woolf woolf

I never organised one, but I think it depends on the practicality of the host and the politeness of the people involved and invited. Good food that can be eaten with the hands, plenty of napkins, plenty of drinks for every taste, only invite a reasonable number of people, be available to give everyone a talking time and the same conditions. Have the bathrooms ready and a first-aid kit for some emergency. Don't overcrowd the space either. Personal pet peeves, please avoid all the balloons, confettis and expendable hats; the loud music and the bright colours. Have something ready for group plays, like a game of chairs. However, I think nothing beats a plain conversation with someone we like to be with.

Congratulations, irish. Well done.

It must be a really cool book, the film is filled with amazing images. Well, it's an amazing film.

This post may come out as non-sensical, but given there's a lot of it in journalism I'll give it a try. I think men are in general portrayed poorly in the screen. When I read a book, I can identify with plenty of male characters, and even when I don't, I can still understand them. In cinema and television, the impossibility of showing a character's thoughts and feelings is a problem affecting both genders; however, this creates a sort of phenomenon that affects men. This phenomenon is that men are natural beings with both emotions and logic behind their actions and attitudes, but as the screen can't show these inner thoughts and feelings it resorts to both stereotypical or very dumbed-down personas. This leads to not knowing which behaviours I should adopt in order to be a man, whilst resonating what happens inside me. The problem with it is that the male models I can resonate with are all literary characters from previous centuries, and it demands that I learn how to adapt these caracters to a 21st century environment. There are still some men I can understand in early cinema, I can guess which thoughts and strifes lead to their behaving like that or saying what they say. I feel there's an underlying idea that men are either perfect beings in everything or damned chauvinists. The conclusion is that men are imperfect in many ways, but the examples we have to follow can only lead us to perfection or to a whole array of boring stereotypes; when we don't follow them, we're still reduced to them by others' perception.

This is difficult. I solemnly swear I do like recent films. Cries and Whispers - Ingmar Bergman Autumn Sonata - Ingmar Bergman Come and See - Elem Klimov Tokyo Story - Yasujiro Ozu The Seven Samurai - Akira Kurosawa Citizen Kane - Orson Welles On the Waterfront - Elia Kazan Brief Encounter - David Lean The Bridge on the River Kwai - David Lean Paths of Glory - Stanley Kubrick

The end. It was a pleasant ride.

Welcome; we have quite a few gamers around here as well. Have you read the graphic novel "Watchmen"?

I only have five months of memories in this forum, and I have barely written about books in four. In five and something years of internet, I have changed immensely as a person; my views have broaded and I only have to thank this incredible tool. One thing I've noticed is that this kind of specifically small forum is disappearing in detriment of massive social websites and massive forums; and I find more and more websites where interesting things are discussed, but I start noticing even more patterns of thought and opinion building. I also find, and that's the relevant bit, my opinions are losing value. It's in this status quo I find this forum, because, in a place more welcoming than any other I wrote in, I feel I have nothing to add. Even about little things I enjoy, I can't find any words from which I can take more pleasure than simply drifting away in my mind with the delight of what I experienced. When before I'd have tons of artificial words to elaborate a fancy, I find now that I only have to say "I liked it". It's a progressive feeling and not definitive, but I'm coming to the realisation that I don't need to have an opinion about everything, nor do I need to mold my personality to fit into the same slots as everyone else. It's liberating, but it's also very lonely. I want to continue writing here, I'll eventually have something to write in my book blog and I'll certainly find things to say throughout the forum, as I have these last months. I want to, because in this short time some users have unintentionally opened my mind to something new. They appear to be simple people, and what they wrote was simple, and it clicked. It's easy to become lost in our mindset, our close relatives' mindset, our country's mindset. In this small but worldwide forum exists a balance between community and individuality that helps me learn there are better ways to think, act and be, regarding small things. I hope this doesn't happen only in this forum, nor only to me, but that there are other people here and in other forums that feel the same way.

A list more drafted by what I haven't read than by any personal taste. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf The Sorrows of Young Werther - Johann von Goethe Dear Life - Alice Munro The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë The Personal History of David Copperfield - Charles Dickens Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka Dubliners - James Joyce If This Is a Man - Primo Levi

About video games, I agree there is plenty of sexism. Not just in-game, but the community is very agressive towards women and in gaming events there usually are plenty of women in lesser garments, for show. I have a small collection of videogames I saved, I sold the rest. Your post made me look to it and find out which games are sexist, and to my surprise I consider none of them as such. However, if you consider the damsel in distress trope as sexist, which I do not because video game characters aren't complex to begin with and the theme is only there as an excuse, practically half of them gain a bad status. If anyone wants a list of my games, I can give it, and highlight the "damsel in distress" ones. Also, when someone is being injusticed, he/she becomes more sensible to things that likely weren't there purposedly against him/her. Bear in mind I'm a white european male, therefore I'm part of the most privileged group in the world and as such I probably am not capable of fully understanding fully the prejudices aimed towards others.

I'm well aware of the pending sexism in society to the point in which even girls have said I'm overreacting. That one about the man saving the woman depends a lot on character construct and narrative, just the fact alone isn't sufficient to label. About the names, you could see it the other way: the author's being sexist by aknowledging the female characters as likable personas and addressing male characters in an antipathic manner. However, you're the one reading it and surely there are more discreet examples of sexism that you can't specifically portray in a forum post. I remember reading "Women" by Bukowski and the guy seemed sexist, but I don't remember the specifics. James Bond in "Casino Royale" was sexist, but I'm sure plenty of men read it like he was inspiring. Usually, the older books (before 20th century) could be considered sexist, but they should be considered by their time.

