"Home," or How Bad Can Hollywood Get?

Isabelle wanted to see Home, the Hollywood adaptation of Adam Rex's fantastic book The True Meaning of Smekday, so, being a good dad, I gritted my teeth and brought her. All I can say is, what inspires us, that we find it necessary to take a thing of brilliance and beauty, and rip it to shreds? Are we humans no better than Gorg? Not the cute little starfish in the movie, the Gorg, as in "If you took all the Gorg in the world and stacked them one on top of the other, the Gorg would kill you." Are we truly as pathetic as the Boov think we are?

Adam Rex produced a thinly veiled indictment of Euroamerican colonialism, in a hysterical book that simultaneously was also able to convey the devastation of an eleven year-old girl whose single mother has been violently taken away from her. Yes, he really did get all three of those into a single children's adventure tale. If Hollywood made it into a silly romp, that would have been predictably bad. But to paste on a moral that only humans truly understand love and faith and courage, and the human capacity for friendship triumphs over all, is self-righteous horseshit. (Pardon my language.)



No, I was not expecting that Hollywood could adapt this book into a movie. Not even the folks who did a fine job with The Fault in Our Stars. But I am not able to fathom the depth of our banality. These people must be the sort who would paint a mustache on the Mona Lisa.



(I remember hearing that a review should always find something good to say, so here it is: the producers did not chicken out of showing Tip's family as biracial. Kudos.)

Partial Zero Emission Vehicles

I just saw that Honda is advertising a "Partial Zero Emission Vehicle," which sounds really cool. No one else is marketing a Zero Emission Vehicle right now. This is "Partial Zero," but as every 3rd grader knows, a part of zero is still zero. Try it: 1/10 * 0 = ??

I suppose it's possible that they intended to hyphenate, indicating that their car is partially a Zero-Emission-Vehicle. This makes me wonder, which part? No emissions on the left side? Or from the front? Of course, nearly all cars in good repair could be called zero emission from the front, all the emissions come out the back. So maybe the zero-emission part is just the passenger cabin. Of course, this would depend on operator skill. For instance, too much chili could compromise the zero-emission nature of the car.

Well, I'll just be mystified for the moment. In the meantime, I can't wait until some car maker remembers the actual zero emission vehicle they made in the 1990s, and decides to market it again.

ebook and paper book compared

I really like my Nook. But it is astonishing what a bad deal it is:

Ebook	Paper Books
c. $12.00	c. $15.00
Not returnable. The moment you click "Confirm purchase" your stuck with it.	Returnable
Can't resell	Can resell, for $2-8. Final price $7-13
Can't buy used	Can buy used, for $2-8, and then resell again, perhaps breaking even.
Can loan out once, if friend has same device	Can loan or give away freely
Depends on technology. Can be lost by tech failures or changing formats	Lasts centuries with reasonable care.

The principle advantage, as I can see it, is that an ebook doesn't take up space on your bookshelf, and you don't have to wait for it to come in the mail. It's fun to be cutting edge, but, really...

Of course, almost ALL of the disadvantages of ebooks are CREATED by the publisher.

Oh, yeah, that reminds me of the BIGGEST advantage of ebooks: you don't have to rely on major publishers to create them!

Art, Emergencies, and Money

So Isabelle once again has the sign on the door:

Artist at work
do not disturb
(inless an amgincy)

You can see her spelling is improving, though still has a way to go. I knocked on the door.

"Daddy? Is this an emergency?"

"Yes," I said. "Your friend is going to be here in ten minutes and you need to get dressed." Okay, so I stretched the definition of "emergency," but she was okay with it. Then she showed me her fine drawings, and informed me:

"If you buy three at full price, you get a coupon for a free drawing."

Somehow I think I'm raising a little Yankee trader.

I'll try to post some of the creations, once I get the scanner and computer talking to each other.