Sexual Attack: Be Careful :)

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Copy machine fights back

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Magnolia

I finally saw this movie, an incredibly bad movie, so I fast forwarded through most scenes. The scenes I did watch had Julianne Moore and John C. Reilly. I think John C. Reilly is interesting actor. Julianne Moore who I always thought was seductive and a fine actress, is usually a pleasure to watch. Julianne did a very good job portraying a woman with low moral standards hooked on drugs and the guilt that follows from such behavior. Almost had me remembering vivid experiences. If you see a woman act like this in real life, and I have, she is either on drugs or suffering from psychosis. She was not a pleasure to watch in this movie, but a very fine actress to watch nevertheless.

Talladega Nights

I enjoyed this over-the-top mad men comedy. Will Ferrell's movies are generally not that funny, in my opinion, but this one has John C. Reilly. It's a fun holiday movie to watch at home on DVD. I thought the classroom scene and training sequence on "facing your fears" were hilarious. The "best friend" relationship was funny too.

Education

I am often saddened when I think about the quality of teachers I've had in school. I remember in my sophomore year in high school, I took a class in Numerical Methods with Fortran Programming. The teacher had given us a mid term exam and the correct answer was marked wrong. I took 40 minutes to explain to her by algorithm analysis why the answer I chose was correct. We only had 50 minutes total to take the test, yet it took her over 40 minute to understand something that originally took me 2-3 minutes. She kept on saying my answer is wrong and that since this is the first time I took Fortran it is natural for me to make a mistake. It wasn't until 2-3 weeks later, that she admitted my answer was correct. However she refuse change my grade because it had already went out on the report card. And I went to a Vanguard Program for Gifted Students. So they had the creme of the crop teachers there.

In University Calculus II, I explained to the TA how the numbers on the problem did not require any calculation, other than basic multiplication you learned in elementary school, because she had messed up the numbers on the rate of change. I preceded to explain to her mathematically those numbers don't make sense but it never registered on her head. No one in the class said anything. They were all doing the quizzes apparently without sensing any problems. The TA said, "If this is a problem, how come no one else has said anything?" I answered, "Maybe because they don't know." She gave me a pissed off look and said, "Just do the best you can." At the next class she announced there were some problems on the quiz and it will be results will be discarded.

I had a few talented teachers but by far and large, most of them are a waste of time. One can just read the books and do without the teacher. Most authors that wrote the University textbooks were pretty smart but the professors that ended up teaching them were a waste of time.

Evidently getting a Ivy League private education at Harvard and Yale does not solve the problem of getting a quality education either. Look at George W. Bush, a graduate of Yale and the Harvard MBA program, as an example. It goes to show that it doesn't take brains to get a degree from those schools. A study showed that most graduates of Harvard were utter failures.

As a funny aside, when I took the Concealed Handgun Certification Class, the teacher had many correct answers on the test marked wrong. I had a Federal Agent taking the test along with me and he had his correct answers marked wrong as well. The teacher also said that George W. Bush was doing a terrific job and that the Iraq war was going well and we need to stay the course in order to win. It goes to show what teachers people get.

Buying a New Home

I suggest that anyone buying a new or used home hire a Certified Master Inspector (CMI) and get a real estate attorney at closing. If I had been blinded without these resources, I would have been screwed over by KB Home and their partner LMI Funding, Inc. For a new home inspection, a CMI and ICC certification is preferable. Builders such as KB Home and others will try to sell you a brand new home with poor craftsmanship and design flaws while their people tell you its the perfect house. I don't know much about houses so I hired an master inspector and someone who was also once a home builder to help me out. What I found out was illuminating. He said that he has not inspected a single house from small homes to multi-million dollar mansions that did not have a structural flaw or violated building code. I asked him if he recommended any builder and he said he recommended none. He said builders take short cuts to maximize their profits and that KB Home was not bad in relation to other builders.

During closing, you sign papers a couple of inches thick. It's hard to understand all the paperwork and numbers unless you are technical or have a real estate attorney to protect your interests and make sure you don't sign anything that leaves you unprotected.

My experience was the LMI Funding lied to us about the numbers and then changed it at the last minute before closing. KB Home tried to hide their structural flaws and claimed that is was perfect. The title company, American Title, lied about the numbers that we were to sign. It's a very crooked business. Hire some people to protect your interests. After all, you spend good money on a home. You would expect them to at least do their job with integrity.