Kingdom of Heaven and IMDB
Adventure Man and I finished Rome, The Final Season, and weren’t ready to start anything else . . .you know how it is when you finish a really good series?
So today, we sat down to watch a movie I saw on a plane, Kingdom of Heaven, which Adventure Man had never seen. And the truth is the movie was a lot like the movie I saw on the plane, but was so much longer, and so much more full of detail. And – oh what fun – in one of the earliest scenes, I said to Adventure Man “Look! There’s Vorenus!”
“Noooooo.” he denied I had seen Vorenus in the entourage of Orlando Bloom’s Baron father.
Not long afterwards he had to do the ceremonial apology. (It’s a family tradition.)
First he looks over at me to see if I am going to say anything. It’s pretty clear that it really IS Vorenus.
Then, seeing I am not going to lord it over him, he concedes. “Well done, Intlxpatr. You are right. And I was wrong. That is very sharp of you to spot Vorenus.”
(The tradition is that you have to say “You are right, and I was wrong.” But he gave it extra grace by cloaking it with additional flattery.)
(No, he doesn’t really call me Intlxpatr, but I really do call him Adventure Man.)
So now we are watching the back-story, the history behind the movie, and it is fascinating. Earlier Adventureman looked up all the mistakes in the film on IMDb.
You don’t know what IMDb is? It stands for Internet Movie Database, and you can look up all kinds of things about movies or TV series, or your favorite actors and actresses. There is also a list of mistakes, anachronisms or lack of continuity, and we thing this is a lot of fun.
So you put in your title name Kingdom of Heaven and you go to the film page.
Over on the left hand side are all kinds of things you can choose from, including a section called Fun Stuff, under which you find goofs.
Here is a partial list of goofs Adventure Man found at IMDb:
Crew or equipment visible: In some scenes involving horses, modern orange cones can be seen on the ground directing the riders on the path past the camera to follow.
Factual errors: When the Muslims are praying near Jerusalem they are praying towards the setting sun, west, not towards Mecca which is to the south south east.
Continuity: During the battle for Jerusalem, the crescent moon and the star nearby, change positions during a short period of time. First, the crescent is horizontal, with the star a short distance above it. In the next scene, the crescent is on an angle, and the star is where the unlit part of the moon would obscure it.
Factual errors: A few times during the movie, the Muslims are shown praying while the prayer call is being delivered. The prayer call precedes the prayer.
Anachronisms: During the movie, flags from Castilla y Leon kingdom are shown several times. At that time Castilla and Leon were separate kingdoms. They became one in 1230.
Continuity: The size of the hole in the sand made by the sword when Nasir is down after the fight for the horse changes going from large and uneven to even
Revealing mistakes: When the messenger of Saladin is stabbed in throat by Guy de Lusignan. The blood that is squirted outward sprays from the left side of the neck where he was not stabbed.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Guy stabs Saladin’s messenger in the throat with a small dagger. When the messenger falls, Guy is holding a bloody sword, rather than his dagger. This is corrected in the Director’s cut, where Guy proceeds to behead the messenger with his sword.
Continuity: At 2:08:09 surrender of Jerusalem, the scar to left and below Bloom’s eye disappears.
Anachronisms: In the Director’s Cut, Sibylla tells her son, soon to be Baldwin V, in his geography lesson, that the King of England is Richard, the son of King Henry. Richard I did not succeed his father until 1189, three years after the death of Baldwin V.
Factual errors: Sibylla claims that she was married to Guy de Lusignan when she was 15 years old. In fact, she was 20 or 21 when she married him in 1180. She had been about 17 when she married her first husband, William of Montferrat, in 1176.
Anachronisms: The so-called ‘Templar’ who attacks Balian before the battle of Hattin (in 1187) wears a white surcoat bearing a black cross: the arms of the Order of St Mary of the Germans (aka the Teutonic Knights). This order was not founded until 1190 at the very earliest.
Miscellaneous: When Balian is building the timber water channel he places the lower level duct on top of the higher one. This should be the opposite way round as in its current state any water running down would run under the lower duct and consequently be lost.
You can read the rest of them (if you care) HERE.
What is cool about buying this movie is that you can watch it again and spot the goofs for yourself, and you can watch all the extra things about making the movie and about the history behind the movie.
We both liked this movie.
