The Billionaires' Tea Party

This documentary attempted to argue that the so called "grass-roots" tea party movement was actually funded by corporate and billionaire interests.   The story followed the narrators attempts to learn more about the Tea Party movement. It also centered around the rich Koch brothers, who Taki (the filmmaker) believes helped to incite the movement.
It begins with what I believe was Obama's 2008 acceptance speech then begins to show footage of a Tea Party rally (which is conveniently called a tea party). He interviewed tea partiers, an expert on propaganda and went undercover to a rally to show how the Tea Party was trying to influence public opinion.
The mood of this film was relatively personal, because it was from the filmmakers perspective.  He was the narrator and also the main character.  It gave the sense that he was going on a journey,  and that the viewer was just along for the ride.  This theme was also symbolized though the repeated road imagery.
The sound track was very good in this film, he used a lot of sound clips from Fox news and there was no ambient sound during the interviews that would have been distracting. It would have been better if he had included some music throughout, but I do not believe that was overall necessary.
I enjoyed how he personally went undercover and acted like a tea party supporter.  It was interesting to see how he handled the situation and not reveal himself.
I am not sure whether or not I would recommend this documentary to others.  It would most certainly insult conservatives, but I am not sure if even my liberal friends would enjoy the confusing message of the documentary.  It was rather disjointed and confusing at times.   It had random shots of the filmmaker driving, which perhaps was meant to serve as a transition between parts, but it seemed random and distracted from the main idea. 
My main problem with this documentary is that it tries to argue its point, but it never fully provides evidence or explains it.  It also completely glosses over the fact that people do choose to be tea partiers.  If the filmmaker had instead focused on incidences where the tea party's billionaires had hired people to feign support, then the documentary would be more powerful. Short answer: I would not recommend it.
In the film he used this overly complicated chart to explain how all the super pacs and Tea Partiers are connected. It left more questions than answers, to be honest.


The Billionaires' Tea Party 54 min. 1/5 stars

How Our Moon Came to Be

^ And who says science isn't cool ^

When our lovely solar system was just beginning to form, the Sun was sorrounded by a bunch of asteroids, dust, and protoplanets.  Protoplanets are baby planets, who develop some sort of core after creation and usually collide with eachother to form the wonderful planets we know today.  Unless its a gas giant which is just a whole bunch of weird that I am not going to get into today.
So when our Earth was young, but was just about fully formed after swallowing a healthy diet of protoplanets, a new protoplanet about the size of Mars named Theia essentially barreled into it.  Theia, like Earth, had a molten iron core. When they collided, most of the planets became molten, and Theia's core became part of Earth's core.  A large chuck of Earth and Theia's mantles were ejected out into space, where they eventually formed an orbit of debris around the Earth. These chunks of debris eventually collided together to form the lovely Moon we know today.

Now of course the moon did not just hit earth head on, because well, when a planet the size of Mars hits a planet of a simular size, neither survive after the explosion of molten chaos.   The moon hit the Earth at an angle around 45°, not too much so that Earth was destroyed, but just enough so that we do not have a lopsided planet named Theia orbiting around the sun still.

The one problem with this theory is that a collison of this magnitude would have to have caused Earth to essentially liquify, meaning that the entire crust was a post apocalypitic sea of magma.   However, scientists have yet to find evidence of a sea of magma like this existing. 

Fun Fact: Theia is named after a Greek Titan who gave birth to the Moon goddess, Selene.  Which is awesome because the protoplanet did become the Moon.  lol astronomers, you so clever.

Here's the Moon, looking all smug. It knows it could have destroyed Earth...I don't trust it. -.-

 

Enjoy this excellent NASA video on the evolution of the moon's surface

 

I WON NANOWRIMO!

Huzzah! I did it!!! I won NaNoWriMo! I wrote 50k!  Its not a complete novel, not in the least.  There are parts I am definitely going to cut out, parts I am going add, I have a whole storyline to streamline. But editing is fun right?

