Silflay Hraka

Charmed Life Productions is getting the band back together. We’re on a mission from God. Flush with enthusiasm and excitement from the 48 Hour Film Project and drunk from the praise of our peers, we’re reuniting to take part in the National Film Challenge.

The premise is the same as that of the 48 Hour Film Project. Teams are given 48 Hours to write, shoot and edit a 4 to 8 minute film. Each team is given a genre and a characte,r prop and line of dialogue that must be included. The difference between the National Film Challenge and the 48 Hour Film Project is mainly geographic. There are no local competitions. The competition is broken down by regions rather than by cities. I think the intention is to get more teams involved from more cities.

Whereas I’m happy to take part in the challenge and I look forward to following up on our first film, I do wish that the contest was a little more free-form. I think having to include the required elements is unnecessarily limiting and in many cases detracts from rather than adds to the quality of the films being made. It’s great for one festival, but useless for two.

The NFC takes place the weekend of October 20th to the 22nd. I will spend a long Friday evening writing the script, a long Saturday on location and then a long Sunday driving to the coast to fish and drink with the boys.

Should be a good time.

Alcohol use helps boost income: study - Yahoo! News

People who consume alcohol earn significantly more at their jobs than non-drinkers, according to a US study that highlighted “social capital” gained from drinking.

The study published in the Journal of Labor Research Thursday concluded that drinkers earn 10 to 14 percent more than teetotalers, and that men who drink socially bring home an additional seven percent in pay.

Starr: Corruption and College Football - Newsweek Mark Starr - MSNBC.com

Once upon a time, Hayes’s folly may have set the standard for ignominious ends to a lifetime of football glory. At the very least it was a low-water mark for Ohio State’s storied athletic programs. But I got thinking this past weekend, as I watched Ohio State confirm its preseason No. 1 ranking by walloping defending national champion University of Texas on the Longhorns’ home field. While I was impressed by the Buckeyes’ prowess, I started wondering where Hayes’s kamikaze act would rank today in the school’s Hall of Shame.

Because from where I’m sitting that sweet smell of success emanating from Columbus has a little stench in it. Perhaps it’s not fair to make too much of the most recent misstep—standout quarterback and Heisman Trophy hopeful Troy Smith’s taking about $500 from a booster. Ohio State certainly didn’t, settling on a two-game suspension as appropriate for a petty affair.

If the author thinks that Ohio State’s football program is corrupt, he should look a little more closely at their basketball program. I mean, since when is Ohio State a threat to land the top recruiting class in the nation in basketball?

Money had to change hands somewhere.

Woman spends $14,000 for rotary phones from AT&T | News.blog | CNET News.com

But over the past 42 years, an 82-year-old woman in Ohio paid about $14,000 for her two home phones. The phones big features? Cords. And rotary dials.

I found out last month that my parents were still renting their rotary dial phone from BellSouth. I found this to be a shocking revelation. I had no idea people still did such a needless thing. I have no idea how much they paid every month but my father suggested it was probably “thousands of dollars” over the years. The fact that phone companies continue the practice of leasing phones borders on unethical and might even be considered predatory. I have been tempted to contact BellSouth in an attempt to get my folks a refund for all the money they’ve paid needlessly over the years.

First, Bush was Hitler.

Now, the Pope is Hitler.

You can check my math on this, but it looks like we’re a few million dead muslims short of handing anyone that particular championship belt.

How about Saddam Hussein? Was he the next Hitler? Thankfully, we’ll never know. When you remove a murderous dictator while he’s still building his resume, you are robbed of a degree of certitude.

Wait! Saddam Hussein couldn’t have been the next Hitler. He wasn’t even a dictator.

According to the judge in Hussein’s case:

You are not a dictator. You were not a dictator. However, the people or the individuals and officials surrounding you created a dictator. It was not you in particular.

I haven’t heard words parsed so painfully since we were quizzed on the definition of the word “is.” Somebody make sure Bill Clinton isn’t wearing a clown mustache and sitting on a bench in Baghdad.

This obsession with finding the next Hitler could not have escaped the attention of the folks at Fox. Next spring, following American Idol, it’s the premiere of the reality show that slaughters the competition, “Who Wants to be Der Fuhrer?” ABC is already rushing to scrape together a knockoff show that will air in the same timeslot. “Who Wants to be Il Duce?”