The other movies we watched were Ghostbusters 1 & 2. It always makes us laugh.
Sex Education Trouble in India
This is from yesterday’s BBC News Asia
(Every country had differences on whether sex education should be taught in the classroom, and if it should be taught, how it should be taught. Our current political administration paid a lot of money to support an abstinence campaign, which proved a failure. So how do we best protect our young?)
Sex education runs into trouble
The Indian government’s recent attempt to introduce sex education for school children has provoked a vigorous debate. In the second of two articles, the BBC’s Jyotsna Singh considers the case against a more open discussion of sex in schools.
The decision to introduce sex education in India’s schools, aimed primarily at creating awareness about HIV-Aids, has generated howls of protests from many quarters.
Many women’s organisations and religious groups as well as several politicians say exposing children to an open debate on the subject, specially in classrooms, will make them “more permissive”.
More than 30% of Indian states have rejected the federal government-supported sex education programme.
The Secondary School Teachers’ Association in Uttar Pradesh state has even threatened to make a bonfire of books if sex education isn’t withdrawn immediately.
Several teachers and student groups have objected to the teaching aid or kit to be used for educating the pupils in the class.
One of the main objects that has drawn the ire of the protestors is a flip chart, prepared jointly by the Unicef and government-controlled National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) to facilitate the government’s adolescent education programme.
‘Too graphic’
The chart, entitled “Knowledge is Power”, contains illustrations and images dealing with issues related to growing up and relationships in the context of sexually transmitted infections and HIV/Aids.
The chart also contains a chapter on essential skills needed to prevent the disease.
But protesters say the visuals in the chart are too “graphic”.
The right-wing Hindu organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) blames “a Western mindset behind the move”.
“We run about 26,000 schools across the country. Our teachers have studied the curriculum and they find it obscene and objectionable,” RSS spokesman Ram Madhav told the BBC.
“The whole curriculum is designed to suit the lifestyle in Western countries, where there is a general free atmosphere. In our country we live with families.”
You can read the rest of this article HERE.
Pensacola Kitchen Renovation
Woooooo Hoooooo! Our son just sent us photos from the continuing renovations on our Pensacola house.
Kitchen before:
Kitchen after (we are still waiting for the tile man to put in the new wall tiles)
You can hear nightmare stories about renovations gone awry – but you won’t hear them from me. We found a truly wonderful contractor, David Murphy of Tacoma Construction. He personally checks the quality of the work, gives accurate estimates, and he has good ideas to implement what you want done.
One day, as I was having the house interior painted, I could hear voices rising, and I felt a little concerned. I listened, and what they were discussing, with great heat, was just what exactly a certain verse from the bible meant. 🙂 We feel so blessed; they did their work well, and the work was completed in a reasonable time frame. And how did I find this gem? On the internet.
Any Exercise is Good
From BBC Health News comes a report on a study that shows that even mild exercise three days a week can help forestall the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle:
‘Even light exercise’ aids health
Even low levels of weekly exercise could help reduce blood pressure and improve fitness, scientists say.Experts say walking for half an hour, five days a week, is the minimum required to achieve health benefits.
But a Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health report from Northern Ireland found walking on just three days a week gave similar benefits.
The finding could encourage those with sedentary lifestyles to take up exercise gradually, the authors say.
This could be helpful as few people currently meet the minimum recommendations for exercise, with many saying they do not have enough time.
Read the rest of the article HERE.
I find it really hard to exercise in the heat of Kuwait. If you go out during the day, it is like living in an oven. And even hitting the pool is difficult when you are surrounded by oogling eyes. I have exercise equipment . . . and I don’t use it as often as I SHOULD. Aaarrgh.
But I love articles like this that get me moving, that give me hope that even though I am not as fit as I would like to be, any exercise is helpful. Bye! Off to the pool now!
Credit Card MixUp
They must have thought we were stark raving out of our minds. In the middle of a crowded dinner-time restaurant, the three of us are out of control. Normally bordering on dignified, we are whooping with laughter, tears are streaming down our faces and we are laughing out loud, totally out of control.
The waitress brought the bill for my Mom, who was treating, but when she brought it back for my Mom’s signature, my Mom said “this isn’t my credit card!” She looked at it closely . . . it was my sister’s credit card.
“How did I give her your credit card?” she asked my sister, who looked baffled.
