Recycle this

Chesterfield board hears 70 speakers on budget druthers

So, yeah, there's budget crunch in my county. Just like every other county in this state and the country probably. To save money, $400,000 a year, the county wants to reduce recycling pick ups from twice a month to once a month.

Go for it, I say. In fact, eliminate it all together. Why should the government pick up our recycling free of charge? They don't pick up our regular trash, we pay a private company to pick up our trash each week, and I think that's the way to go.

If you feel so strongly about recycling, why not pay someone to come and get it? Or, how about this, why don't you go drop it off at the transfer station yourself? Imagine that. A novel concept.

Here are some of the things being affected by the new budget:

• 186 jobs eliminated
• School budget shrinks by 2.5 %
• No pay raises

Yeah, lets not cut the recycling budget. Heavens no.

Fabulous Movie Review©

	Superman Returns
	Released: 6/28/2006 Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Length: 2 hrs 34 mins Genre: Action, Comic Book Starring: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, Parker Posey Directed by: Bryan Singer
	About an hour too long in my opinion. Superman Returns took foooorevah to end. Also, Kate Bosworth is not a good Lois Lane. She doesn't have the personality or presence to fill such a characters shoes. And she looked ridiculous smoking a cigarette. This movie was just alright for me.
	6.0 out of 10

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	The Kite Runner
	Released: 2007 Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Length: 2 hrs 7 mins Genre: Drama Starring: L. Peter Callender, Larry Brown, Saïd Taghmaoui, Shaun Toub, Homayoun Ershadi Directed by: Marc Forster Cinematographer: Roberto Schaefer Composer: Alberto Iglesias
	Yeah yeah yeah, its not as good as the book, but not because the story was changed or key parts left out or gratuitous sex or violence was added, but because it is always difficult to convey what a character is thinking, portray his moods and explain what makes him tick in a film. There's a lot of story to tell in a 2 hour movie, and some does get left out. His whole adult life is truncated and rushed, but it did take up a large portion of the book. Its almost as if the film makers spent to much time on the introduction and not enough on the summary. I remember back in school when I would have to write a paper about a subject I knew well, I could easily bust out the 5 or 10 page requirement, but once I hit that requirement, I wouldn't draw the proper conclusion at the end, because, hey, I only had to write 10 pages, not eleven. This is what this movie felt like. "Sir, we've got enough footage for a 90 minute movie." "Alright, people, that's a wrap." Seeing (and reading about) an almost normal and modern Afghanistan (this was pre-Soviet and pre-Taliban) was cool and the scene with the kids dad cruising around Kabul in a Mustang is priceless.
	7.5 out of 10

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	Disturbia
	Released: 4/13/2007 Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Length: 1 hr 44 mins Genre: Suspense, Thriller Starring: Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Carrie-Anne Moss, Sarah Roemer, Aaron Yoo Directed by: D.J. Caruso Cinematographer: Rogier Stoffers Editor: Jim Page Producer: Tom Pollock, Ivan Reitman Writer: Christopher B. Landon, Carl Ellsworth
	A mediocre remake of the Hitchcock classic, Rear Window. Maybe, I am biased but in my mind the only legitimate remake of Rear Window is The Simpsons episode, Bart of Darkness. Everything else is just noise. Let me ask you one question though. If a girl caught you spying on her with binoculars while she was in her bedroom and swimming in the pool, what is the likelihood that she would become your friend? I'd like to hear the female perspective on this. I'm guessing highly unlikely.
	6.0 out of 10

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	Juno
	Released: 12/14/2207 Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Length: 1 hr 36 mins Genre: Comedy Starring: Jason Bateman, Emily Perkins, Allison Janney, Jennifer Garner, J.K. Simmons Directed by: Jason Reitman Cinematographer: Eric Steelberg Composer: Matt Messina
	I am going to do something a little different than my regular review, and I use the term review in regards to these silly things that I write loosely, and just write a list of the things I thought about during this movie. I have the song "Papa Don't Preach" stuck in my head, but not the Madonna version, the Weird Al polka version. Michael Cera is so funny. He only does one character, but he does that one character very well. Dude. Is Juno even a girl? She looks like a boy. How would any guy find her attractive? Maybe if they like boys, but aren't totally committed to that lifestyle. Dude. Ok. How could anyone find a pregnant boy attractive? And consider leaving his wife for her/him?? Jennifer Garner is so neurotic in this movie. It drives me crazy every time she is on the screen. I think thats the point though. Well done Alias. I remember on Alias she would always over-act the scenes where she was angry. I would laugh every time she would stick out her chest, jut her chin, and storm off all stiff legged. Weimaraners...the dogs of elite young white people every where. An odd choice for the mom in this movie.
	8.0 out of 10

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	Burn After Reading
	Released: 2008 Rating: R (Restricted) Length: 1 hr 36 mins Genre: Action, Comedy Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich Performer: Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand Primary Contributor: Joel and Ethan Coen
	The only good thing about this movie was Brad Pitt (just quit with the gay jokes okay). Other than that Burn After Reading is bad. I wanted to Burn After Viewing but settled for just sending it back to Netflix. From the trailer I was expecting something dark but funny, maybe Wes Anderson-y, or even Fargo-ish. Needless to say it was neither. Hated it.
	3.5 out of 10

Aerating the Lawn

A couple of videos of my 4 year old yesterday.





Man. Time flies.

Fabulous Movie Review©

	The Lives of Others
	Released: 2006 Rating: R (Restricted) Length: 2 hrs 18 mins Genre: Drama Starring: Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Mühe, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur, Thomas Thieme Directed by: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
	I always find it harder to review the good movies. I guess thats the way of life. The negative things always get pointed out, but the positive things, because they don't disturb our universe, are usually under our radar. So, anyway, this is a good movie. You might even call it a feel good movie. Well, no actually you wouldn't. Bad things happen. Its set in East Berlin before the wall came down. Essentially, its about a government agent who is spying on an author and he begins to like the author (not like that you perv), I guess, and lets him get away with smuggling an article to West Germany even though it costs the agent his career. Its good stuff. Believe me it is. Its not for illiterate knuckle dragging mouth breathers though (its subtitled).
	9.0 out of 10

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	Tropic Thunder
	Released: 2008 Rating: R (Restricted) Length: 1 hr 47 mins Genre: Action, Comedy Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan Directed by: Ben Stiller Producer: Brian Taylor, Eric McLeod, Justin Theroux Writer: Justin Theroux, Etan Cohen
	Tropic Thunder is the kind of movie that will make you smile but not laugh. I can't remember any laugh out loud moments. The "trailers" at the beginning were funny, I may have laughed out loud at those, but I won't admit it to anyone. I fell asleep watching this movie twice, it took me 3 tries to get through this movie. I was pretty disappointed with it. It was supposed to be a spoof of over the top action movies, but at times (most of the time) I felt like I was watching some half-baked 1980s rescue POWs from Vietnam movie. Robert Downy Jr. was awesome. I had a hard time believing that it was really him. And, I don't care if its politically correct or not, the retard movie was fuuuuny. Overall, worth watching, but don't get your hopes up.
	6.5 out of 10