These Small Halls

An independent report finally supports what our teacher friends have been saying all along: No Child Left Behind is a hinderance to teachers and a slap in the face to public school systems. Much like school vouchers. What tickles me more is that the report was immediately rebutted by Spelling's Education Department, because why would they want to listen to an independent panel of educators when they are quite busy fighting the gayness of Sponge Bob and Buster?

It kills me that this Republican plan is so much big goverment squeezed into the small halls of the local school system. I went to public school and there was plenty of testing. The vocab tests, physics tests, CAPT (Connecticut Aptitude Test for 8th and 10th grades), never mind the SATs. Granted, LHS is one of the finest public schools in CT, and probably the East Coast, but as a public school we never lacked for testing. This former republican has always felt that the needs of a town could hardly be met by big government programs which waste a ton of money on everyone and therefore help absolutely no one. NCLB takes the governing away from local school boards, where it belongs.

Fart -Jokes and Terror

When did we hit the age where a perfect Saturday night was a pajama-clad evening with a couple of movies and take-out? This weekend was no disappointment after a delightful shopping trip with fellow New Year's fun-doees Sarcastic and Cynical. For our cinematic pleasure, a Japanese adaptation starring our favorite Vampire Slayer and a celebrity-soggy animated comedy.

As with the other Pixar-wannabe films, Shark Tale was a mediocre repsonse to last year's gorgeous CG mega-hit Finding Nemo. 70 million dollars spent and all we got was an underwater retelling of A Bug's Life. Fish wants to be somebody special, doesn't realize what he has until he loses it all. But the plot is so heavy with fart-joke humor and cheap sterotypes that even the genius of falling down slapstick gets lost in the tired storyline. There were a few good laughs and the resemblace of the characters to their voices is kind of scary, in a positive way. Though not even a fraction as endearing as it's inspiration, this movie is clearly a big-budget knock-off packaged with the glitter of Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Renee Zelweger, and Jack Black. Save yourself an hour and a half and watch the Numa Numa video instead.

On the other hand...

The Grudge, a follow up to the equally terrifying The Ring, needs to be added to everyone's Halloween fright-fest collection. Watching this with the lights out is a sure way to keep yourself awake at night worrying about what's creeping up underneath your covers. Sarah Michelle Geller, rebounding from such previous classics as Scooby Doo 2 and I Know What You Did Last Summer, is actually quite watchable, though I kept wondering why she didn't speak in puns. Part mystery, part human drama, this beautiful film is terribly frightening and stays with you well past the credits. Even seeing the DVD cover jump out at you at Hollywood Video can cause an involuntary shudder. Excellent movie for a Saturday night.

Ah, my eyes! My eyes!

So I got new glasses today. While the rest of my family has had glasses since about the time they could walk, I have thankfully managed to avoid the necessity. That is until now. Apparently, all the time that I spend in front of a computer screen is causing "eye strain," though I think it's aliens that are using some kind of mind control device on me when I look at my computer, and the blurred vision is just a side effect.

Or maybe that's just the medication.

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1225 Sunrise has returned from the dead (curse you, bloghosts.com).