ve got one called Albert the Dog Faced Boy, for example. There’s also the Oversir. Go to town! Get inventive! You deserve it, TommyBoy.

What will I do to keep myself busy now that I can’t vicariously live through the brackets? Play fantasy baseball, of course. My team (the Punxsutawney Groundhogs) was just drafted on Friday, and they already started up their season. In true Bryce-fashion, they look great on paper and have promptly underperformed for the first two days of action.

Go Groundhogs!

What to Watch this Month on Netflix?

New month, new movies! I always look forward to the beginning of each new month, since it means I get a whole new slate of options for my viewing pleasure on Netflix. This month is no different. To find out what’s playing, I never use Netflix’s recommendations. They always seem crummy to me. Instead, I turn to instantwatcher.com, which shows me the new offering all at once, each day. It also includes rottentomatoes’ ratings and other metrics for me to know how good the film or show might be. Love love love that site.

But I’m here to save you from even having to do that. I’ve picked through the new movies, and I’m here with my personal choices and recommendations. Ready? Here we go:

2001–I’m assuming you’ve seen this one already, but if you haven’t, you really ought to. Great science fiction, even if it gets pretty trippy at the end . . . Nominated for 4 Oscars, including Best Director for Stanley Kubrik, and Best Original Screenplay
The Agony and the Ecstasy–5 Oscar nominations for this movie about painting the Sistene Chapel. Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison. Classic cinema, folks.
Animaniacs–Are you pondering what I’m pondering? 4 volumes of awesomeness for you. I loved this show growing up. Cartoon bliss.
Best in Show–Classic mockumentary about a dog show competition, in the vein of Waiting for Guffman.
Bowfinger–Steve Martin is a hack movie director who’s got an idea for a new film. He wants Eddie Murphy to star in it, but doesn’t know how to make that happen. (And he can’t afford him.) So he hatches a plan to stalk Murphy and film him in secret. Hilarity ensues.
Cutthroat Kitchen–2 new seasons of the show are out now. My family and I love watching the kitchen hijinks, with Alton Brown as ringleader. 4 chefs enter, and they’re asked to make basic dishes. The twist is that there are sabotages they have to deal with, all of them crazy and hilarious. This is a show that gets better the more practice they have running it.
E.T.–Do I really need to spell it out for you? E.T.!
Erin Brockovich–5 Oscar nominations, including a win for Julia Roberts.
Good Eats–Has a third collection out today. Classic food science fun. Love this show. And I’m friends with Alton Brown. (on Facebook . . .)
Grease: Live–I blogged about this a bit ago. A very fine production of the musical. Check it out!
The Land Before Time–The cartoon movie with like 1,000 sequels. But the original is a fair bit of fun.
The Money Pit–Far from Tom Hanks’ best movie, still fun to watch if you’re in the middle of a home renovation.
Mystic River–Not to be confused with Mystic Pizza. 6 Oscar nominations, including wins for Sean Penn and Tim Robbins in acting. Childhood friends are reunited through a murder investigation.
The Princess Bride–Seriously. Why are you even still reading this. You should be watching this movie already. Have fun storming the castle!
The Right Stuff–8 Oscar nominations for this movie depicting the early days of the Space Race. Love it.
The Shawshank Redemption–7 Oscar noms but tragically no wins. This is one of the best movies ever. Prison flick with Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, based on a story by Stephen King (but not horror at all).

If there’s not something in there to keep you occupied, then I don’t know what to do for you. Enjoy watching!