Month: February 2005

Oscars

So, it’s the Oscars tonight. Chris Rock as host – so something amusing is bound to be said.

My siblings and I saw “Million Dollar Baby” last night. Well-made, but sad movie. Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, and Morgan Freeman were all good. Would like to see Freeman win an Oscar already (although, I think he has done more powerful work in the past). Don’t think that Eastwood should necessarily win the Oscar (as an actor or director, not sure) – but it’ll be interesting to see if the movie will be Best Movie.

I am now fully caught up on “Alias” episodes, and I shall have to say that Secret Agent Sydney’s got to be crazy to trust Evil Man Sloane (whose agenda is still unclear). But, she has serious issues about her father and her boyfriend – i.e., the episode where she’s under the influence of a powerful hallucinogenic drug has her acting out her worst fears. She attempts to kill her dad, the tragic Jack, believing that he would kill her and that he never really loved her. Then, she tries to aim the gun at Vaughn, because she (while still under the drugs) believes he would “betray” her “again,” especially since Sydney is still mad at him for having gotten married to someone else – while she, Sydney, was presumed dead. (gee, Sydney, would you rather he remained in a paralyzing mournful state, much like your father? And, I could have sworn you got over that last year). Hmm. Whatever happened to the CIA psychiatrist would had to treat Sydney, Jack, and Vaughn, to help them deal with their personal stuff? (I forget – she might have been arrested/killed/taken to jail or whatnot).

Still, the most recent episode was crazy stuff (Sydney, Dixon, Vaughn cutting off a bad guy’s finger and then pretending to have killed him, so that Sydney could save her sister’s life). We might actually be back in the ballpark of Crazy Serial Alias, rather than the lately one-plot standalone episode stuff. I prefer the serial stuff, since each episode carried over themes and character development and left one so breathless that it was fun, even if it made no sense. The standalone stuff felt like they repeated plots from other shows (like “X-Files”) – even though I do understand that “Alias” doesn’t want to rely on its serial form so much such that it milks its internal mythology to the point of destroying itself (like “X-Files” did to itself).

Enjoy the Oscars.

Network Marketing

One of my law school friends took me on a mysterious meeting to check out “e-business” marketing opportunities. It turned out to be one of those multi-level marketing schemes, although it seems to be technically legal. However, it is an accounting mess. The independent business person has to buy $250 of stuff from themselves each month to gain points toward bonuses. The bonus is in the $40 range at that level. So, you’re paying $250 plus the startup fees to make $40. They don’t encourage marketing the product that they nominally sell, they encourage franchising the business to others. In addition, the high grossing products are not really the stuff that is sold at retail, but the franchise training stuff to continue in the business. Don’t know about this one.