Democrats try to settle FL, MI debate, & Hybrid Talk

Democrats argue over Michigan, Florida

So the states’ delates were thrown out for holding runnings too early, but since Clinton won in those states, she would like to have those state’s delegates seated.

Does that about cover it?

Talk about desperate. I’m willing to bet my liberalness that if the shoe was on the other foot, Cinderella would not be trying to get them seated. She should just say it: “I want to have these state’s delegates seated even though I am a part of the party that agreed to not seat them because without them I’m going to lose my campaign. Er, earlier than I’m going to lose without them.”

Obama-Clinton 2008 for the win!



Yahoo titles: Like reading Us Weekly
I open Yahoo this morning, and I see an Article Headline something like this: Is it Worth it to Buy a Hybrid?

Let’s see, gas well above $4 a gallon, times ~15 gallons to fill up, times how many fill-ups a month, times 12, times years… Yeah, it’s worth the extra $3,000-$4,000 to get the hybrid model if you’re shopping anyway.

It’s seriously like reading those damn variety mags in the supermarket line: “Angelina & Brad having twins! Did they do it?”

I’m thinking yeah, they probably ‘did it’ a few times.



Except maybe for these Hybrids
GM apparently only sold one-twelfth of the amount of Hybrid, Large SUV’s they had hoped. Looking at their stats, though, they’re hardly hybrids in performance. 20mpg? Get real.

I think GM is missing the point: People want hybrids not for the nameplate, not for the badge, but for the real-world savings. 20mpg? They can get better than that from a non-hybrid Toyota.

Let me throw my hat in the ring on this one: When Toyo makes available a Hybrid version of the 4Runner (I love my 4Runner), I will be severly interested. Mind you, hybrid or no, if you’re not in the market to buy a new vehicle then no matter what shopping for one is dumb… But if I’m in the market & one is available? Like stink on sh!t, mang, like stink on sh!t.

Of course I fully expect Toyota’s Hybrid SUV’s will probably get 40mpg. You know, like a hybrid is supposed to. Silly GM.

Peace.

Democrats try to settle FL, MI debate, & Hybrid Talk

Democrats argue over Michigan, Florida

So the states’ delates were thrown out for holding runnings too early, but since Clinton won in those states, she would like to have those state’s delegates seated.

Does that about cover it?

Talk about desperate. I’m willing to bet my liberalness that if the shoe was on the other foot, Cinderella would not be trying to get them seated. She should just say it: “I want to have these state’s delegates seated even though I am a part of the party that agreed to not seat them because without them I’m going to lose my campaign. Er, earlier than I’m going to lose without them.”

Obama-Clinton 2008 for the win!



Yahoo titles: Like reading Us Weekly
I open Yahoo this morning, and I see an Article Headline something like this: Is it Worth it to Buy a Hybrid?

Let’s see, gas well above $4 a gallon, times ~15 gallons to fill up, times how many fill-ups a month, times 12, times years… Yeah, it’s worth the extra $3,000-$4,000 to get the hybrid model if you’re shopping anyway.

It’s seriously like reading those damn variety mags in the supermarket line: “Angelina & Brad having twins! Did they do it?”

I’m thinking yeah, they probably ‘did it’ a few times.



Except maybe for these Hybrids
GM apparently only sold one-twelfth of the amount of Hybrid, Large SUV’s they had hoped. Looking at their stats, though, they’re hardly hybrids in performance. 20mpg? Get real.

I think GM is missing the point: People want hybrids not for the nameplate, not for the badge, but for the real-world savings. 20mpg? They can get better than that from a non-hybrid Toyota.

Let me throw my hat in the ring on this one: When Toyo makes available a Hybrid version of the 4Runner (I love my 4Runner), I will be severly interested. Mind you, hybrid or no, if you’re not in the market to buy a new vehicle then no matter what shopping for one is dumb… But if I’m in the market & one is available? Like stink on sh!t, mang, like stink on sh!t.

Of course I fully expect Toyota’s Hybrid SUV’s will probably get 40mpg. You know, like a hybrid is supposed to. Silly GM.

Peace.

Youth Without Youth - Sure, whatever

We were without a Netflix title in our possession the other night, but had the time to kill for a movie, and so decided to take a stroll to the local video store. Their Blu-Ray library has grown, and one title The Girl came across that looked semi-interesting was a film called Youth Without Youth. It sounded familiar because I had come across it somewhere in my readings online, and hey, Francis Ford Coppola Directed the sum’ bitch, so we opted for it.

