The other movie was also about a young woman who also grew up not feeling very much in control of her life. But _Precious_ lived in an environment that was the polar opposite of Victoria's. She had an abusive mother and that was just the beginning of her troubles. But thanks to an alternative school, she started to learn how to read and write. She learned what it really meant for people to care about each other. At movie's end, there was finally hope in her life, and pride in herself.

It's funny, the environment in the here and now impinged itself into the movie worlds. While watching _The Young Victoria_, the wind outside howled terribly and some of our tree branches thwacked, thwacked, thwacked against the house. It seemed to parallel the present day storm in England, the tense days of negotiation as their current government sorted out the difficulties from a 'hung vote'. The next day the details of the coalition government were worked out, and David Cameron became Prime Minister.

When we were watching the informative special features about the movie _Precious_, an incident had me pausing the TV to deal with it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small brown creature skittering across the carpet floor, a visitor from her ghetto, or at least the neighbor's apartment. I sprang into action and chased the cockroach down. I grabbed the nearest hard object, a long metal yard stick and went smashing on it. Having 'neutralized' the threat, I flushed the 'illegal immigrant' down the toilet. (A friend of ours takes a rather harsh view to the illegal immigrant situation here in Arizona, for "shoot on sight" is nearly her view. I vote for first determining their purpose, whether they are a small 'huddled mass yearning to be free' or some criminal invading our territory with nothing worthy to contribute.) However, for the cockroach, it's "shoot on sight!" or more precisely "Smush and Flush!"

Gentle Julia is not like me. She won't smush bugs. She takes them and puts them outside. But before resuming watching the making of _Precious_, we had a good laugh.

The other item we got when we went to Hastings this weekend might prove rewarding. I saw _The Pyramid Code_ and decided to gamble on its purchase. It might be largely 'woo-woo' by 'pyramidiots', but at least there should be good movie camera shots of the pyramids and their interiors.

We find out soon!