I hope you find it as suprising as I did to find out that some people are complaining that Watchmen was inappropriate for their children. Just Google “Kid-Friendly Watchmen” and after a couple of posts about a bad 80’s cartoon you’ll see some classic examples.

My family and I walked out of this movie rather than finish watching it…  unfortunately many families will be like mine and take children to see this horror not realizing what is going to happen. I feel victimized by this movie and I spent hours appologizing to my 8 year old

I’m pretty sure that the R rating was intended to give you a hint.

My husband said he lost count of how many times he saw penis flash across the screen and how many people ended up getting up and leaving with thier children. But he said he was more amazed by how many stayed.

And there was me thinking I wouldn’t be able to sneak a few pleasantly puerile words into my blog subtly.

As the internet is such a wonderful forum of understanding and politeness I am sure you will not be surprised to know that people who posted complaining were quickly set upon by a group of rabid insult spewing morons. Lets get things straight, I think taking your kids to see an R rated film without any research is stupid and trying to blame someone else afterwords is refusing to accept that you made a mistake but I don’t need to post abuse due to that view.

Has anyone seen a more bizarre example of parents complaining about films they took their kids to see (Saw IV perhaps?) or can someone offer an insight into why parents take the kids and what can be done (bar banning mature films)?

update 16th March 10:35

I got to see the Watchmen on Friday 13th. I was impressed by Snyder’s visual style (as I was with the 300), and with the depth of the backplot something which given the graphic novels high ratings I am sure Alan Moore can take credit for. I won’t attempt a review, because I hope no one really cares what I think about films especially with thousands of decent reviewers online. Suffice to say I am looking forwards to seeing it again as I think there was plenty of depth I missed the first time.

Although the film contains plenty of fighting there is actually very little graphic violence (there is some). Dr. Manhattans WMD does make it on screen a lot (often on the screen 3+ times at once) but it’s blue and computer generated for crying out loud. There is sex, and it’s probably a little longer and more graphic than average and than necessary (but then so is a lot of film violence in 18s). Personally I would be completely happy letting a 15 year old see that (he’ll of seen far worse online anyhow) and I wouldn’t let a 10 year old see it, but then I’m not a parent so ymmv.

I’ve pretty much made the decision to keep anything Slashdot related off this site, but the following seemed amusing enough to warrant posting. In response to an article on an Iranian scientific breakthrough I said:

It is nice to see something that isn’t negative about Iran getting into western news. Iran has a population around that of the United Kingdom so I have no doubt that numerous beneficial scientific discoveries are made there.

I can’t tell whether the following response was because I didn’t slag off Iran or simply because he hated the phrase I used:

“I have no doubt that …”

This invariably means the person has no evidence for the following statement, isn’t looking for evidence and doesn’t want to hear any evidence and is sticking his fingers in his ears and going “LALALALALA” against anyone trying to argue his point.

I know from the multitude of responses on Slashdot pointing this out that I am not the only one who found the fact someone was complaining about I have no doubt that by using the phrase This invariably means more than a little self-defeating.

As a bonus, someone later responded with another example of Iranian science, here is wired reporting on Iranian super-concrete although sadly they focus on its military potential even though it wasn’t even designed for that purpose.

I have just uploaded the initial draft of the information for the Adrantis V campaign. This is a one day Warhammer 40k campaign I am running at my local wargaming club (The Bedford Gladiators). You can find the full details at Adrantis V Warhammer 40K Website

The campaign is planned for this Sunday the 8th March and should consist of 3 games of Warhammer 40k with players using 500pt lists.

Having discussed the issue of web presence with some friends in the Web Development and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) field, it seems that although I have been diligent in managing my online presence my choice to do so by ensuring my absence from search results was not the correct course of action.

Until now searching for “John Graham” on any of the major search engines would find nothing related to me within the first 100 results, which is more than enough to be effectively invisible to casual browsers. However, this is a more web aware age and simply not appearing in a negative light online isn’t enough anymore (or so the logic goes). My intention is to develop this site into a showcase of my achievements and place to publish material related to my interests, and to use it as the vehicle to move my web presence from ‘Ninja like stealth’ (obscurity) to decisive and positive.