Mistake mistake mistake. This movie… how shall I put it? Blew? It blew? I think that about describes it. The premise was kinda cool insofar as they attempted to define it, but the problem was it really went nowhere and they never did define it. I spend the movie trying to figure out what was going on. Was the main character psychotic? Magic? To me it seemed like they couldn’t quite decide themselves, so they jumped back & forth between the two concepts. I mean, define it one way or the other for your audience and get on with the story. Set boundaries. Define your subject. If you’re trying to have us contemplate humanity, it’s kinda hard when we’re still trying to figure out which plane of reality we’re supposed to be on. Define the subject!

That never happened though, and the movie just sort of rambles on to a point where you’re wondering where the hell it’s going to go. And then it suddenly it just ends, and you’re thinking “ah, so it was psychosis, which still explains so very little” only to have it throw another magical element at the very end that’s supposed to have a twist of symbolism in it that you get is symbolism but you don’t get how or what of, and you’re wondering all over again, magic? Or Psychosis? And the answer is really much simpler than that:

Crappy Movie.

Or more accurately, Crappy Movie trying to masquerade as ‘artistic.’ Seriously, save yourself the despair - rent another instead.

Peace.

Working Out: Making Changes

Hopefully, thy time has come. Eth.

So those of you who know me that one of the things about myself that I have been most vocal about needing improvement in and active in tackling is my physique. Those of you who don’t know me and haven’t been reading along? Welcome to the party. It’s called “hate on random bob’s body,” and everyone’s invited.

It’s not that I’m some grotesque excuse for a man or anything, but I’ve always been far from what I would consider ideal. Well times, they might be a-changing.

The Girl had mentioned around the time that I had noticed it, that over the course of the last few months, I have gained quite a noticeable amount of size and definition. Size, and definition. Which plainly stated means that it’s not a matter of having gained unwanted weight, or a matter of losing unwanted weight; you can’t gain size and definition at the same time any other way than with an increase in muscle mass. This is good.

I have not been working out much different or harder, honestly. I have tried to stress form a bit more recently, but in all actuality, there’s really not that much different now from 4-5 months ago in regards to my workout. What’s changed?

Well, my age. I’m 4-5 months older. I’m that much closer to 30 is the real thing, though. Everyone always said that at 24 my metabolism would slow down and I’d get bigger. Well 28 years have gone by, and finally, I think that time has come for me; I think I’m at that stage where my body’s able to stock up on muscle a little easier than before.

I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch, and I am certainly not going to be working out less any time soon. Oh no, I already have my workout routines mapped out through the beginning of this coming August! I’ll be busy. Hell, if it’s actually time for me to start growing now like I’ve been trying to for the last how many years (that would be 7 of them), then you can be assured I’ll probably be working out more now.

Just you watch.



Speaking of workouts…
For the next two weeks, I will be going light and repping out. I don’t do this often, not nearly often enough that’s for sure.

Yeah I’m going for bulk because for me definition comes naturally. But I still spend far too much time going for the heavier weights. It’s good to have that as my main thing, but I end up living there is the problem; it’s hard to talk myself into starting out light though on any given day; you feel like you’re wimping out.

BUT, for the next two weeks, I have planned to do it. I’ve already started, actually. And it feels good. It’s a different kind of feeling, and it wouldn’t feel so foreign to me if I did it as often as I should. Repping to 20 requires quite a substantial amount of weight less than repping to 8, but it feels like a much more ‘complete’ burn in the muscles. It’s feeling pretty good, and I really think I should have done this sooner. Oh well, sooner rather than later, right? It’s going to work out well for me. I think it’s a good thing to do, and I think it was long overdue.

If you’re a workout buff, and like me you find it hard to get into lighter-weight workout sessions? Get over it. Pick up those light guys, and rep out until you can’t lift your arms. You’ll be more pumped than usual, and though you might not be as sore the next day as with a heavy weight workout, but it’ll train you up in ways that you couldn’t achieve on your heavy days.

It’s working for me, is what I’m saying.

Peace.

RapidWeaver 4.0 Released

I had mentioned a few days ago about using something I wasn’t supposed to talk about. Well the cat’s out of the bag, so here it goes:

I’ve been creating & posting my website in RapidWeaver Version 4 for the last week or so.

For those of you stuck at version 3.6 or abouts, there’s some good reason to come up to the latest & greatest:

• A generally much-sleeker interface throughout. It’s easier to find your way around now.

• Redesigned page info inspector. Most of the tabs are the same, but now it’s easier to pick out what they are!

• If you’re using .Mac to host like me (what’s wrong with us?) and using the personal domain feature, RW4 allows you to post directly there. No moving it back and forth to the Homepage folder, no slow-as-dirt Folder exports & syncing, just straight to the .mac personal domain folder (the same that iWeb uses to host).

• There’s now a real, honest-to-goodness toolbar across the top that has buttons for often-called features, such as the snippets window!

• If you actually use RW to compose your pages’ text (I write in Pages and then drag the text to RW myself), you’ll be glad to know that they put actual font controls across the bottom! Yep, bold, italic, underline, font, color… all the basics are there now! No menu-hunting!

