Movie Talk: District 9
Aliens come to earth and are less impressive than we hoped in order to create a semi original movie hemmed in by clichés. I suppose it is a bit dangerous to claim a film or really much of anything is too clichéd as you could make the argument with plenty of examples regarding many great films, or works art in general, pretty much anything. IMO the trick is to create something that while it might contain some clichés I just don't notice or care much amidst some level of artistry and originality. District 9 failed to distract me from the clichés enough to really like the film. It was enjoyable to watch once, just too many problems to recommend beyond "Has alien shit, chases."
The opening documentary style goes on forever (yes we get it, mega corp bad... no ####) and sets up some most of the contradictions that I found too obvious to ignore:
- Mega arms corporation is doing alien weapon research in downtown Johannesburg? Right...
- Mega arms corporation put the aliens in a concentration camp, but somehow has problems with Nigerian gangsters operating in the camp gathering up technology? Right...
- Mega arms corporation is portrayed as weak (one example see above) but when needed is one bad ass military organization that seemingly could have gotten the job they propose to do easily.
- The protagonist is demonstrated as being a hapless and soulless corporate drone not the least bit concerned with killing alien babies or the severe maiming or killing of one of the corporations own solders guarding him, inevitably changes that stance in a way that just doesn't match earlier parts of the film.
It is a throw away sci-fi flick as far as I'm concerned. The silly boss fight and cop out ending pretty much sealed its fate scoring just 1 out of 3.14.
Baby Talk: 5 Months, More Doctor Visits, Surgery, Teeth
Back story: Since his first cold several months ago our little boy (now 5 months old) has sounded congested, perticularly at night. It seems to impact his ablity to sleep peacefully when the little dude often shakes his head in his sleep when he has trouble breathing and claws at his face. It certainly wakes up mommy and daddy a lot and the little guy will sometimes start crying and / or wake up during the process.
We've seen our peditritan, an ear nose and throat specialist who predictably reffered us elsewhere (I suspect wanted nothing to do with a baby) and predictably ended up at the local Children's hospital. Mommy made the visit with the baby as daddy couldn't make the trip due to work. Mommy described the symptoms and noted that Daddy had his adenoids removed when he was just short of three years old. The MD told Mommy that that adenoids were not likely the problem this early but the MD is going to check everything out in the process anyway. Mommy and nurses tried to comfort baby while MD stuck a camera down baby's nose and MD noted "well here is the exception to the rule".
Diagnosis, it isn't nasal congestion due to excess snot, but instead the baby's adenoids are swollen and causing some airway restriction. Being lymph nodes or lymph node like the MD theorizes the adenoids swelled up and like lymph nodes can do hardened a bit in their larger size durring baby's first cold. The catch is the MD noted it would be best if we could wait three too four months before we do the surgery. He noted outcomes are best at or beyond that time and that early surgeries due to the size of the baby sometimes are not easy / effective.
In the meantime we can stop giving the baby Nasonex (thank goodness, stuff is not made to be applied to babies) and we got a different prescription. Our little dude gets five days of steroids to see how much that reduses the size of the the adenoids and then we'll make the call on if / how much of the roids the baby gets up until surgery time.
It is good to know what the deal is and I feel that we're making progress at this point. Daddy was worried we had a serious mold or allergy problem and was ready to tear the house apart... if he ever had time. Daddy even broke the house humidifier but managed to fix it while checking it recently.
Now we keep a look out for any steroid side effects, but much like when we gave him the Nasonex the effectiveness and effects are hard to calculate with a baby who can't clearly communicate and who pretty much changes every day. He had a particularly happy day on Saturday, and was a bit lazy on Sunday... does that mean anything? It isn't usual as far as I can tell *shrug*
As previously noted the little guy couldn't manage to sleep in the crib on his back even with the crib bed elevated a bit without an insane amount of breathing difficulty. So for a few weeks we've had him in his car seat in our room sleeping. At MD's suggestion we're using a little padded system meant to keep tiny babies from rolling over in order to put him down on his side and sleep in the crib. This has been mostly successful after a few nights. Mostly I think because when he is asleep and we lay him in it, it still feels a bit like he is being held. It does seem to the keep breathing issues to a minimum, although he still snores like an elephant (not sure how they snore actually). I'm not convinced this will work out over the long term as we've had short term success (I thought Nasonex was working) turn out to be a dud.
Anyhow dude is tons of fun aside from his sleeping problems. Lots of smiles, he has this deep sort of gargled giggle laugh he does when mommy and daddy play with him and he is particularly excited. The earily morning when he wakes up around 6:00 to 8:30 am is the best time to hang out with him. He doesn't immediately cry when he wakes up in the morning as he does for food in the middle of the night when he is hungry. He does those little baby "hey come get me" kind of shouts and squawks and then waits for us. As little sleep as we get at times we still do wake up laughing listening to him squawk away for a bit on weekends, he is pretty patient, and of course he rewards the person who goes to get him with a big smile and a couple hours of chatting back and forth as he babbles away, laughs easily, and plays.
Typically the only time he throws a fit these days is when hungry. We might get a few warning squawks from him where he sounds a bit sad and then he'll start the whimpering and full blown crying process. Lately that process has been more sudden than we expect, sometimes just out of nowhere into full blown screaming. I believe this is due to his new teeth. Two little razor teeth just poking out of his gums now. We've used a topical pain reviler for him a few times but it is cherry flavored and he doesn't like cherry flavor (or it is just too strong) grape he likes.
Have video and pix, will share soon, have some time off when the baby is in daycare.