I have an idea. Change the "foreign films" to "non-english language films"; I think it's more interesting this way.

I watched Journey to Italy by Roberto Rossellini, starring Ingrid Bergman. It's about a british couple who traveled to Naples in order to sell a house they inherited; it's the first time they're alone since their wedding, and their marriage is put to the test. I think it is a very good film, but it isn't as much eventful as it makes one think and dwell on existence and all mundane things. I think older people, with more experience of life, might enjoy it to its fullest.

I'd recommend short stories. I remember reading some short horror and thriller stories by several authors, but using the name of Alfred Hitchcock. This is the result of a Goodreads search, there're some good names: http://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=alfred+hitchcock P.S.: Looking in front of me, I found Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe; I think it's a fairly better recommendation. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a short novel, but an iconic one; I'm yet to read it.

You may already know my suggestion, which is Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. A fairly popular book. It also displays a future authoritarian society like 1984, but instead of fear and punishment it breeds merriment and leisure. It's interesting because it's a functional society where everyone feels fullfilled and no one's poor or hungry; this society even mocks our society's values and way of living. It's a thoughtful read in that there's nothing inherently evil about this society, except the purposeful censorship of certain scientifical concepts and the limitations in free speech when they endanger the current culture. However, it's debatable whether it's a bad society to live in. The novel is no rival to 1984's detail in description and depth in narrative, but a good read nonetheless. H.G. Wells might have some dystopian novels, given he wrote a lot about future technology and alternate realities. I'd also search the second quarter of the previous century, because the mass production and the fascist regimes might have originated a big number of dystopian novels: at least 1984 and Brave New World came from the period.

Someone made a chronological montage of all the Dick Whitman scenes, forty minutes. It has spoilers and they are relevant, but anyone can see it. Think of it as a prequel.

I recommend visiting some less populated parts of the country, if you haven't. It's very quiet and bucolic. I've never been out of North/South Holland, though. Are you visiting any other place outside the Netherlands?

I haven't seen it, but she recently won a Cesar Award (one of the most reputable in the world) for her performance in "Clouds of Sils Maria", by Olivier Assayas; the film was a candidate for 2014's Palme d'Or. She was also praised by her performance in "Still Alice", by Richard Glatzer. Her fame for the freezing face might not be so much for her bad acting, but for people in general only seeing the dubious quality films when she might be restrained by character, plot or production limitations. Her counterpart in "Twilight", Robert Pattinson, has also earned critical praise for his performance in several less-known films.

I hope to have a family room like that eventually; it feels comfortable and engulfing. Does keeping the books besides the fireplace damage them in any way?

One would expect him to say Jean Sibelius, given music is his life. My first thought of Finland is Kimi Räikkonen, I was a fan of F1 when younger and his world championship victory was amazing. You could ask him for free tickets, a discount on them, or just to save one for you to pay in full but don't have to bother with the ticket rush. Edit: Saw his wikipedia page and he's from Liverpool; Hyypia and Litmanen are two of the best european football players in recent years and both played for Liverpool. Enigma solved.

Athena, you just received the biggest prank. 1 of April isn't the day to trick, lie, or deceive; whoever told you that certainly referred to something in that particular day and regretted it, and so decided to tell you it's the proper day for lies.

Congratulations for the interview. The two books approach interesting and delicate subjects, but proper for the young adult genre in order to warn and advice young readers about them. I should start walking in the countryside as well.

Do you keep your eyes open while you're at the dentist, getting your teeth sorted out? Yes. I shut them from times to times, because the light is tiring. Do you close your eyes when you kiss someone? I wouldn't know. I do close my eyes when I'm having my hair washed and cut in the barber shop. I open them when the barber asks something or engages in conversation, I fear I might be a strenuous customer by my lack of talking. As an addendum, the dentist never asks me anything when I have my mouth full, but he seems to forget his own mask when giving information and advice.

I first saw the X-Files series and films sometimes as a kid. I remember one episode was a kind of paradigm, but I don't know if it was really the X-Files. It was about a genie that would conceed wishes, and when someone asked to make the world peaceful every human disappeared. Today it seems cheesy and basic, but for a kid it was thought-provoking. Apparently, this new series will be of six episodes, each one a "monster-of-the-week" type.

It's a good film, despite not being better than other sci-fi options in the last five years - though it will most likely be praised as a classic in the coming decades and it'll influence a whole generation of filmmakers now in their childhood or youth. It has a very good cast, but their qualities are not fully exploited; it has amazing visual effects, production design and quality of image, but its cinematography is rushed and lacklustre (probably to avoid being dubbed as boring, or as an imposition by producers, but this is speculation from my part); it's ambitious in storytelling, but it resorts to far too many generic elements and deus ex machinas; it had the advice of the renowned physicist Kip Thorne and some elements usually ignored in cinema are considered in this one, but then some wild elements are used to progress the narrative. The film was originally to be directed by Spielberg, it wouldn't probably be so far-fetched; I still enjoyed it and I think it's a good film. I felt like those robots were made as a trick for people to possess feelings towards them. First I thought their menacing aspect meant to intimidate during law enforcement or interrogations. However, later on its articulation in the sea-waving planet was great, and it felt like they'd have a purpose after all. Would you explain about why they'd be obsolete already, or which sources give a good insight about today's leading robots? I'd like to know more about it, but I don't know any proper sources. Edit: Cleaning and clarifying the text.