I bought, read and finished Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  I am still digesting the book.  The first portion of the book that I read was the most disturbing.  I was so upset (and will be for a while) about excision.  I don't even want to get into it. FGM...

Sigh.  I want to write so much about this book.  I read it rather quickly, yet I absorbed a lot of the information.  I never could have imagined how much one person could go through in their lifetime.  It would be so difficult to want to keep living.  Yet, she has a drive to promote change in Islamic countries and countries that allow Muslims to treat women like crap just because they claim it's part of their religion.

I agree with Ali when she says Islam is not a religion of peace and tolerance.  It's not that at all.

I hope I can write something of better quality next time around.

J.W.

My husband was browsing through his usual list of links yesterday and started playing a video of an interview.  This interview was from the show "On The Map" hosted by Avi Lewis and featured Ayaan Hirsi Ali as a guest. My husband pointed out that the host used the phrase "Arch Conservative" saying that no one would refer to a Liberal organization as "Arch" anything.  I believe that was also something Dennis Prager said during his break down of this interview.

So, this interviewer makes me sick.  He's a Canadian that truly does not know much about America.  He takes talking points that are thrown around by the self-hating American citizens (you may also call them 'Liberals') and attempts to use them (the talking points) against her.  I'm glad Lewis is stopped in his tracks by Hirsi Ali.  He even asks Hirsi Ali if there's "a school where they teach you all of these American clichés"

It's a fabulous interview, at least her end of it is anyway. I can't stand to listen to Lewis for very long.
On The Map Interview

On a related note, I need to read her book Infidel  as soon as possible.

I stuck this post under "education" simply because I learned about an amazing woman.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is my hero.

I'll elaborate tomorrow. If you can't wait that long, look her up.

J.W.

I work with a bunch of people that have decided that they do not want children.  Their choice.

I have said that I want four children.  Yes ladies and gentlemen, I want four little ones.  Why four?  Well, if I have the ability to have them, I want four of them.  After all, when we go to amusement parks we don't have to worry about one person being left out. No, that's not the real reason.  Does anyone really care why I want that many?

A coworker said that she's limiting me to two kids.  Hmm, because she has that kind of control over me?  I think not.  She's one of those that's disgusted by the idea of having children and I have three other coworkers that feel the same way.  Yes, I said "feel".  Seriously, they aren't thinking this through.  Maybe if they found the right person they'd change their minds about having children.  Anyway, this coworker said, "Isn't there enough overcrowding?  You just want to add to it?"

I wanted to explode on her, but we were on the clock.  Damn.  It's not funny.  I want something and I think I can handle it, why question what I think?  Crap, these people drive me crazy sometimes.

The reasoning behind my wanting to explode but not doing it?  I live in California.  I can't say anything that would defend myself against they looney liberals. I have so many things I want to say, but I feel that I shouldn't say certain things in the work place. Anyway,  if you have ever driven across the country, or even to just from the Los Angeles area to any given place inland, you've seen the vast amount of land that is empty.  Do you want cheap, uninhabited land?  Drive past Victorville, CA.  You'll see plenty of "For Sale" signs and barren land.  Drive through most of Texas and you'll see a whole lot of nothing.  I've seen it.  There's plenty of available space in most inland states.

Oh!  You want desirable land?  Yeah, that's why you say it's overcrowded!  Duh! Everyone wants to live near the ocean.  If they don't want to live near an ocean, they opt for some other body of water.  Yes, look at a population density map and you'll see what I'm talking about.

I feel so trapped when a subject like this comes up because I know I can defend myself, but I don't know if saying something to these people will do anything.  They'll just say I'm full of crap. I'd rather not start fights at work.  Now, if this was at school, that would be a different story.  Oh wait, I'd be the one that would end up with a teacher that would dock points from my grade because I said things that didn't jive with their beliefs.

You think I'm full of it?  I live in California, the weirdest state in the U.S.

Until next time,
J.W.

I know, it's a double-post day.

This morning, well at noon, I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  For the Harry Potter fans, they'd refer to it as HP5 or use some other abbreviation.  I'm curious how many different directors there have been because this one seemed "brighter" even though the subject matter was "darker".  Could I be more vague? Most likely!

Okay, as much as I'd like to put the word "spoiler" in big, bold letters, I'm sure by now you know what's about to come.  After all, if you've read the book I can't be spoiling too much.

This movie was two hours and eighteen minutes long, but this book was really long. Naturally, the movie cut out parts of the book.  Sadly, it cut out a lot of parts that could have made this movie so much better.  It's a good thing that I didn't read the book right before this movie came out because I'd be disappointed.  Because so much was not included in HP 5 I can hardly remember what was in the book or not.  There were characters that were present but not introduced properly.  They played much bigger roles in the book.  Luna Lovegood played a bigger role in the movie. The namesake of the book and movie, The Order of the Phoenix, didn't have enough air time.

I liked the movie.  I liked it simply because I am a fan and I always look forward to how someone is going to interpret the descriptions from the book.  I wish this movie had been more complete.

I'm trying to separate the series of books from the movies in my mind because they're obviously going to have differences.

Until the next movie or event, later!

J.W.

My husband and I went to Las Vegas for a couple days. We spent time with both family and friends.