That’s just a random bob sample, the full list can be found here on RealMac’s website. So what are you waiting for? Get your copy today!

Oh what’s that? You’re still on Tiger, not Leopard? Well yeah, then you’re screwed. This version uses some of the core technologies in Leopard, so it is Leopard-only.

So what are you waiting for? Get your copy of Leopard and RapidWeaver 4.0 today!

Apple Releases Leopard Update (10.5.3)

Being the guinea pig I am, I went ahead and installed it. There were a couple things I wanted to have stabilized and a new feature or two I was informed would be in this build that I desperately wanted, so I took the bait and updated. I always do, after all.

The major stability enhancements were to be with Time Machine & Time Capsule, Apple’s backup software, and the feature I wanted was also related to that: The ability to have the system backup automatically while on battery power.

See before, Time Machine would only initiate backups automatically while you were plugged in. That’s fine for desktop machines that are always plugged in, but a laptop user? I wrote in on Apple’s support forums that I thought they needed to make it so that Time Machine would back up even on battery Power, because it’s conceivable that a laptop user could have the right stuff, but their work habits preclude backups from ever happening.

For instance, let’s say that a user always uses their laptop unplugged away from a power source, and they only plug it in while they have it closed and off. Well, they unplug it, open it up, and Time Machine never runs. Then they close the lid, plug it back in, and of course Time Machine isn’t running. This user NEVER gets a backup.

A lot of people read that and want to scream “Just run it manually” or “Don’t turn it off when you plug it in,” but the problem is that’s not what Time Machine is about; it’s billed as the everyman’s backup solution; automatic backups that you don’t have to think about, the computer takes care of it. Well, if I have to change my habits to accommodate it, then it’s not very effective at its task, now is it? Sort of defeats its own purpose then, and I might as well just use some different backup utility if I am going to have to remember to do it and do it on its terms, eh?

Well I’m happy to say that now indeed, Time Machine will back up on battery power. They created an option in the Time Machine System Preferences Options Tab, that allows you to select whether or not you want to back up under battery power or not. I selected yes of course, and I would say that unless your hourly backups take 4 hours apiece, it’s wise for everyone to have it selected.

In fact, mine’s selected by default.

The only unfortunate thing about the new update? It doesn’t automatically seek out and destroy any windows boxes within a 5-mile radius. Guess I’ll have to pay for 3rd party software that does it. Damn.

Peace.


UPDATE:
Being a MacBook user, I had noticed that when video chatting with other MacBook Leopard users, there was a recurring, high-pitched echo that royally sucked. Well according to the release notes, that’s one of the specific issues that they tackled in this release: echoing in iChats on certain mobile Macintosh Computers.

So if that’s you, really, 10.5.3 is your baby.

Deleted Pages, & The Housing Decline

“Articles” no more!

Today while messing with my site I decided that I had too many pages. I have my site subdivided a handful of times, what with separate Photo pages, separate Movie pages, my Mac Tips & Tricks, and my blog all handled differently. Used to have “Articles” too, but I decided that not only has it done nothing but NOT grow in any real measure, but most of it was duplicable here in my Random Blog anyway. And in fact, some of them had just been copied & ported over to the Articles area from previous blog entries.

So I deleted them. Seemed like a waste to have a whole separate section that a) required upkeep, and b) was essentially superfluous in nature. I had amassed a whole 5 articles over that time, ranging from using a Mac to Immigration. None of them were life-altering, just basically longer blog entries. Well I think the world would rather 5 longer blog entries than 5 needless articles, no?

Yeah, me too.



Housing Market not on the rise after all...
Despite calls to the contrary, the reports are in and housing prices fell in the last measured timeframe faster and steeper than ever before at a 14.4% decline. The experts say that there’s no reason to believe the crunch is over or that it’s anywhere to go but down.

Glad I didn’t get on board last week! Called it!



Nice Article making my points
For the last year or so, I’ve been lambasting the housing industry and especially house-flippers are being responsible for the astronomical rise in housing costs this decade. I’ve said things such as “we need to view homes as a place to live, not as an investment vehicle: it’s not stock,” and so much as said that that sort of house-flipping mentality & speculation is the biggest problem that affects a home’s value.

I’ve gone so far as to say that bailing out the housing industry and those in foreclosure is a bad idea, and that I’m glad that the house-flippers are stuck with their mistake; they did this, they priced the American dream right out of the grasp of America, so f*ck ‘em; let them sink. Let them sink so that I can afford a damn roof over my head.

