Random thoughts

These recent long weekends have been great. I got to spend quality time with my bear, who returned from Old Blighty last week (on a public holiday :P) with a suitcase full of gorgeous yarn for me!* We voted, nommed and then vegged with ST. It was lovely.

Sarah and Hendrik's wedding was lovely, if a bit on the chilly side. I thought I wouldn't enjoy it for lack of Panda but I ended up having a good time (mostly due to an epic conversation on SF authors and mutual agreement that Ian M Banks is overrated and then some ass-shaking on the dance-floor which left me sore for days afterwards).

I also saw The Reader while P was away. It really made me think about cultural guilt. An ex-SS camp guard is portrayed as a (gasp!) normal woman who was just doing her job (there was a big outcry in the media about this aspect). It brought home that lots of people involved in atrocities are just doing their jobs, just going along with the government. One of the characters remarks that the trial of the ex camp guards is a farce, just an outlet for everyone else's guilt and so they can be seen to be "doing something". The only reason they were being prosecuted was because one of the survivors wrote a book. It made me think about whether Germans still feel guilty about the Holocaust. I know there's severe paranoia about anything that might rekindle Nazi sympathies but I wonder how many Germans (especially the children of those who were adults at the time) feel guilty about their parents' (in)actions. Then I started thinking about how many whites my age feel guilty for apartheid. I think I've said on this blog before that I don't particularly feel guilty about it. My family was poor, still are poor. I went to a government school and did pretty well there, but I'd like to think that was because I'm smart and not because I'm white. I don't recall having any particular advantages during primary and pre-school years. Perhaps I'm living in a rose-coloured fairy world of Northern Suburbia. I just don't feel guilty about it, it wasn't me and I don't think I gained by it.

Also, during the run-up to elections I remarked to my sister that the vast majority of South Africans vote according to race and it does seem true. I don't think we'll get rid of that until the last people who suffered under apartheid are dead. Only now am I meeting mixed couples (not white-coloured, but white-black which seems somehow more radical?) and it seems to be young people, people who were too young to have any concept of apartheid. I didn't have any concept of apartheid growing up, the first I knew about it was when the schools were opened and we got a coloured girl in our class. I remember my mom saying "be nice to her but don't bring her home". I didn't really understand that, I was 11 or 12 at the time. I often find myself thinking about what it means to be white and South African. Do I feel guilty? Should I? Did I benefit from others' misery? Afrikanerdom is full of emo :P. Next think you know I'll be walking into the sea.

I am so looking forward to Wolverine: Origins this weekend. I might actually wet my pants, the trailer looks so damn awesome. I do love me some hot X-Men action. You can keep your wangsty Caped Crusader, DC, Marvel ftw. I like my super-heroes to actually have super powers. Iron Man is an exception, because RD Jr can do no wrong. I can't wait for the Ultimates movie.


* also a proposal, which I accepted. Plans are for next year March, UK ceremony and party this Xmas if financial situation stabilizes.

We went to see Tropic Thunder last weekend. It might be the most awesome movie I've seen in a while. I'm not saying it's a good movie, or that I would buy it on DVD to rewatch, but it's damn enjoyable. I did get the feeling that it wasn't really "scripted", per se, but more of a general guideline, like "ok, guys, in this scene we need this and this to happen, go!" and then the actors all came up with lines of the top of their heads. If you don't like Ben Stiller and Jack Black, don't go see this. It's halfway between Zoolander and Nacho Libre, I guess.

RD Jr is just awesome as the black dude who's really an Australian in disguise ("I know who I am, I'm the dude playing a dude disguised as another dude"). Ben Stiller basically is Zoolander with a Rambo complex. Look out for Tom Cruise as Les Grossman, he totally steals the movie. He's absolutely hilarious (and I think he made up most of his own dialogue off the bat). Also, see if you can spot all the other film references (lots of war movies, Chaplin).

I seem to have developed RSI in my left wrist from too much knitting. I'm assuming it's from knitting as that's when I first noticed the pain. Time to cut down on my knitting :( and stock up on Ibuprofen. I'll go to the doc if it doesn't get better, apparently surgery is sometimes required. Add the sore wrist (typing makes it sore too) to my recent minor head-surgery and huge work stress and you can guess how happy I am with life at the moment. I feel like I need lots of chocolate mousse, but that's not really fitting in with my trying-not-to-be-so-damn-fat plan.