Thoughts on a Few Movies and TV Shows: Communism and Swimming

Today I saw a movie called "The City of Ember."  It was kind of a kids adventure.  It was OK as far as writting, and acting, etc.  It actually wasn't a great movie.  There were several plot holes, and important things that aren't explained, but I absolutely loved it.  The reason I loved it, was because it is a perfect example of what happens when capitalism is shut down, and a type of communism takes over.  Things slowly start to fall apart, nobody does a job that isn't theirs, and no one tries.  No one knows how to or tries to solve problems.  Every one gets poorer and poorer, except for the corrupt government officials.  People just live with everything the way it is.  If you ever want to explain to your kids why capitalism is good, and socialism/communism is bad,  show them this movie.  I loved it just for that.  It is also fine for kids as far as language, sex, violence, etc.  There is none of that at all, just a touch of violence as part of the adventure.  

A few days ago I saw the movie, "The Guardian."  It is about the National Guard ocean rescue teams.  They are called "swimmers",  and they drop from helicopters and swim out to people, grab them, and hook them to a cable and help them get up to the helicopter.  Usually they work when a boat or ship is going down in heavy storms, etc.  Pretty scary stuff.  There were also a lot of them during Katrina.  Sometimes they don't swim, they just grab the person.  Anyway, the movie talked about he training they go through.  It was really interesting.  these people are incredible swimmers.  Again, the movie is OK.  Some plot holes, the ending could have been better.  But very interesting, because I learned about a branch of the military that I didn't really know about before.  In the movie, there is a lot of swimming.  Mostly with them fully clothed, because they are swimming in the cold ocean or practicing to swim in the cold ocean.  I was watching the skill of the swimmers, and I was really impressed.  The quality of the swimming was great.  I found out later that they hired olympic swimmers as body doubles and minor cast roles, and extras.  I could tell.  

I also like to watch "The Amazing Race."  This last episode, they were in China where they had to do a swimming or diving challenge.  The diving challenge was that they had to do a synchronized jump from two 3 meter boards.  I thought that was pretty hard.  The other option was to swim a 2x200 meter relay, 100 meters at a time (400 meters total) in a new speedo super fast olympic swimming suit.  I could not believe how hard people thought that was.  These two sisters who are college athletes were the worst ones.  One of them could barely swim.  She started crying and freaking out.  It was pitiful.  She could have just pulled herself across on the lane line.  Everyone in the show made it seem like the hardest challenge they had ever had.   Their strokes where so bad.  400 meters is a warm up, a short warm up (each person only had to swim half of that).  They didn't have to swim fast either, they just had to complete it.  I guess my expectations of swimming are really high since I swam for years on a team.  Even when I am out of shape, I know I could swim that in my sleep.  They could have just floated with some kicking and finished it.  It was really pitiful.  It made me realize how much I miss swimming, and how important it is for me to make sure my kids are decent swimmers, wether they join a swim team or not.  So if they ever find themselves needing it, they can do it easily.  

On the topic of swimming, I hear that the CC 24hr Fitness is probably going to build a new building when their lease runs out, and put in a pool.  I hope that information is correct.  CC really needs a swimming pool of some sort.  As of now, RM, CC both have nothing.  When that happens, I will probably join that fitness center.  We will see.  I will have to think about the price, and distance etc.