Well it’s nice to be vindicated. A nice two-page article over at the NY times today had a nice piece in it just for me. Most of the article is about the buy/rent ratio and the history of the decade, but on page two, near the end of the article, is this gem:

“ But it’s O.K. with me if our timing wasn’t perfect. After several years of reporting on the housing market, I’m convinced that the most common real estate mistake is viewing a house first as a financial investment and only second as a home. That’s one big reason we ended up in this bubble-induced mess. “

Sound Familiar? Yeah, it does; it’s about exactly what I’ve been saying, huh?

Peace.

Catch & Release, & Memorial Day

Catch & Release

Maybe you’ve heard of this movie, it came out in 2006 and stars Jennifer Garner as a near-widower who finds out a lot about her near-husband after his death.

It’s one of those ‘romantic’ type movies, a girly movie if you will. But it’s not bad. It also wasn’t that great, but I wasn’t as displeased with it as I feared I might be. In fact I wasn’t displeased at all! Sure some of the story is kinda wimpy and some of the character motivation & decisions are out there… but it deals with a hard topic and it doesn’t define good guys & bad guys like we always tend to; the people we are supposed to root for have led flawed lives and make decisions that are not stellar, much as we might make. It’s almost like a glimpse into real life, which I like.

If you’re not into girly movies this won’t change your mind. If you don’t think Jennifer Garner is a hottie this won’t change your mind. But if you can stand a romantic comedy or a just plain-old-romantic film, then you might just be able to bear this one more than most. That’s what I’m saying.

Grade? Let’s say I give it a B-.



Happy Memorial Day!
Hope you are going to do something fun with it. I’ll probably be working out and making lunch, that’s about it today for me. Especially seeing as how it’s now 9am and I haven’t accomplished much of yet, so I’m late to the party I guess.

Strange thing, though. The Girl is possibly going to be taking the dogs out for a nice day trip with a friend of hers. This never happens. She will be taking the dogs while I stay home alone. I think the dogs are going to be a little confused.

I say “possibly” because it’s dependent on the weather. Right now it’s sort of misting lightly and they say it might rain. Of course it was supposed to rain two days ago and yesterday too, both of which were perfectly dry and even sunny. But yeah it’s misting already so it’s got a jump on the day I guess.

Maybe the dogs won’t have to be confused after all :-P

Peace.

New Pics!

I’m playing around with some new software I’m not supposed to talk about (shhh… ) and it’s giving me the opportunity to make changes to my site faster and easier than ever before. So now here’s another blog posting within about 14 hours of the last, and a new gallery! Yippie!

Enjoy it while it lasts... Soon it won’t be new and I just wont care any more ;-)

Peace!

Indiana Jones Makes Commies Angry, & Clinton's RFK Comments

Indiana Jones: Anti-Communist?

From Yahoo!: Spielberg Movie Angers Russian Communist Party. Question: What doesn’t anger the communists?

I kid, I kid. Dah.



But I just had a Great Indie-Related Idea
Let’s kill Shia LaBeouf. Seriously. He’s about the gayest of the new breed of sweet lil’ retarded actors. Seriously. I don’t believe him to be a hero, or for that matter anything but a "trying-too- hard" loser, for a minute. I see a split-second of him and I think, “he must be the director’s kid or something. Something."

That something of course not being “he’s a great actor.” Because he’s not. He’s craptastic galore and rolling in it. Uh, Crap, that is.

Sh!t, maybe someone lost a bet.



The Hubbub over Clinton’s Kennedy Remarks
By now everyone has heard of the remarks Clinton has made with regard to Robert Kennedy’s Assassination in June 1968 as a reason to keep running. And of course everyone is upset over them. Know what? I was too, at first.

The problem is how the media keeps framing it. When I heard about it, they headlined it (and continue to do so) in such a way as to indicate that she was insinuating that she is going to continue running because “you never know what’s going to happen,” like maybe Obama will be offed in June or something. Yeah, that’s tacky, I thought. But in context? Come on people, we need to really put everything in context, you know?

In context, she was pointing out that many democratic runs have taken until June to decide, such as that of her husband’s in 1992, and that of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. And that’s not so bad. It’s actually not bad at all, it’s a famous incident that people can recall, so in reality she wasn’t doing anything necessarily wrong in mentioning it, she’s just in the unfortunate situation of having the media turn her statements on their ear.

I feel for her. I don’t think she was ever given a fair chance to campaign once Obama got rolling. He’s the media’s baby, you know? He can do no wrong, his ideas are above reproach, and doggone it, people like him, they really like him! Her platform isn’t all that different, she’s got something no one else has, that being Mr. Clinton by her side, & by & large her ideas are better thought-out than Mr. Obama’s, whose lofty ideals are nice but they need to be fleshed out, you know?

Anyway, She’s going to be a great Vice President :-D

Peace.