A few things from the trip:

Television is unbelievably painful to watch. We don't own a tv and have no reason to watch it.  We stayed at a time share and we watched some tv and I couldn't believe how incredibly brainless it was. I also had a hard time grasping the amount of time I have wasted in front of televisions.  Commercials are horribly stupid I might add.  So, I haven't been watching tv regularly since March and I'm glad.  I don't know if I will want to spend much money on paying for it in the future.Las Vegas is horribly hot.  The upside to being in Las Vegas is that it's a dry heat.  I can handle the dry heat because humidity is what makes heat miserable. Somehow I managed to survive the 108 degrees or so each day.  I guess it would be good to mention that I used to live where the temperature got up to 78 degrees and I'd complain.  Okay, so this paragraph sucks.  Time to go on to the next!

At The Mirage, we saw Cirque du Soleil's Love which features some of The Beatles' music.  I enjoyed the show overall.  A lot of the performance lacked a connection to what was in the songs playing, but I can overlook that.  However, one of the websites that provides information about the show, it said that it is not recommended from children ages 5 and under and children 3 and under will not be admitted.  Let me tell you how this is not enough.  The show was very sexual.  There wasn't any nudity, but the positions the cast were in were not appropriate for anyone younger than junior high age.  In fact, most junior high students would giggle the whole way through.

Obviously the music was good, it's The Beatles.  The problem with the music is that I wished that more of the most notable songs were used.  It's called "Love" right? The didn't use the song "All You Need is Love" until the end.  That's the song I wanted to hear the most.  I think there was only one other song that used the word "love" in it.  So how did they ever come up with the title?  Seriously, it beats me.

We also went to the Hilton to go to the Star Trek Experience.  We did not go on the guided tour, but we went on/to the other attractions.  The first day we went they told us that the Borg Invasion 4-D "ride" broke down and that we'd get tickets for half price.  We went through the "line" and looked at the Star Trek timeline and all the cool stuff from the different series and movies.  Then we went on the Klingon Encounter.  From the beginning it looks like we're about to board Disney's Star Tours. Luckily it doesn't turn out that way and we enter a replica of the Enterprise bridge.  Yeah, freaking awesome! Then we board the ride, that is Star Trek's version of Disneyland's Star Tours. That ride was great.

The employees told us to come back the next day when the Borg Invasion was up and running again. We took our friends this time because my in-laws went home that morning. The Borg Invasion 4-D was okay.  We end up somewhere we "shouldn't" be.  The Borg tries to assimilate us.  Their attempts at assimilation hurt!  We were wearing 3-D glasses, they have stuff seem to come at your face.  I don't know about most people, but I really don't like when something coming at my eyes.  So let's say those type of things work really well on me (translation: the stuff coming toward me is supposed to make me react, and I did).  You end up getting poked by your seat and air is blown on your face.  It's interesting but I liked the Klingon ride more.

Since we were given new tickets, my husband and I got to go on the Klingon ride again!  It was fun this time around because we weren't so serious.  Our friends enjoyed this ride too and we were glad they went on it second. I think the ride part was better this time. That was too much fun!

After that it was off the Quark's Bar for drinks.  I had Deanna Troi's Chocolate Obsession.  It's like a mudslide with a hint of raspberry.  So good!

The last thing we did was go to an awesome asian restaurant.  I dare not share with you what it is.  Ha ha!

Transformers was awesome!

I'm too young to remember Transformers very well. However, I am familiar with the theme song.  I probably watched it a few times, but as a girl, I'm pretty sure that my parents didn't want me to watch the show.  Or it's quite possible that I just never got to watch tv when Transformers were on.  You be the judge.

Let's move on to...
Spoiler time (simply because I can.)

With a cast that consists of a long list of familiar names (and voices), I would usually be hesitant to see such a movie.  It's a good thing that I didn't know that there were so many big names in this film.

The beginning isn't very interesting until Bumblebee shows up.  Really, he literally shows up on Bobby Bolivia's (Bernie Mac) used car lot. Well, he followed Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) to the lot.  Of course Sam ends up with Bumblebee, that's because Sam has no other choice.  After all, Bumblebee destroys all the other cars on the lot including the "old" Bumblebee.

Okay, time to move on to the important stuff.  There's the usual times in the movie where you just think, "Alright, just get to the good stuff!"

I found the little "bad robots" to be very irritating.  I liked all of the action scenes. I didn't want Bumblebee to die, glad he didn't.

I should stop writing now, I'm not doing a good job.  I can't describe anything right now!  Maybe I should just go see the movie again!

Possible spoiler, I'm not sure yet.

On Friday I saw Bruce Willis' latest, Live Free or Die Hard.  This movie was great.  During the entire movie the action never stopped.  I was glad that I never once thought, "Hmm, I wonder how much longer this will be." I cannot believe how pleased I was with this movie.  It was hilarious and intense. Bruce Willis gets so banged up, but of course he comes out on top.

This movie briefly reminded me of Rocky Balboa because the wife was out of the picture.  I was thankful because I didn't need any romantic drama mixed into this one. When they introduced his daughter, I knew what was to come.  However, I didn't know she was going to be so "tough".  The hacker character... oh come on.  Hackers may be the pasty-I-stay-inside-all-day kind of guys, but do they have to be portrayed as pansies?  I don't think so.  You know, some hackers have other interests other than action figures.

The asian chick in the movie, why does she have to be excellent in karate?  For once, can we please have an asian that doesn't know martial arts?  Thanks.  Oh and when she kissed her man goodbye, I knew she was dead.  Dead, dead, dead. Wait, I also thought her man wasn't so manly because he sent his WOMAN to go do the job.  Sheesh.

Hmm... what else?  Fun movie.  Just don't bring the kids.