Winning

I fit in exercise session 68, cuddled a sweet baby, reunited with old friends and after years, finally played a home game of poker- and won! 

p.s. It doesn't happen often but Noah joins the ranks of rented movies that are so bad, I can't even finish them. This movie was terrible in so many ways, as better elaborated here: The Emperor's New Movie.

p.s.s. It was probably cute, but I fell asleep before getting through Dreamworks Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Reading through a Wikipedia overview after waking up didn't compel me to continue. 

I also saw Kung Fu Panda 2, which was cute but did not surpass its predecessor.

More Dreamworks Animation Movies

*focus*  *harmony* *honor* *sacrifice* *courage* *power* *agility* *speed* *grace* *balance*

I have watched also:

Kung Fu Panda - one of my favorites of Dreamworks Animation
Over The Hedge - okay
Flushed Away - cute
Megamind - entertaining

Puss in Boots - very cute 
Rise of the Guardians - not feeling it

Since I embarked on this mission in April, I have now seen 13 of the 29 Dreamworks Animated movies (not counting movies I had seen previously but will rewatch, including Shrek; How To Train Your Dragon; Chicken Run):

1	Antz	October 2, 1998
2	The Prince of Egypt	December 18, 1998
3	The Road to El Dorado	March 31, 2000
4	Chicken Run	June 23, 2000
5	Shrek	May 18, 2001
6	Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron	May 24, 2002
7	Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas	July 2, 2003
8	Shrek 2	May 19, 2004
9	Shark Tale	October 1, 2004
10	Madagascar	May 27, 2005
11	Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit	October 7, 2005
12	Over the Hedge	May 19, 2006
13	Flushed Away	November 3, 2006
14	Shrek the Third	May 18, 2007
15	Bee Movie	November 2, 2007
16	Kung Fu Panda	June 6, 2008
17	Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa	November 7, 2008
18	Monsters vs. Aliens	March 27, 2009
19	How to Train Your Dragon	March 26, 2010
20	Shrek Forever After	May 21, 2010
21	Megamind	November 5, 2010
22	Kung Fu Panda 2	May 26, 2011
23	Puss in Boots	October 28, 2011
24	Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted	June 8, 2012
25	Rise of the Guardians	November 21, 2012
26	The Croods	March 22, 2013
27	Turbo	July 17, 2013
28	Mr. Peabody & Sherman	March 7, 2014
29	How to Train Your Dragon 2	June 13, 2014

Exercise Session 62

 

To my surprise, I've been keeping up with exercise since I started in April. I like using this blog to document my efforts and to keep me motivated to continue. Yesterday's treadmill session, I was proud of myself for putting in extra time.

I finally achieved a goal (shout out to my old abandoned blog). I have not yet hit 50 gym visits to earn health insurance reimbursement (because I slacked earlier this year and since my reboot this April, most of my workouts have been on an apartment treadmill). However, I now do fit back into my mosquito pants!

Divergent - The Paradox of Choice

Just saw the Divergent movie - it's very entertaining and cast very well. Shailene Woodley is a great young actress and yes, her romantic opposite is hot. 

While I enjoyed the story, its base premise seems to be flawed. 

"In a futuristic dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions: Abnegation the selfless, Amity the peaceful, Candor the honest, Dauntless the brave, and Erudite the intelligent. Members join a faction based on their choice but are given a suggestion by an aptitude test." 

The test results of Tris, the heroine of the story, show attributes of several factions (Abnegation, Erudite and Dauntless), meaning she is Divergent. Tris spends most of the movie keeping this a secret, as Divergents are considered threats to the social order and are persecuted.

To mask that she is a Divergent, Tris's test results are recorded as Abnegation (the faction into which she was born). However, at a choosing ceremony, Tris joins the faction of Dauntless. She then proceeds to pass various stages of testing to complete her initiation into Dauntless.

At one point, Tris needs special training from her boy toy, the dark and stormy Four (stupid name) to complete her final initiation test as a Dauntless would, as making choices unlike those of Dauntless would reveal her to be Divergent to the powers that be. To me, this demonstrates a paradox. 

If passing the Dauntless final test is facilitated by making choices as Dauntless would, then anyone who doesn't via assessment test match into Dauntless but chooses to join Dauntless and successfully passes initiation should (either be Divergent or) possess the qualities of more than one faction - that of the house they matched into and that of Dauntless.

I understand that according to the story, Divergence is a special quality, like a physiological condition, existing when a single individual possesses attributes of more than one faction - a big no-no for the government. But, if you're going to allow for choice, anyone who tests into one faction but joins another also possesses attributes of more than one faction - that of the house they tested into and that of the house they chose and successfully joined. The existence of choice begets its own kind of divergence.

I'm guessing the ultimate revelation could be that everyone is capable of divergence and that factions are simply a tyrannical system of control imposed upon the masses which when confronted will enable people to realize that they do not have to exclusively embody one defining attribute. In that case, choice should have been eliminated to keep the pre-revolutionary ruse intact. It's totally inconsistent to persecute Divergents if you're going to allow people to choose a faction despite what they test into, unless the expectation is that anyone who chooses a faction outside of their test results should definitely fail, but that doesn't seem to be the case in the story. You would think the Erudites would have figured this out already?

p.s. According to Wikipedia, the author of Divergent wrote the novel "while on winter break in her senior year and the movie rights sold before she graduated from college." I was lucky if I got through a load of laundry during my winter breaks.

Tuxedo Kittens

I'm allergic to cats. Yet, last weekend, I spontaneously embarked upon a stray kitten rescue mission prompted by my compassionate cousin. 

It's a long story, but I'm happy to report that these little babies, only 3 weeks old (and flea-free!) by the Vet's assessment, are in great hands. They will be nursed by an expert before they are ready for adoption. 

Jeopardy Injustice Prevails!

I received the following notice:
 

A few days ago your petition — Justice in JEOPARDY for Kid Contestant Zoe! — was automatically closed because it had been open for 366 days. Is your campaign still going? Don't worry — you can easily reopen your petition.

If your campaign won, that's fantastic! Declare victory now and let your supporters know you've won.

Thanks for starting a campaign on Change.org,

The Change.org Team 

I still think Jeopardy made a terrible ruling, and a whopping 49 people across the country agree with me.