New Photos, & Learning Japanese

New Photos posted

I’m still trying to figure out how to manage my photo pages more succinctly. I don’t want to have a 100-link-long list of galleries on my photo pages, so I need to manage them in such a a way as to rotate them through. The only trouble for me is that once I delete a gallery, the links in the blogs & whatnot that point to them are kinda not right, so people finding those links after the fact might end up in some funny places.

But anyway, that’s my worry, not yours, so if you’d like, you can (if you read this before the gallery expires) click here to see pics from a recent trip to the Elk River Delta. Enjoy.



Learning Japanese
One thing that I dislike about the whole dojo think & jujutsu is that it forces you to learn japanese. They teach you in your native tongue, you learn in your native tongue, but then they force you to remember the commands in japanese. I don’t get it.

Why? To prove you’re devoted? Hey f*ck you, I’m paying you my hard-earned money every month to learn jujutsu, isn’t that proof enough of my devotion? Hell, I’m paying you to learn jujutsu, right? Not a foreign language.

But hey, I’m not in a position to argue. So I guess learn I must. BUT, if I ever get to the point where I’m teaching people the art, I am damn sure doing it in english. I think I teach much better in that language anyway. It is my primary language, after all.

Peace.

Cast Away in HD, & Megan Fox

Rewatching Cast Away

I own this movie on DVD and in fact recently watched then blogged about it. Well I’m not here to do that again, so don’t worry. But this time was a little different. Again Netflix was involved, even though I own it, because I had them ship me the Blu-Ray version.

I of course wanted to test the difference between the HD version and the SD version. I have an up-converting DVD player as well (because it’s attached to my TV tuner), so it was easy, I just popped both in and switched between inputs on the TV to judge. The verdict was good, but different than I expected, too.

Up-converting DVD players are supposed to do a decent job of faking the HD thing. And I can tell you that yeah, up-converted DVD’s do look pretty sharp even compared to an actual HD source. The first thing I noticed that surprised me – though it makes sense once you think about it – was that the scenes that the extra detail was the most dramatic wasn’t the up-close, clear shots, but the less-focal shots and the backgrounds; they’re so much deeper in HD and actually there instead of just colored splotches.

The other thing that got me was the colors. I fully expected better clarity, but the difference in colors was dramatic. The DVD version was so far & away muted compared to the HD version that I for a moment thought something was wrong with the setup. It's so much so that after viewing a scene in HD, the DVD version seemed like it didn’t even contain the color red. Yeah really, it's that dramatic.

So HD wins, for sure. And this was a decade-old film mind you, I imagine that a newer title that was shot with newer, better lenses (and HD in mind) would show off even better. so if you have an HD TV, even just a 720p set (which I currently have), it does make a difference. You can probably get by with an up-converted DVD player… but why? You already got the HDTV, get the full experience, man!



I had no idea
You heard of Megan Fox? Apparently she’s the new ‘foxiest’ lady in Hollywood (I am in no way sorry for that pun). I checked out the pics, she is pretty hot. Well OK, where am I going with this, right? Remember Beverly Hills, 90210? Well you might remember Brain Austin Green, that “kid” who was always trying to hard to be cool. He lived the part, we all thought. At least we thought.

Apparently, this new ‘foxy’ lady is his fiancé. What’s he got going on that we don’t know about?

Eh, perhaps We don’t want to know. You know? You know.

Peace.

Yahoo title hilarity, Hilarity Clinton, & Housing

Yahoo makes corny attempt at humorous article title

So this asshole that’s responsible for creating both *NSYNC & The Backstreet Boys, is going to prison. And surprisingly enough, it’s not for having created *NSYNC & The Backstreet Boys.

Nope, apparently it’s because other than perpetrating those horrid bands on the public, he also swindled old folks out of their life savings. $300 million-worth. Ouch.

Title on Yahoo’s front page for the piece? ‘Bye Bye Bye to Boy-Band Manager.’ Now that’s class, baby.



Clinton fighting until the end
I would say that she should really just give up the ghost on this one right now. What exactly does she expect to happen in the next month or so that would turn around her failing campaign?

Perhaps lightning? Lupus? I dunno.

Girl, give it up.



Housing Market expected to turn around by end of year?
I don’t know about what I’ve heard in this regard recently. I mean, on one hand it would be prudent to start shopping now if the pundits are right.

On the other hand… when have they been right about it? Didn’t they predict that last year? And then it slid more than ever on record after that? Almost seems to me like they’re trying to create a rush that will end the housing slump, you know? And I would hate to be the one losing his shirt because he thought it would turn around, when it didn’t.

I think I’ll continue to wait. Though currently The Girl is researching modular & manufactured homes and blank property prices. I think we’re a promotion or two away from that at the moment myself, but hey, doesn’t hurt to keep tabs on what’s up, right? That way we’re prepared when the time comes.

Peace.

