I am really liking these International films. Everyone needs to check out...
Ajami
Film Synopsis thanks to Film Forum:
The film is the debut from Israeli and Palestinian co-directors Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti, whose location filming, use of nonprofessional actors and balanced perspective lend a palpable authenticity to a complex, cross-cultural drama -- set in Jaffa’s multi-ethnic Ajami neighborhood, home to Jews, Muslims and Christians. The repercussions of a revenge killing reveal the cultural and religious tensions simmering beneath the surface: two young brothers fear assassination after their uncle wounds a local criminal; a young Palestinian refugee works illegally in Israel to finance his mother’s surgery; an Israeli woman and her affluent Palestinian boyfriend dream of building a life together; and a Jewish cop is obsessed with finding his missing brother.
Note: Here is a trailer but there are no subtitles. Still, you can feel the tension and the richness of the material.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Movie Recommendation for the Week!
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 11:25 AM 1 comments
Monday, January 25, 2010
Haitian Relief Effort
Hello Everyone,
I just would like to say that Haitian people are still suffering and they need your help. I am Haitian and feel a personal responsibility to ensure the posterity of Haitian people. If you want to help, there is a great organization named HaitiHelpMed.Org. This organization is based in Central Florida and they have been established and helping Haitians for years. They are already on the ground right now in Haiti. Here is a list from the website of supplies they really need:
Your donation of small items like the following will go a long way in helping:
- Sterile & Regular Gloves
- Antibiotics (cephalosporins, cillins, cleocin, etc.)
- Betadine (povidone-iodine (PVPI) topical antiseptics)
- Gauze
- Bandages
- Tape
- Topical Wound Care Items (Silvadene, Bacitracin, Neosporin,
or Xeroform ointments) - Small Flashlights
- Tums
- Motrin
- Vitamins
Please Help.
Respectfully,
Leonard
Co-Founder of Skoolboy.com
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 6:29 PM 0 comments
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Book Recommendation: The Happiness Project
The author of this book spent a year testing different theories about happiness.
Here are a couple reviews of the book:
“A cross between the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, and seamlessly buttressed by insights from sources as diverse as psychological scientists, novelists, poets, and philosophers, Gretchen Rubin has written a book that readers will revisit again and again as they seek to fulfill their own dreams for happiness.”
— Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want
“This book made me happy in the first five pages. And the more I read it, the happier I got. It’s filled with great insights that have changed every part of my life, from love to money, from work to play, from writing to Diet Coke.”
— A.J. Jacobs, The Year of Living Biblically and The Guinea Pig Diaries
“Happiness is contagious. And so is The Happiness Project. Once you’ve read Gretchen Rubin’s tale of a year searching for satisfaction, you’ll want to start your own happiness project and get your friends and family to join you. This is the rare book that will make you both smile and think—often on the same page.”
— Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind
“The Happiness Project is a wonderful book. Gretchen shows how you can be happier, starting right now, with small, actionable steps accessible to everyone. Among her many attainable strategies, her discovery of the connection between inner happiness and outer order is spot on!”
— Julie Morgenstern, Organizing from the Inside Out and SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 1:00 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Movie Rant
I have heard from a good deal of people that the Book of Eli was not good. Is that true?
Feel free to rant about your experience.
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 6:52 PM 0 comments
Movie Recommendation for the Week! Late Edition...
Important Note!!! If you are reading this from the Facebook Page or other applications, make sure to click on view original post.
Go See...A Room and A Half (Foreign Film by a Russian Director).
Here is a Synopsis from Film Forum:
Joseph Brodsky, the Russian-Jewish-American poet, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1987 and was made poet laureate of the U.S. in 1991. Given that he was expelled from the USSR in 1972, it’s not surprising that much of his writing deals with themes of exile, loss and memory. An imagined return to the parents he never saw again and his childhood home of St. Petersburg (“a city whose color was fossilized vodka”) is the essence of this wonderfully nostalgic, whimsical movie. Made by famed Russian animator Andrey Khrzhanovsky, A ROOM AND A HALF recalls the glory years of a much-loved child and the particular absurdities and indignities suffered by Jews under the Soviet regime in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The filmmaker’s light touch – his use of animation, stills, archival footage, and scripted, dramatic material – melds the sophisticated surrealism of Magritte with the folk mysticism of Chagall.
