A thread for pointless Friday ramblings.

[kobayashi]

During hot and humid weather, I get eczema really badly. Which is why I always want to cool down very quickly. :p

i also used to get humidity-induced eczema. try and get hold of some glycerine soap and use that to wash your body with. don't go for any of those fancy body washes or anything.

paradoxically i found using a body moisturizer twice per day - once in the morning and especially at night after i showered - really helped keep it under control.

[donovan]

I just watched Black Panther for the first time last night with my wife. I can't recommend much more than the Busan scene, and even then only to expats who've been around a while.

Now that you say that, I have to agree that it is the best scene in the movie overall. Honestly, I couldn't buy into the hype that surrounded it when it first came out, social significance aside. It's no better than the average Marvel movie.

To the movie's defense, I haven't liked a movie in a long time ('Lion' being a notable exception).

It was all the forced non geographically specific "African" accents that did me in.  Seriously the casting call must have read:

Black actors needed, must be able to sound like you are from somewhere between Cairo and Capetown.

The pan-Africanism did give me pause initially, but didn’t bother me so much in the end. (It’s a rare breed of film that manages to be both pan-African and pan-Asian! Er, perhaps not...) I suppose since Wakanda isn’t a real country the filmmakers felt like they had carte blanche to borrow and form a mish-mash of the most attractive or exotic parts of the continent. (But don’t some people legitimately get in a huff when Africa is treated as an indistinguishable mass?) I wonder which country it is that stages a battle of hand-to-hand combat to choose their king; my guess is one of the less economically viable ones and one that is less noble than Wakanda is made out to be.

More than that it just wasn’t something I hadn’t seen before, all-black cast aside, which is significant for a film of its size. What?! The wounded title character who was thrown over the waterfall mid-movie somehow survived?! 우와!


Agent Ross: Something potentially interesting is about to happen!
scriptwriter: Shoot it down!

I keep telling myself no more superhero movies after each two and a half hour spectacle fails spectacularly, but I somehow keep finding myself sucked back in. It’s truly Marvel’s universe; I just live in it.

[kyndo]

To the movie's defense, I haven't liked a movie in a long time ('Lion' being a notable exception).

I enjoyed "Arrival" recently. I totally empathized with the protagonists excruciating pain at not being able to effectively communicate with those she was employed to communicate with. Also, how it basically took an act of God for her to finally understand the foreigner's language.

[donovan]

To the movie's defense, I haven't liked a movie in a long time ('Lion' being a notable exception).

I enjoyed "Arrival" recently. I totally empathized with the protagonists excruciating pain at not being able to effectively communicate with those she was employed to communicate with. Also, how it basically took an act of God for her to finally understand the foreigner's language.

That did have me in tears. Or maybe it was just Amy Adams's'soulful eyes~

[Kayos]

During hot and humid weather, I get eczema really badly. Which is why I always want to cool down very quickly. :p

i also used to get humidity-induced eczema. try and get hold of some glycerine soap and use that to wash your body with. don't go for any of those fancy body washes or anything.

paradoxically i found using a body moisturizer twice per day - once in the morning and especially at night after i showered - really helped keep it under control.

Cheers. I'll give those a try. Usually close to summer, I usually just go to the doctors to get some ointment, which I start taking when eczema shows up. :p

[wherever dreaming goes]

Why is it that English is always the one to be cut out or cut short when anything needs to be done!

I hadn't seen the students in a long time because of their club activities that take up the whole day. I finally see the students today and they arrive late to class and then pulled out of class early to move a plant from the ground into their pots, something which only took them 10 minutes ! This couldve been done in their 10 minute break. Now i find out they have club activites tomorrow again which will take up the whole day. I am the only English teacher at this small elementary school. So, obviously them not doing well in English is a direct reflction of me and my skills. I am EXTREMELY frustrated with this. The 3rd graders suck at English and when i requested for their after school class (i only see them for 15 minutes before half the class starts leaving for the bus) to be moved to a different time slot, the teachers refused 'cause nobody wanted to swap with me. Instead they play volleyball during that time, they have a pointless cooking classes, or they basically just sit around after lunch.

I dont see the chinese classes getting cut so because of this they speak chinese a lot better than English... This schools attitude toward English is transferred to the students were they just dont put in the effort either.
What makes it worse is that the teachers actively avoid speaking to me or even walking past me just to avoid speaking to me in English. Ok, maybe i'm over-exagerating the last bit, but it definitely feels that way.

I'm thinking about transfering to another school when the time comes, I still want to stay in the city, I don't know how that works yet... but I'm worried that both my schools are a packaged deal, if I transfer from one, I may also have to change the other...

Sigh...am I making too big of a deal out of this?