The downside to a Netflix Membership

You know they have no late fees, right? Well that’s apparently a blessing & a curse. You may know I like nature shows. I in fact had the whole of the BBC Planet Earth collection in my queue. The idea was to watch from disc one to disc four, in order, and enjoy it in the order it was meant to be presented.

Well that didn’t happen because for whatever reason disc one is always on wait longer than the others. I got disc two first, then I actually DID get ahold of a disc one copy, though it didn’t play in my blu-ray player (wrong region code) and was sent back. I’ve viewed all the other discs. Disc one though, sits on my queue at position #1. And never arrives.

I send back my movies the day after they’re watched, so I don’t hold them for a long time or anything. I have a revolving door of incoming & outgoing movies is what I’m saying, folks. Yet no matter what, even though disc one of Planet Earth has been at the top of my queue for 3 weeks or so, it never gets sent to me. Even when it says it’s available.

Well I called netflix today, and sad to say but they’re no help to me. I tried to explain that I was frustrated that although I’ve had this movie at the top of my queue for this entire time, it has yet to make its way to me, despite being available according to their status, when I was in need of a movie to be sent. I was told that yeah it’s frustrating, but that’s life without late fees & return dates; you get what you get.

And I can understand that to an extent. But what the hell? I’m calling to complain about it, you know? Obviously I’d like to watch this film. I asked the guy, “So it’s conceivable that although it’s #1 on my queue and I send back movies in a timely fashion, that I’ll never get to see this film because it's always on a short wait that day?” He didn’t have an adequate response. Shouldn’t there be a way? I mean, other than making it #1 on my queue, and calling customer service, what can you do to actually get a movie from them if they don’t want to send it your way?

I heard about a lawsuit filed against them saying that they tamper with people’s queues & the disbursement of the discs in such a way as to harm people who have been there longer, to get new peeps excited about the service. Sort of playing favorites, you know? Sh!t, I can see it…

Hey, maybe you can’t ‘reserve’ a disc… I get it. OK yeah that’s not how netflix works. But if the idea has a potential flaw that’s affecting a customer? Maybe they never get the #1 queue item because the timing is f*cking them? Maybe you make an allowance and set it up so that the disc ships to them next time. Maybe just sort of a “gimme” so that the whole of the system isn’t unduly burdened by having to codify the chance circumstance.

Sh!t netflix, just send me the damn disc.

F*ck. Peace.

The Prestige, & more specifically Ms. Johanssen

Rewatching The Prestige

One of the flicks we got as part of our “Thanks for buying a Blu-Ray Player” promotion wherein we got to choose 5 free movies was The Prestige. It’s that magic movie staring Christian Bale & Hugh Jackman. Oh, and Scarlett Johansson is in it as well. More on her later, though.

I like the film a lot. The first time I saw it, I gave it an A- I believe. Of course that was opening month two years ago, and time as since marched on. Perhaps I wouldn’t view it with such lovingness this time around? Eh, we own it now so we might as well watch it. And we did.

It’s still a good movie. I think it’s still deserving of A- status, too. But this time I did notice two plot points – two very, very important plot points that the film hinges on – that were kinda wimpy.

The first is the damn Knot. There’s question as to what knot was tied onto a magician at one point that they couldn’t get out of. The question is asked of the knot-tie-er, what did they tie? Well the answer, which is actually a small hint to the plot twist, is “I don’t know.” But, uh, couldn’t you just look at the knot? If it wasn’t untied, then it’s still there. Look at it. No need to ask.

The second is at the very end. We’re supposed to believe that one of the characters is dead, and another person is on trial for his murder. However, he is revealed to at least two main characters. And yet no one – not even the person most able to convince the court – say anything that could free the person on trial from a death sentence.

Still though, it’s a very entertaining movie. Especially the first time you watch it, when you have no idea what the two secret plot twists – yes, two of them – are until the very end.



Maybe when she was a youngin’
They say Scarlett Johansson is like Hollywood’s most beautiful woman. I disagree. I think she used to be pretty cute a handful of years ago, but in that time she’s blossomed into something not as cute as she used to be. The lips are too pouty, the curves are too rigid, the makeup is 8 layers too deep… you get it.

I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but it did. I remember watching her in Lost in Translation, and then again later in In Good Company. She was cute, I thought.

Not so much anymore. Sorry. No offense, Ms Johansson. I’m a nobody anyway, right? So don't sweat it, my lady.

Peace.

Casino Royale, & A Beautiful Day @ the Beach

Rewatching Casino Royale

The 1st time I watched this movie, I was wildly entertained, yet completely lost. Well it was on Netflix in BD so of course I had to set up another viewing. I figured that a second showing would give me more time to catch names and follow what the hell was going on in this cross/double-cross/double-double-cross-with-a-side-of-fries type of ride.

I did indeed follow along quite nicely, until about the time that Bond, James Bond was in a nice retirement community in a wheelchair or something. After that, I was lost. Again.