Here is a Trailer (It is in Russian)- If someone finds the English version, please let me know. I think the movie has subtitles though.
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 6:16 PM 0 comments
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Movie Recommendation for the Week!
The film is.....Fish Tank!
Another Foreign Film with some real gritty material. It is a British Film and revolves around a girl whose life changes when her mom brings home a new boyfriend.
Enjoy!
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 4:33 PM 0 comments
Thursday, January 7, 2010
A Must Read Blog- Study Hacks
I stumbled upon this blog just moments ago and read an entry about what it takes to become an expert or very good at something. It is really thought provoking and worth the read. Take a look and make sure to subscribe.
Study Hacks
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 9:41 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Help Support Your Favorite Websites!
To do this, we recommend you visit Sprinklepenny.com which helps to do this. I am not saying that you should support Skoolboy even though we would appreciate your kindness :) Regardless, it is an interesting website and if you feel there is a great business out there and you would like to see it succeed, sprinkle a penny or more!
Sprinklepenny
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 9:43 PM 0 comments
Great Blog for Entrepreneurs
If you are thinking about starting a business or just would like to read very insightful information, this is the blog to read. There is a specific post that was written recently that lists the top 30 young entrepreneurs blogs. It is highly recommended that you take a look at these various blogs. I personally have read a couple of them. One of them I was very impressed by was Neil Patel who writes on QuickSprout.
Here is a link to the post that lists the top 30 young entrepreneur blogs of 2009.
Unstrappd
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 9:26 PM 0 comments
Sneak Preview of Inception: Awesome!
This is pretty cool. It comes out Summer 2010.
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 12:31 AM 0 comments
Monday, January 4, 2010
Book Recommendation- Daemon by Daniel Suarez
Here is a review of the book by Robin Cook (who is a doctor and author of such titles as Coma)
Daemon is an ambitious novel, which sets out not only to entertain, which it surely does, but also to challenge the reader to consider social issues as broad as the implications of living in a technologically advanced world and whether democracy can survive in such a world.
The storyline portrays one possible world consequent to the development of the technological innovations that we currently live with and the reality that the author, Suarez, imagines will evolve, and it is chilling and tense (on www.thedaemon.com the reader can find evidence that the seemingly incredible advances Suarez proposes could in fact become real). Daemon is filled with multiple scenes involving power displays by the Daemon's allies resulting in complete loss of control by its enemies, violence with new and innovative weaponry, explosions, car crashes, blood, guts, and limbs-cut-off galore.
As far as computer complexity, Daemon will satisfy any computer geek's thirst. I was thankful for Pete Sebeck, the detective in the book whose average-person understanding of computers necessitates an occasional explanation about what is going on. I came away from the novel with a new understanding, respect, and fear of computer capability.
In the end, Suarez invites the reader to enter the "second age of reason," to think about where recent and imminent advances in computer technology are taking us and whether we want to go there. For me, it is this "thinking" aspect of the novel which makes it a particularly fun, satisfying, and significant read.
Here are some reviews:“Daemon does for surfing the Web what Jaws did for swimming in the ocean.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“Daemon is wet-yourself scary, tech-savvy, mind-blowing!”
—Paste Magazine
“This is a techno-thriller with a healthy dose of techno but absolutely no letdown on the thrill.”
—Slashdot.com
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 4:06 PM 0 comments
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Movie Recommendation for the Week!
Movie Recommendation for the Week is Police,adjective or also known as Politist, adjective.
It is a foreign film from Romania. It is about a Romanian cop assigned to a minor drug case who debates the meaning of justice with his boss.
I thought I mix it up for the New Year and broaden the scope of films recommended here on the blog. Enjoy!
Here is a Trailer or I guess a snippet of the movie.
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 8:52 PM 0 comments
Friday, January 1, 2010
Some Websites to Check Out in 2010
Happy New Year!
Here are a few websites that I found interesting and sugggest you check out to kick off 2010.
1. Flixup.com= reviews of movies on Twitter
2. Schoogo.com- great if you are searching for public/private school for your child/children
3. Ajaxo- website that helps you find deals on food in your zip code area.
4. Myitemtracker.com- tracking items on Amazon by price (Great if you are looking for cheap textbooks to buy before the semester begins)
Posted by Ace Maxwell at 3:26 PM 0 comments