[CO2]

they have a pointless cooking classes, or they basically just sit around after lunch.

But how will they know how to make Kimchi jjigae??????????????????????

[Bingsu]

Why is it that English is always the one to be cut out or cut short when anything needs to be done!

I hadn't seen the students in a long time because of their club activities that take up the whole day. I finally see the students today and they arrive late to class and then pulled out of class early to move a plant from the ground into their pots, something which only took them 10 minutes ! This couldve been done in their 10 minute break. Now i find out they have club activites tomorrow again which will take up the whole day. I am the only English teacher at this small elementary school. So, obviously them not doing well in English is a direct reflction of me and my skills. I am EXTREMELY frustrated with this. The 3rd graders suck at English and when i requested for their after school class (i only see them for 15 minutes before half the class starts leaving for the bus) to be moved to a different time slot, the teachers refused 'cause nobody wanted to swap with me. Instead they play volleyball during that time, they have a pointless cooking classes, or they basically just sit around after lunch.

I dont see the chinese classes getting cut so because of this they speak chinese a lot better than English... This schools attitude toward English is transferred to the students were they just dont put in the effort either.
What makes it worse is that the teachers actively avoid speaking to me or even walking past me just to avoid speaking to me in English. Ok, maybe i'm over-exagerating the last bit, but it definitely feels that way.

I'm thinking about transfering to another school when the time comes, I still want to stay in the city, I don't know how that works yet... but I'm worried that both my schools are a packaged deal, if I transfer from one, I may also have to change the other...

Sigh...am I making too big of a deal out of this?

Nah it's the same with my school. Kids show up 20 minutes late from whatever club they had before English, stay for 10 minutes and then leave for another club. And people wonder why those kids have almost no English ability.

Same with the teachers, and same with wanting to transfer lmao

If the schools want us here, why do they allow students to sign up for so many clubs and not care if they even attend classes? What's the point in taking attendance if they're only in class for 1/4 the time allotted?

[JVPrice]

Why is it that English is always the one to be cut out or cut short when anything needs to be done!

I hadn't seen the students in a long time because of their club activities that take up the whole day. I finally see the students today and they arrive late to class and then pulled out of class early to move a plant from the ground into their pots, something which only took them 10 minutes ! This couldve been done in their 10 minute break. Now i find out they have club activites tomorrow again which will take up the whole day. I am the only English teacher at this small elementary school. So, obviously them not doing well in English is a direct reflction of me and my skills. I am EXTREMELY frustrated with this. The 3rd graders suck at English and when i requested for their after school class (i only see them for 15 minutes before half the class starts leaving for the bus) to be moved to a different time slot, the teachers refused 'cause nobody wanted to swap with me. Instead they play volleyball during that time, they have a pointless cooking classes, or they basically just sit around after lunch.

I dont see the chinese classes getting cut so because of this they speak chinese a lot better than English... This schools attitude toward English is transferred to the students were they just dont put in the effort either.
What makes it worse is that the teachers actively avoid speaking to me or even walking past me just to avoid speaking to me in English. Ok, maybe i'm over-exagerating the last bit, but it definitely feels that way.

I'm thinking about transfering to another school when the time comes, I still want to stay in the city, I don't know how that works yet... but I'm worried that both my schools are a packaged deal, if I transfer from one, I may also have to change the other...

Sigh...am I making too big of a deal out of this?

That really sucks... On the flip-side, you can see it as not having to put in much effort yourself and getting some extra time to rest while you're waiting for them. The way I see it, you shouldn't try if they aren't going to reciprocate your efforts. Your school clearly doesn't care, and neither do the students it seems. No point in worrying about it. Wait until you have a chance to transfer schools and go for it.

[yirj17]

To the movie's defense, I haven't liked a movie in a long time ('Lion' being a notable exception).

I enjoyed "Arrival" recently. I totally empathized with the protagonists excruciating pain at not being able to effectively communicate with those she was employed to communicate with. Also, how it basically took an act of God for her to finally understand the foreigner's language.

That did have me in tears. Or maybe it was just Amy Adams's'soulful eyes~

Amy Adams is just altogether lovely~

I quite liked Arrival, thought it was well done.  Also the alien design was pretty cool!  I'd like more movies of a similar ilk

[donovan]

To the movie's defense, I haven't liked a movie in a long time ('Lion' being a notable exception).

I enjoyed "Arrival" recently. I totally empathized with the protagonists excruciating pain at not being able to effectively communicate with those she was employed to communicate with. Also, how it basically took an act of God for her to finally understand the foreigner's language.

