BUUUUUUURP!

buuuuuuurp, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

What we're watching:
Brenden doesn't insist on his train DVD so much so we're back to a steady diet of Spongebob. We've also managed to see a few movies recently:

Scary Movie IV The less said about this one the better. Hey, you watch The Alphabet Train 7,421 times in a row and see how desperate you get!

300 I knew I was going to like this movie but really I loved it! It has everything I love about movies: Men in very little clothing yelling at each other. The Spartans were wearing things kind of like tighty whiteys (except brown) and red capes, greaves, and helmets. And big honking shields. And swords and spears.

Apparently "Sparta" is a greek word meaning "badass mother[BLEEP]er" as a group of 300 Spartans, led by King Leonides, held back a bazillion Persians led by King Xerxes at the battle of Thermopylae. They held out for 3 days before being betrayed (hope I didn't spoil it for you) but Xerxes' highly disproportianate losses helped defeat his desire to extend his empire into Greece.

The movie does go into Spartan society just enough to see how such men were raised - I was surprised to discover that Spartan women held more status than I previously thought (I got that from reading, not from the movie, which I originally thought was exaggerating to make the Spartans more sympathetic). They certainly held more status than Athenian women, and could even hold land (a common occurence in societies where men died off at a pretty active clip). Women who died in childbirth were given the same honor and burials as men who died in combat.

A quick side note here: I don't mind cultures that regard women's number 1 duty is to be mothers so long as they honor their women. Cultures that insist on treating women as crap are the ones that piss me off. How anyone can justify treating their mom so bad is beyond me.

Anyways, awesome movie! Bloody, stylistic, and many buff bodies. Hoo-ra!