Author Archives: Satis

Thought of the Week: Childhood Stresses

This is a stressful week for Little Satis. As an eleven-year-old in the state of New Jersey, he is about to be subjected to a series of testing known as PARCC (the oh-so-memorable Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers). The testing would have started today, but there was a delayed opening at school because of last night’s snow.

Starting tomorrow morning, he will be sitting through hours of assessments and tests in English, mathematics and literacy, to … I guess see how well he’s going to do at college and in his career? Honestly, the point of these tests somewhat eludes me. Perhaps that’s my failing as a parent for not paying attention as much as I should, but I just can’t find it in me to care much about all these tests. I’d rather he go to school and enjoy his time there; after all, what’s the point of education if you hate it?

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Music I Love: Rock Mix 1

Track listing:

  1. Black Night – Deep Purple (1970)
  2. Sweet Dreams – Marilyn Manson (1995)
  3. Enter Sandman (S&M) – Metallica (1999)
  4. Amish Paradise – Weird Al Yankovic (1996)
  5. Synthetic – Spineshank (2000)
  6. Coma White – Marilyn Manson (1998)
  7. Smoke on the Water (Live) – Deep Purple (unknown year)
  8. Long Hard Road out of Hell – Marilyn Manson (1999)
  9. Fade to Black – Metallica (1984)
  10. New Disease – Spineshank (2000)
  11. The Night Santa Went Crazy – Weird Al Yankovic (1996)
  12. Californication – Red Hot Chili Peppers (1999)

This is the story of how my life was saved by music, and two kids in high school. If that seems like hyperbole, I’d argue you’ve never known a teenager suffering from clinical depression. There was once a time when I was desperately close to suicide, and this set of twelve songs quite literally stopped me.

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Movie Night: Flubber

Year: 1997

Director: Les Mayfield

Production Company: Walt Disney Pictures

Leads: Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher McDonald

Little Satis was in a bad mood the other night, so I went on Netflix in search of Robin Williams. Nothing cheers me up like Williams, but unfortunately Netflix is a bit devoid of decent films these days. They do have Good Morning, Vietnam and Good Will Hunting, but I think Little Satis is just a touch too young for those movies. This left us with Jumanji, which we’ve already seen, Hook, and Flubber. We should have gone with Hook, but I recalled the slapstick of Flubber and thought it would please an eleven-year-old.

The gags come off feeling a little tired and recycled.

I wasn’t wrong, but we were both left feeling slightly empty at the end of it all, despite the chuckles and giggles. Flubber is a remake of the 1961 The Absent-Minded Professor, also by Disney, and whilst I’m usually a stickler for watching the originals first, Netflix didn’t have it, and as I mentioned above, I really just wanted Robin Williams. It follows the story of a … well … absent-minded professor who invents a substance that gains kinetic energy from kinetic energy (i.e. the more you bounce it, the more it bounces). It’s hardly a ground-breaking plot, but I can’t help feeling that more could have been done with it. After all, such an invention in real life would change the world.

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