That did have me in tears. Or maybe it was just Amy Adams's'soulful eyes~

Amy Adams is just altogether lovely~

I quite liked Arrival, thought it was well done.  Also the alien design was pretty cool!  I'd like more movies of a similar ilk

similar ilk:

‘Sicario’: Same director, but with Emily Blunt’s’soulful eyes.
‘Blade Runner’: Same director, but with Ryan Gosling’s soulful eyes. Also another slow-burn sci-fi.
‘The Martian’: Same can-do collaboration-is-the-answer spirit, although a bit more upbeat.
‘Contact’: Kind of a (what’s another word for?) gyp because there ain’t no actual aliens (All’s you get is 18 hours of unaccounted for static on an audio recording) but still about as good as soft-core sci-fi gets.

[Dave Stepz]

I liked this article about a film critics favourite war movies and the ones he couldn't stand.

For a long time now, my wife has refused to watch a war movie with me. This is because I cannot stop grinding my teeth with annoyance at major historical mistakes, or harrumphing over errors of period detail. She only made an exception when Valkyrie came out, with Tom Cruise playing Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg. Such a folly of miscasting was bound to be a hoot, and we were not disappointed, especially when Cruise saluted in that downward cutaway style as if he were still in Top Gun. But I was soon grinding away again when the director and screenwriter felt compelled to improve on history, by making it look as if the 20 July plot to blow up Hitler had still very nearly succeeded.

I despair at the way American and British movie-makers feel they have every right to play fast and loose with the facts, yet have the arrogance to imply that their version is as good as the truth. Continental film-makers are on the whole far more scrupulous. The German film Downfall, about Hitler’s last days in the bunker, respected historical events and recreated them accurately.

In my view, the greatest war movie ever made is The 317th Platoon, a French film from 1965 set during the country’s first Indochina war. This was the original “platoon movie”, whose format later directors followed but failed to match in its portrayal of characters and their interaction, to say nothing of the moral choices and the corruption of combat. It is followed closely by 1966’s The Battle of Algiers, set during the Algerian war of independence. This was one of the first war films to adopt a quasi-documentary approach, and tackle the moral quagmire of torture justified by the need to save lives.

More recent imitators lack all intellectual honesty. They throw dates and place names on to the screen as if what you are about to see is a faithful reproduction of events, when they are simply trying to pass off their fiction as authentic. This is basically a marketing ploy that has developed over the last 20 years or so. Unfortunately, fake authenticity sells. People are more likely to want to see something they think is very close to the truth, so they can feel they are learning as well as being entertained. In a post-literate society, the moving image is king, and most people’s knowledge of history is regrettably based more on cinematic fiction than archival fact.

There are many examples of shameless deception, such as the notorious U-571, in which a US warship is shown to capture a German submarine and seize its Enigma decoding machine, thus enabling the Allies to win the battle of the Atlantic. Right at the end, in the credits, a brief text admitted that in fact it had been the crew of a Royal Navy destroyer, HMS Bulldog, that performed the feat – seven months before the US entered the war.

...

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/29/antony-beevor-the-greatest-war-movie-ever-and-the-ones-i-cant-bear

Didn't mention Das Boot, mind.

[zola]

Personal top 5

1. Downfall - Though you could argue it's not really a war movie in the traditional sense
2. Where Eagles Dare
3. Cross of Iron
4. Thin Red Line
5. Gallipoli - 1981 film with Mel Gibson. I remeber crying when I was a little kid when we watched it in class. My friend laughed at me.

[HaLo3]

I have never been hugely into war movies, but my tops are

1. Great Escape
2. Stalag 17
3. Dirty Dozen
4. Bridge On the River Kwai
5. Sand Pebbles (this one made me really sad as a kid cuz I used to have a crush on Steve McQueen)

I know these are all sensationalized and not accurate, but I still really like them.

[Kayos]

1. WAR-craft. Geddit?

[CO2]

I have never been hugely into war movies, but my tops are

1. Great Escape
2. Stalag 17
3. Dirty Dozen
4. Bridge On the River Kwai
5. Sand Pebbles (this one made me really sad as a kid cuz I used to have a crush on Steve McQueen)

I know these are all sensationalized and not accurate, but I still really like them.

Good choices, Halo3.

Does the Cold War count? Because The Spy Who Came In From the Cold is a masterpiece.

Also, Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. Patton and Inglorious Basterds! So many......................