Only now, two days after I sent the damn disc back, do think I have a handle on what the hell was really going on. Am I going to tell you?

No.



Yesterday was sweet
So for the first time in a long time, I had a Friday scheduled off. Not just any Friday mind you, a Friday in the middle of a heat wave.

Yeah, a heat wave, here. Honest. It was like almost 90º here a few days ago.

Anyway, The Girl got her shift covered, and we made some very nice plans to go hang out at the beach for most of the day. And this is why I love it here. In So Cal, it would have been a pain in the ass to accomplish this. Because:

• It would have been a pain in the ass to drive to the beach (1 hour or so)

• It would have cost $10 in gas

• It would have cost $15 in parking

• It would have taken 20 minutes to find parking

• We would have had to walk a solid mile to find a space on the beach for us

• We would have to worry incessantly about the dogs & others with the dogs

• It would have been unbearably hot

• It would have taken us 2 hours to drive home

Contrast that with the realities here, though, and it starts to look like there’s no way that So Cal is worth even it’s claim to fame:

• Took us 5 minutes to get to the beach

• Cost pennies in gas

• No parking fees or problems

• Found a spot almost right away

• No leash? No collars? No problem. Having the dogs is a pleasure not a burden

• Too hot? Nah, just right

• Took us 5 minutes to get home

So you see? Sorry guys & gals in So Cal, if you want to see the ‘bob again, you’d best plan a trip up here. Please bring Six Flags Magic Mountain with you, though. That’s probably the only thing that is still down there I care to go back for :-)

Peace.

New Photos, Sunburn, & Cars (the Movie!)

New Photos up

I put up some new photos on the family pages as well as my favorites album. Of note is that newest chronologically are at the bottom. So uh, it’s entirely possible that if you don’t scroll down, you’ll never notice changes.

Why do I do it that direction? Because it seems to me that when you start a showing where time is a factor, you should start at the beginning, no? OK so it makes sense chronologically, but yeah it’s missin’ the mark as far as new visitors are concerned. Moral? You should be checking the albums with frequency. Just in case…



Nice Day. Bad burn.
It always seems to play that way, and wouldn’t you know it today was not the exception that defines the rule.

We had to go shopping this morning first off, because we had been sustaining on peanut butter & jelly sandwiches & quesadillas for the last 3 days, and when we ran out of cheese & peanut butter yesterday, we knew we were kinda up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle.

So yeah. It was overcast this morning, and we thought that it was going to just be a day of general gloom, when all of a sudden around 11:30a, the sky just sort of opened up like Madden was behind a TelePrompTer somewhere screaming “boom!” We decided that we’d take the opportunity to go to the beach with the puppies.

Well a nice day it was, and we sort of lost track of time and next thing you know, we’re burned. She on her legs, me on my shoulders. Nice. Oh and that’s not all, either. I also managed to cut the bottom of my foot somewhere along the lines. It’s a nice slit, straight & smooth, so I must have found a piece of glass somewhere.

The foot I can bandage and not worry about. The burning, I think that’ll sting a bit, for a while.



Cars
We watched Cars last night. You know, that animated schtick by Pixar? Yeah that. Well it’s visually stunning, what they can do with animation these days (on a Mac!). But I must say that as cute as it was, it was almost too cute. I just found most of it rushed & corny. And what is up with Larry the Cable Guy? Can we like, fire him from life? He’s not funny. His character could have been dialed down like 10 clicks and it would have made the movie 10 clicks better, I think. It's over. get him done. Geezus already....

I hear Ratatouille is supposed to be great, too. I really really hope it’s not as corny as Cars was. C-.

Peace.

Mexican Drug cartels, Jujutsu legs, & Pit Bulls

The State of the Mexican Drug Crackdown

So today the Mexican President attended the funeral of one of his former top heads in his war against drug cartels. A few hours before the funeral, a senior detective was gunned down by seven bullets to his head & neck, and two other top police officers have also been murdered over the span of a few days.

Safe to say that the drug cartels are in charge? Wonder what has to be done. I guess it’s rough ousting the former ruling party, eh? Very sad.



The Many pains of Jujutsu
Today I had initially planned to get home from work, and then work out my legs. In reality, I got home from work, and worked out my eyelids. Because I was tired, and my legs were more-so.

My knees. My knees felt like they were suspended in pudding or something. They were slow, felt swollen, and just sort of ached a little. No real pounding pain, but it just didn’t feel like my good ol’ knees in general.

My leg muscles. My butt was sore, as were my calfs. I sort of figured my calfs would be sore from all the toe-curling action during the kicks and takedowns, but I didn't figure on the butt. So I in effect got my leg workout on already, albeit a day early.