It was hard.  There were days when I simply did not want to write, times when I did not have time to write, and time when homework got in the way. (evil homework) But I still did it, and managed to write more words on the last day than I had ever written.   I am surprised that I still like my story at the end of this.  I want to edit it because I want to make it a good story.    So for now, I am going to bask in my victory. 

So next year, I hope to do it again.  If I can find an idea I am really excited about, I am going to try to win NaNo again. And maybe, just maybe, I'll even finish it early.

 

Here is a lovely excerpt from my novel.  Remember it is a rough draft, so some sentences might be badly written.   Or if you don't want to read it, scroll to the bottom of this post for a song.

 

Jeza is the main character, Captain Murasa is the captain of a pirate ship, the Prince Regent is a jerk (but you might soon gather that)

 

The ship pulled into port.  Jeza scanned the dock.  The buildings were strung with bright red and purple streamers. The dock was very crowded, with rich and poor workers milling around dressed in loose but brightly colored clothes.  Men and women alike wore loose cotton pants, paired with a bright colored sash or long tunic.  Duhai was very different than the towns of Alemeir.  It was far warmer, and the houses were built out of yellow gray clay.  Jeza looked at all the different people when she stopped.  Down below, sticking out in the brightly dressed crowd, stood the Prince Regent, surrounded by courtiers and guards.  They were all dressed in the tight gray and gold uniform, looking rather uncomfortable in the hot sun.  She turned to Captain Murasa.  
“Look” She murmured.  She started to back towards Captain Murasa’s quarters, hoping they would not see her, but she had already been spotted.  The Prince and the courtiers began to push through the crowd towards the dock. Captain Murasa began to shout orders to try to turn the ship around, but they became cornered by two Alemeir royal ships. 
“There’s not much we can do,” He said, “We are surrounded. What do you want to do?”
“They are going to arrest me then? I can fight them off,” Jeza said, putting a hand on her sword. 
“You can’t fight them all alone, and neither can the rest of the crew,” he said sternly.  She seemed to still be considering it.  He grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. “You can’t fight them Jeza, do you understand?”  Jeza nodded finally.
“Okay, take my swords.  I worked too hard to get them,” She said, handing them to him.  He handed her a small dagger, which she hid in her boot.
“Give me your gold; they can't arrest me on anything.”  Perhaps before she wouldn't have before but she knew Captain Murasa was a man of his word.  She slipped the small purse into his hand.  They pulled slowly into the port and the sailors began to unload the ship.  Jeza was the last off, Captain Murasa right behind her. 
“When you get down there, run.  Try to slip into the crowd, lose them,” He murmured.  The Prince tried to meet them on the ramp a glare on his face.  Clearly he did not want to be there.  Jeza cursed under her breath and began to back up slightly.  He made a quick step towards her but she slipped out of his reach, leaped over the ramp and dove into the water. It tasted foul but she began to swim as fast as she could towards another wooden dock farther down the harbor. 
Meanwhile, the Prince and his courtiers shoved through the crowd, but the majority of the crowd was going the other way.  They wanted to greet the new ship and trade.  Already some men were picking up bundles of cloth and crates.   Another group carried a type of bluish bamboo on their backs.  The Prince, frustrated, shoved one trader into the water.  Shouts of indignation rose around him as he continued to push forward.  The man clung to the floating bamboo bundle and shouted what was probably a very nasty word at the Prince. 
Jeza pulled herself up onto the wooden dock, soaking wet.  There was a very bad taste in her mouth.  At least she had lost the Prince.
“Hello Jezro,” the Prince said.  Jeza glanced up at him, from where she clung to the dock, half her body still in the foul water.  He was smiling wickedly, “I believe you have something that belongs to me.”

 





What did I win you ask? Bragging rights.  Pride.  Yeah they should really give out actual prizes.  $50,000 dollars would be good, delivered within the next 30 days.  Please enjoy this song of my victory. Also check out Emily's blog! She won too!