Today’s vid at the end.

But first, a very sad but very beautiful ad from Thailand.

Well, technically it’s an ad. One for Thai Life Insurance. But I can’t see how life insurance would have gotten the narrator more time, so to me, it’s really just a one and a half minute short film about the timeless subject of parental regret.

Looking back over your life, wishing you had spent more time with your children, that you had been kinder, more patient, more gentle, that you had not let anger rule you so often, that you had taken the time to get to know this brand new person that you brought into the world instead of retreating into anger, judgement, and contempt… that has been a lesson that (largely) men have been wanting to give to other (mostly) men since, I would imagine, the dawn of humanity.

Parenting can devolve into a brutal contest of wills, especially during your child’s teen years, and like all contests of wills, the most important thing becomes winning, no matter the cost.

This goes double for same-sex parent relationships, where the always confusing and very hard to acknowledge realm of territorial competition comes into play.

Then it becomes not just a contest of wills but a dominance fight, just like two mountain rams slamming their heads together to see who get to mate.

And by the time the hormonal haze clears and we come back to our senses and realize just what we have been doing to our beloved children, it’s too late.

You need more time.

On a much lighter note, here is a very funny video about languages.

Of course, it’s not German’s fault that it comes across like that. Nobody set out to speak a language that sounds like a dog trying to bark with a spoon in it’s mouth. But it’s still hilarious.

And isn’t it adorable that the Italian word for butterfly is “farfalla”? That is the perfect word for something so delicate and gentle. Makes even “butterfly” sound harsh.

Plus, until now, I had no idea that “mariposa” was the Spanish word for “butterfly”. I have seen dozens of things with “Mariposa” in the name, including cities, counties, theaters, banks, and schools, and still I had no idea that they were all named, basically, “butterfly”.

Nor did I know that a “margarita” is a “daisy”. Not sure I see the connection there. It’s not like margaritas are made with daisies or look like a daisy or anything.

Maybe they are named after a woman named Margarita, and she was as fresh and pretty as a daisy.

It also means that my dear departed grandmother, my Mémé, whose name was Marguerite, was technically sort of named Daisy too.

And I find that highly apropos, given her legendary green thumb. You could give her the most bedraggled, neglected, mostly-dead plant, and within a week it would be green and perky and thriving.

My totally unbiased, scientific opinion : plants loved her.

Next, we have some marvelous son et lumière from Singapore. Fullscreen this one, it’s worth it.

The statue you are looking at is a massive monument of Singapore’s national animal, the mythical Merlion, which as its name suggests is a lion’s head on a fish body.

The lovely light show is created by a combination of lights on the Merlion’s body and laser projection.

As impressive as it is as a YouTube video, I imagine it must be simply breathtaking live. I was lucky enough to see the son et lumière show they have in Ottawa during the tourist season, and that was pretty darned cool.

And that was back in old 1988! Imagine what they can do now with high definition laser projectors and high speed computers to pump out the graphics!

I am a big fan of the art of spectacle. To me, it is the art of thrilling the senses and creating a sense of wonder and joy in people, and what could be a purer form of art than that?

So whether it’s fireworks, son et lumière, trompe l’oeil, or just your average stage magician trying to make the audience gasp in wonder and delight, I consider spectacle to be high art.

Despite the bad name that people like that human seizure Michael Bay tends to give it.

No art form can protect itself from being done badly, and no art form lacks examples that could be used to prosecute it in the court of art.

That’s why you have to refuse to judge an art form by its worst examples.

I mean, we’d rather judge writing by William Shakespeare than Dan Brown, right?

Finally, in terms of OPC (Other People’s Content), we have this totally slammin’ bit of poetry and verbal fireworks relevant to today’s world.

I know I say this whenever I post poetry, but daaamn, that is the SHIT. That is the STUFF. That is how you poetry, son. Passion, power, and perspicacity rendered molten and poured into the white hot cauldron of an active and observant mind and forged into words of smoking steel by the laser of the soul, hell yeah.

That’s poetry all right. Hard to believe that guy’s team only came in second.

I wonder what first place’s poetry sounds like?

As to the points he is making, I can’t say I disagree with any of them. We are at a strange state of history where we have more virtual connections than ever before and where anyone can use the Internet to get all the mind could ever want of stimulation, communication, information, and connection.

But at the same time, we connect with each other for real less than ever before. We are both more connected and more disconnected than ever before, and the effect of having more information than ever before it mitigated by the effect of never having to deal with anyone who disagrees with you, ever.

I have asked myself, many times, what my life would have been like without the Internet.

Possibly a lot better. When I got bored, I would have to go out into the world to find some form of stimulation and no more virtual company, either. I would have to find the real thing.

Bit late now, though.

And finally, here’s today’s vid, where I review Inglorious Basterds.

Spoiler : I don’t like it.