[kyndo]

Top war films of all time:


1. Ender's Game
       How to go from annoying little beta kid to the saviour of the human race in one horrifyingly
        amoral process. Good social commentary on contemporary military training practices. The movie was
       pretty crap, but the book was awesome.
3. Independence Day
       Something about millions of people getting zapped like bugs. Lot's of pretty implausible
       military movie kitsch, but it starred Will Smith that sorta balanced the scales.
3. Starship Troopers
       Classic story of a team of plucky conscripts facing overwhelming odds, overcoming their
       personal demons, developing camaraderie, taking the fight to the enemy, and kicking some bug ass.
4. Battleship
       A bunch of of old dudes and quasi surfer-dude rejects in an antiquated boat play checkers
       with a hyper-advanced alien dreadnaught. The almost sickening amount of nationalism and ooh-rah
        could have been forgiven if only they had chosen to play chess. I mean, who plays checkers?
5. Battlefield Earth
       It's on the bottom of my list. Hell, it's on the bottom of everybody's list and rightfully so.
       That said, it's still better than most historical/contemporary war flicks.


      You might not have guessed, but I'm not really a huge war flick fan. Sci-fi is pretty awesome though.


*You'll notice that I left actually good films alone. You're welcome.

[tylerthegloob]

Top war films of all time:


1. Ender's Game
       How to go from annoying little beta kid to the saviour of the human race in one horrifyingly
        amoral process. Good social commentary on contemporary military training practices. The movie was
       pretty crap, but the book was awesome.
3. Independence Day
       Something about millions of people getting zapped like bugs. Lot's of pretty implausible
       military movie kitsch, but it starred Will Smith that sorta balanced the scales.
3. Starship Troopers
       Classic story of a team of plucky conscripts facing overwhelming odds, overcoming their
       personal demons, developing camaraderie, taking the fight to the enemy, and kicking some bug ass.
4. Battleship
       A bunch of of old dudes and quasi surfer-dude rejects in an antiquated boat play checkers
       with a hyper-advanced alien dreadnaught. The almost sickening amount of nationalism and ooh-rah
        could have been forgiven if only they had chosen to play chess. I mean, who plays checkers?
5. Battlefield Earth
       It's on the bottom of my list. Hell, it's on the bottom of everybody's list and rightfully so.
       That said, it's still better than most historical/contemporary war flicks.


      You might not have guessed, but I'm not really a huge war flick fan. Sci-fi is pretty awesome though.


*You'll notice that I left actually good films alone. You're welcome.

If you're into video games and haven't already played it, I think you'd really like the StarCraft campaign story.

[kyndo]

If you're into video games and haven't already played it, I think you'd really like the StarCraft campaign story.

I played the crap out of that when it first came out. Good times.
Normally, I might take your mention of it as an opportunity to take another look at it, except...

... 2 years ago, in a group bonding attempt, a bunch of the under 40 teachers at my school decided to all go out together to a nearby PC bang and load up on junkfood, energy drinks, and bet blasted on Starcraft. Literally all the youngish teachers were there: the IT guy, the handful of mid 20's just-out-of-uni female contract teachers, the gym instructors, the hard-core gaming science fellow, and of course, me. I was ready to crack my knuckes and show 'em how it was done, but I then proceeded to spill hot^6 down the front of my shirt, and then lose (horribly) for the next 2 or 3 hours.
    I mean, the home-ec teacher who spent the entire time squinting into a mirror to fix her makeup and could only spare one hand for the mouse? Schooled me. The PE teacher who left every 2 minutes for a 2 minute smoke break? Ran laps around me. The random grade one student who took over for the science teacher while he went to fetch back soju? I was barely out of the faction selection team when he dropped in with his bajillion battle-cruisers and obliterated me. 

I guess it just goes to show that a few dozen hours nearly 20 years ago can't compete with 40 hours a week dedicated practice...

[yirj17]

To the movie's defense, I haven't liked a movie in a long time ('Lion' being a notable exception).

I enjoyed "Arrival" recently. I totally empathized with the protagonists excruciating pain at not being able to effectively communicate with those she was employed to communicate with. Also, how it basically took an act of God for her to finally understand the foreigner's language.

That did have me in tears. Or maybe it was just Amy Adams's'soulful eyes~

Amy Adams is just altogether lovely~

I quite liked Arrival, thought it was well done.  Also the alien design was pretty cool!  I'd like more movies of a similar ilk

similar ilk:

‘Sicario’: Same director, but with Emily Blunt’s’soulful eyes.
‘Blade Runner’: Same director, but with Ryan Gosling’s soulful eyes. Also another slow-burn sci-fi.
‘The Martian’: Same can-do collaboration-is-the-answer spirit, although a bit more upbeat.
‘Contact’: Kind of a (what’s another word for?) gyp because there ain’t no actual aliens (All’s you get is 18 hours of unaccounted for static on an audio recording) but still about as good as soft-core sci-fi gets.

Ooo Emily Blunt!  Fan of her as well. 

You must mean the new Blade Runner??  I only recently saw the old one not long ago, though I had a prickling of deja vu so maybe I did see it when I was younger. 

Enjoyed The Martian, been meaning to read the book sometime.  Thanks for the recommendations!