“I can’t imagine!” she responded. Mom had made it clear that this evening was HER treat, and we hadn’t even reached for our wallets this time.
This was our third dinner together in ten days. We have switched off paying, and we figure that the switch must have happened either a week ago, or five days ago. But . . . and this is the truly horrifying part – both have been charging on the switched cards! As the total implications dawned on us, we were horrified – and our reaction was this hysterical laughter as they tried to figure out what they had charged on each other’s card.
The horror is this – neither of them had noticed they were not using their own card. And no one, at any store, noticed that the signature on the charge slip DID NOT MATCH the name on the charge card. My mother charged several times, my sister charged a few things, but no one ever questioned the fact they were using someone else’s card.
This is horrifying. it is only hysterically funny because it was my mother and sister, and they had to work out who owes what to whom – and the total lack of privacy as two grown women have to tell each other what they have charged. That is laughable. But we are still totally appalled that it could happen, and that it was never caught nor challenged. Amazing.
Port Gamble
Port Gamble is always a great place to stop, stretch your legs a little, walk around the beautifully maintained old company town, snap a few photos . . . .and have some delicious locally made ice cream. (I had raspberry sherbet, sorry, it disappeared before I could photograph it for you.)
God blessed us with a gorgeous, cloud free day in the Pacific Northwest for my Mother’s birthday, and a great road trip, alhamd’allah!
(Yes, we can make a birthday spread out over a week or two in our family!)
Hospitals Party Hearty?
I am telling you, as I tell my own family – if I am sick enough to go to a hospital, please, please, don’t come hang out with me in the hospital.
It happened to me once. I was suffering terribly, and I was very very dangerously ill. Suddenly, around my bed, were about 15 members of my family with deely-bobbers on their heads, in the emergency room, all coming to see how I was doing.
It was my Mom’s birthday then, too, and they had been celebrating, and felt sorry for me, and came so I wouldn’t feel left out.
I wasn’t feeling left out. I was in hideous pain. And the last thing on earth I wanted was to be polite to anyone, to be social. I was in PAIN.
But I also understand that other people feel differently. Some people like the support. Some hospitals – you really need to have an advocate watching out for you, so that you don’t get the wrong medications or the wrong treatment. No, I am not talking about Kuwait. It can happen anywhere, and it does!
And my dear friends in Qatar told me that if you go to visit a sick friend in a hospital ONE THOUSAND angels will pray for you, and while I don’t have that in writing, I like the idea.
So I have come to the conclusion, for myself, it is a good idea to have one very quiet trustworthy person at your bedside, someone who can read, and entertain him or herself, and will love you even at your very worst and not expect you to be polite.
How do you feel? What constitutes appropriate visiting in a hospital? How closely related do you want your visitors to be? Do you want a party atmosphere?
This is from today’s Kuwait Times.
KUWAIT: The medical care and hygiene in most of the public hospitals is dangerously below standard. Not only do nurses suffer from unfair treatment and low wages, but patients face a range of unpleasantness – none of it due to medical reasons – during their stays. Many patients and even nurses are complaining that hospitals have turned into restaurants, a party place and sometimes a garden or kids’ playground for the visiting families of patients.
Reda is a doctor in Sabah hospital who deals daily with the parties of visitors who come at all hours of the day, stay for long periods, bringing with them picnics and ice cream and toys for the kids. She says that visitors are selfish and forget the fact that they are in a hospital and that patients need quiet and time to rest. “These visitors don’t respect the visiting hours, they act as if they are in a hotel rather than a hospitals,” she noted.
An Egyptian patient in his early 50s currently hospitalized in Ibn Sina said “I can’t even sleep from the noise in the corridors. The room next to mine is always full of visitors all the time. The visitors bring their children along with them. The kids are very disturbing and they keep opening the door of my room and don’t let me rest.
You can read the rest of the article at this Kuwait Times link.
3 Crabs in Sequim
In every country I have ever lived (there have been a few!) people have some way of saying “they must not be from around here.” In my home town, one of the ways is obeying the law – there is a very high value on conformance to a widely held value that the law is THE LAW.
Another way you can tell who is from around here and who isn’t is how words are pronounced. The town above looks like it would be pronounced See-qwee- im, but it’s not. It’s one syllable – Sqwim.