Aliens come to earth and are less impressive than we hoped in order to create a semi original movie hemmed in by clichés. I suppose it is a bit dangerous to claim a film or really much of anything is too clichéd as you could make the argument with plenty of examples regarding many great films, or works art in general, pretty much anything. IMO the trick is to create something that while it might contain some clichés I just don't notice or care much amidst some level of artistry and originality. District 9 failed to distract me from the clichés enough to really like the film. It was enjoyable to watch once, just too many problems to recommend beyond "Has alien shit, chases."
The opening documentary style goes on forever (yes we get it, mega corp bad... no ####) and sets up some most of the contradictions that I found too obvious to ignore:
- Mega arms corporation is doing alien weapon research in downtown Johannesburg? Right...
- Mega arms corporation put the aliens in a concentration camp, but somehow has problems with Nigerian gangsters operating in the camp gathering up technology? Right...
- Mega arms corporation is portrayed as weak (one example see above) but when needed is one bad ass military organization that seemingly could have gotten the job they propose to do easily.
- The protagonist is demonstrated as being a hapless and soulless corporate drone not the least bit concerned with killing alien babies or the severe maiming or killing of one of the corporations own solders guarding him, inevitably changes that stance in a way that just doesn't match earlier parts of the film.
It is a throw away sci-fi flick as far as I'm concerned. The silly boss fight and cop out ending pretty much sealed its fate scoring just 1 out of 3.14.
Baby Talk: 5 Months, More Doctor Visits, Surgery, Teeth
Back story: Since his first cold several months ago our little boy (now 5 months old) has sounded congested, perticularly at night. It seems to impact his ablity to sleep peacefully when the little dude often shakes his head in his sleep when he has trouble breathing and claws at his face. It certainly wakes up mommy and daddy a lot and the little guy will sometimes start crying and / or wake up during the process.
We've seen our peditritan, an ear nose and throat specialist who predictably reffered us elsewhere (I suspect wanted nothing to do with a baby) and predictably ended up at the local Children's hospital. Mommy made the visit with the baby as daddy couldn't make the trip due to work. Mommy described the symptoms and noted that Daddy had his adenoids removed when he was just short of three years old. The MD told Mommy that that adenoids were not likely the problem this early but the MD is going to check everything out in the process anyway. Mommy and nurses tried to comfort baby while MD stuck a camera down baby's nose and MD noted "well here is the exception to the rule".
Diagnosis, it isn't nasal congestion due to excess snot, but instead the baby's adenoids are swollen and causing some airway restriction. Being lymph nodes or lymph node like the MD theorizes the adenoids swelled up and like lymph nodes can do hardened a bit in their larger size durring baby's first cold. The catch is the MD noted it would be best if we could wait three too four months before we do the surgery. He noted outcomes are best at or beyond that time and that early surgeries due to the size of the baby sometimes are not easy / effective.
In the meantime we can stop giving the baby Nasonex (thank goodness, stuff is not made to be applied to babies) and we got a different prescription. Our little dude gets five days of steroids to see how much that reduses the size of the the adenoids and then we'll make the call on if / how much of the roids the baby gets up until surgery time.
It is good to know what the deal is and I feel that we're making progress at this point. Daddy was worried we had a serious mold or allergy problem and was ready to tear the house apart... if he ever had time. Daddy even broke the house humidifier but managed to fix it while checking it recently.
Now we keep a look out for any steroid side effects, but much like when we gave him the Nasonex the effectiveness and effects are hard to calculate with a baby who can't clearly communicate and who pretty much changes every day. He had a particularly happy day on Saturday, and was a bit lazy on Sunday... does that mean anything? It isn't usual as far as I can tell *shrug*
As previously noted the little guy couldn't manage to sleep in the crib on his back even with the crib bed elevated a bit without an insane amount of breathing difficulty. So for a few weeks we've had him in his car seat in our room sleeping. At MD's suggestion we're using a little padded system meant to keep tiny babies from rolling over in order to put him down on his side and sleep in the crib. This has been mostly successful after a few nights. Mostly I think because when he is asleep and we lay him in it, it still feels a bit like he is being held. It does seem to the keep breathing issues to a minimum, although he still snores like an elephant (not sure how they snore actually). I'm not convinced this will work out over the long term as we've had short term success (I thought Nasonex was working) turn out to be a dud.
Anyhow dude is tons of fun aside from his sleeping problems. Lots of smiles, he has this deep sort of gargled giggle laugh he does when mommy and daddy play with him and he is particularly excited. The earily morning when he wakes up around 6:00 to 8:30 am is the best time to hang out with him. He doesn't immediately cry when he wakes up in the morning as he does for food in the middle of the night when he is hungry. He does those little baby "hey come get me" kind of shouts and squawks and then waits for us. As little sleep as we get at times we still do wake up laughing listening to him squawk away for a bit on weekends, he is pretty patient, and of course he rewards the person who goes to get him with a big smile and a couple hours of chatting back and forth as he babbles away, laughs easily, and plays.
Typically the only time he throws a fit these days is when hungry. We might get a few warning squawks from him where he sounds a bit sad and then he'll start the whimpering and full blown crying process. Lately that process has been more sudden than we expect, sometimes just out of nowhere into full blown screaming. I believe this is due to his new teeth. Two little razor teeth just poking out of his gums now. We've used a topical pain reviler for him a few times but it is cherry flavored and he doesn't like cherry flavor (or it is just too strong) grape he likes.
Have video and pix, will share soon, have some time off when the baby is in daycare.
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