now this is interesting...

The leaked transcript of the conversation between Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull (Australia's Prime Minister) a mere week after Trump was sworn in as President.

The Guardian Australia: What Australian media is taking from this (with respect to our country's alleged 'refugee crisis'.

The Atlantic: How foreign leaders manipulate Trump (with respect to international statescraft)

Bonus article from The Atlantic: Even Trump Is Surprised By Australia's Cynical Refugee Policy. (Donny boy, it's been horrific for four years and we're just scratching the surface.)

The Tropes of Monte Cristo

So, I've never read the book and I've never seen the movie.

A RL friend recently mentioned that she had just read the book prepatory to rewatching the 2002 movie. I mentioned that I'd never watched it. She proposed we get together for a movie night.

She came. We saw. We laughed our asses off.

It was hilarious.

I'm so glad I waited fifteen years to watch this because it would never have been as funny without fifteen years of fanfic, life, the universe, and tropes under my belt.

The overacting is superb, the story a perfect "Scriptwriting 101: the basics", and the complete dwama of it all made for a really good night of entertainment ever with a friend who'd read the book, knows the tropes, and is perfectly okay with me commenting on stuff as it happens, from guessing all the tropes, all the 'twists', commenting on the sheer ridiculousness of some of those choices. (That entrance via hot air balloon - complete with cloak swish - and then "Greetings"? The velvet robes in a sweathouse? The final fight scene in the wheatfield?)

It probably helped that my friend hadn't seen it in about fifteen years herself, and her adolescent self thought it was wonderful (probably like my adolescent self thought Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves was a great movie), while her adult self didn't really remember what had happened. But we had lots of fun watching and guessing and laughing, because half the time I couldn't remember the names and just ended up calling them "Revenge Jesus" and "Guy Pearce".

Anyway, that was a nice way to spend a Friday night...