We took Mom to Sequim for her birthday, and out to the old 3 Crabs restaurant. The 3 Crabs has been there as long as I can remember, out at the end of the Sequim-Dungeness Road, and right on the Dungeness Beach. When we got there, the fog was just beginning to lift.
When you go to the 3 Crabs, if you are smart, you will eat CRAB! Dungeness crab is sweet, and very very pungent. Delicious!
Seafood Chowder:
Crabcake:
Crab Louis:
Open face crab sandwich:
And save room! They are also famous for their desserts, especially their pies:
You can read more about the 3 Crabs and see their menu here.
Stealing Kuwait’s Telephone Resources?
From the August 6 Arab Times:
(Once again, the government is getting tough on crime. The 23rd richest country in the world is worried about losing the revenue from poor Indians calling home and people using the internet to call their friends and family:)
KUWAIT CITY: Four government bodies — the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Communications, Kuwait Municipality and General Customs Department — have agreed to launch a joint inspection campaign against all illegal international call operators, reports Al-Jareeda daily. Reportedly, they obtained permission from the Public Prosecution to raid all suspected houses and shops conducting such illegal operations and arrest all those involved in the trade. They will also issue citations to people who illegally obtain a landline connection. According to sources, stealing international telephone lines amounts to stealing public funds and culprits will be suitably punished. A security committee too has been formed to follow-up and investigate all such thefts.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Communications is planning to engage international companies to study and find ways to overcome illegal calling through internet. Kuwait considers such internet facilities an infringement of its resources and intends to safeguard its rights. In another development, sources say Kuwait will become the first country to have fully installed the optic fiber communication network. Government had earmarked a budget of KD 36 million for the first phase and another KD 80 million for the second phase of the project. Also, telephone connections will be available by next year in three new areas — Ashbiliya, Sabah Al-Naser and Abdullah Al-Mubarak areas.
Meanwhile, Director General of General Customs Department Ibrahim Abdullah Al-Ghanim says his department has been foiling all attempts to smuggle equipments used for stealing telephone lines.
Reportedly, the Ministry of Communications earlier showed department officials the kind of equipment needed to steal telephone lines and “the department has been working hard to foil all smuggling attempts,” he added.
French Chocolate Ice Cream
Perfect for beating the summer heat! This ice cream is so rich, so creamy, and so chocolat-ey that it makes you forget your worries.
French Chocolate Ice Cream
This takes a little time – and an ice cream churn – but oh, is it so worth it.
2 teaspoons vanilla flavoring
2 cups milk
6 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 squares unsweetened chocolate
3 cups heavy cream
Heat milk in small saucepan just until bubbles begin to appear around edge of pan.
Beat egg yolks in large bowl with sugar, cornstarch and salt.
Slowly add hot milk into egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly.
Return all to saucepan and heat slowly , stirring constantly, over medium heat until mixture thickens and just comes to a boil.
Remove from heat and add two teaspoons vanilla and chocolate squares, and continue stirring until the chocolate is melted.
Stir in cream.
Cool completely.
Strain into a four quart freezer can of ice cream maker.
Freeze according to manufacturers directions. Serve immediately, or spoon into freezer container and place in freezer. This won’t last long – it is SO good!
Note:
One time I was making this ice cream for guests. My small son, who loved this ice cream, kept asking if it was cool enough to churn yet. I told him one thing: Don’t touch the ice cream container.
He couldn’t help it. He had to see if it was cool enough to churn. Unfortunately, the refrigerator-slick canister slid through his hands, and as he struggled to catch it, he somehow hit it up, and put some spin on it. As I prepared to welcome guests, the gooey, thick, chocolate mixture twirled up, up and out of the canister, spinning ALL OVER THE KITCHEN and all over my small son.
He looked so horrified as he stood there, rooted to the floor, covered by his chocolaty guilt. He looked at me with terror in his eyes. He had disobeyed, and he feared the consequences.
I struggled really really hard not to laugh, and I looked at him very crossly and told him he had to stand there, covered with chocolate, until I had cleaned up the rest of the mess. Then I cleaned him up, and started another batch of the mixture. Just in time, I popped him into the bathtub as the guests arrived. The mixture was cool enough by the time I served dinner, and churned as we ate. It was ready just in time for dessert.
To this day, I think of my son with a big grin every time I see this recipe.
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