District 9

I haven't seen it yet, but I've been fascinated with how divisive the film has been amongst my friends. Some are hailing it as one of the best SF films of the last decade. Others are calling it the worst film that they've ever seen. The most interesting review for me came from author Nnedi Okorafor.

You see, Nnedi's parents came from Nigeria. She often visits her family there.

That's right; Nigerians are real people. So are Serbs, Russians, African Americans, Italian Americans, Arabs, Iranians/Persians, and every other ethnic, religious, or national group that Hollywood uses as shorthand for EVIL or corrupt.

When you use lazy stereotypes, real people get hurt. Entertainment and art is global. Just because you pick a "distant" country like Kazakhstan or Nigeria doesn't mean that the people there aren't going to find out. I'm not saying that there aren't bad people in these cultures, but it's insensitive to portray an entire group of people as being immoral. It's also just bad writing.

I am still willing to give this film a try, but I have a feeling that I'm not going to like it very much.

Back to School.

Today was Caitlin's first day of First Grade. My giddy little girl couldn't get away from me fast enough. :-)

Cait still has the same aide, Special Ed teacher, and therapy team. The only difference is a new regular classroom teacher. Compared to last year's transition, this was a piece of cake.

I actually managed to get some writing done today. I've decided to switch from Panera to Caribou (I know, stop the presses). I'm getting really sick of the flaky wi-fi at Panera. There's only so many times that I can type TK.

Caitlin came back from school with the gift of medical forms. These things drive me nuts. I wrote down the same info on seven separate forms so that they can get filed away for another year. If they seriously wanted to know the details about Cait's medical problems, they wouldn't have made the lines so damn short.