Oh, and my foot. My left foot I think I sprained the top of it. The top of it? Yeah, the top. I was doing some rolls yesterday as practice, and I rolled onto and then over the top of my left foot, and I heard some popping. I made it through the rest of the class, but when I got home I could tell that it was probably going to be a little sore today. And I was right.

Oh well. Such is life. I feel pretty good overall, especially after my nap. Tomorrow I begin class at 11am. Hopefully I sleep well tonight. Will need it.



Tired?
Yeah. Remember we watched “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” last night. Well I mentioned it was long? Couple that with the fact that we didn’t actually start it until closer to 10pm. I don’t recommend that, should you find yourself in a similar situation.



The Girl’s changing climate wrt Pit Bulls
For the longest time The Girl has maintained that pit bulls are not inherently dangerous, that they are trained to be a certain way.

I have not believed this myself during this time. The truth of the matter is that pit bulls are involved in more bites & attacks than any other dog type. For me, it’s safe to say that the same as labradors are instinctively drawn to water & swimming, as are pit bulls to aggressiveness. I mean, that may not always have been the case, they weren’t always supposed to be killer dogs, and in fact they do have some stigma that is not deserved (German Shepherds actually bite harder, and both pale in comparison to the Rottweiler). But the fact is that today’s pit bulls are not by rule friendly family dogs as they once were, sad as it may be.

I attributed this defensive posture of The Girl to the fact that her dog is figured to be part pit bull of some fashion, most likely American Staffordshire Terrier, which is is commonly grouped with pit bulls (duh). Yes, she’s cute, no she’s not much a threat, but that doesn’t change the rule. It might just help define it, know what I mean?

Anyway, those feelings & defenses have eroded over the past few months. First she had her mom inform her that her cat had been killed when someone brought over their “friendly” pit bull and it chased down the feline and essentially ate it. The cat was some 20 years old or thereabout. Then just tonight, she found out a coworker friend of hers had her dog killed by someone’s “friendly” pit bull at a party both dogs attended.

Not only that, but we had also read recently in the paper about some dogs that had been attacked & killed by someone’s “friendly” family pit bull at the beach. Twice. In February.

I think it’s safe to say that The Girl is ready to admit that perhaps there’s something to the idea that pit bulls are in fact inherently dangerous pets. In the same way that Labradors are inherently perfect family dogs. It’s in the breed, I’m sorry.

Peace.

Jujutsu Day 2, & Jesse James' Movie

Yesterday, Throws; tomorrow, the world

So yesterday we learned/practiced some parrying moves & throws. They felt natural and good.

Tomorrow, I will conquer the class and then move to take over the world with my newfound abilities.



The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
I know that’s a mouthful, but it is actually, really-truly, the title of a movie that came out around October 2007. It stars Angelina Jolie’s supposedly handsome boyfriend, Brad Pitt.

It was a long movie. We started it last night because The Girl got home early and we were bored. It was a decently-good movie. The acting was good, and it kept you engaged, though it was what I might call a “quiet” film. I also saw for the second time in 3 movies the face of Casey Affleck. He did the part well.

I found the film slightly humorous in the way that it was framed. Well, humorous and enlightening.

I mean, “The Assassination” of Jesse James, by the “Coward” Robert Ford. So you know, Jesse James, the robber and murderer, was “assassinated” by the “Coward” who brought his reign to an end. Seems backwards, right? But that was the lore. James was like a Robin Hood in the tales. He wasn’t, and he killed innocent people, but that was apparently a lost point in the stories of the bandit.

So yeah, it was long & quiet, but overall well done. I say it gets a solid B.

Peace.

Iron Man: I seen it!

Saw the Movie

Oh yeah! Totally forgot to mention the whole Iron Man thing.

It was a decent movie. I was surprised by the good reviews for it. I mean, it was an action/adventure, Superhero movie, you know? Anyway, the free tickets.

So yeah, a few months ago The Girl got these ticket coupons at work in lieu of a tip. Well, in lieu of a cash-money sort of tip, as it were. Well this was good and bad. Firstly it was good, because this was the free trip to see Iron Man, thereby alleviating the frustration of waiting to see it on Blu-Ray. Yay! Movie night out, and a decent show at that!

The movie was very appealing visually. I thought the special effects that they used were very well done. Contrast this with I Am Legend (not), which couldn’t special effect its way out of a paper bag. The story good enough, and even had a moral point that is completely relevant to today’s politics. And there was hot chicks, yeah baby! Many online have lauded Mr. Downey’s acting on the piece as worth the price of admission alone. I would say he didn’t screw anything up, and in fact wasn’t bad at all, but I’m not going to go so far as to say that it’s on par with Christian Bale’s rendition of Bruce Wayne in the new Batman franchise or anything, huh?

My only real gripe about the movie was that it was short. I mean it was slightly over 2 hours, but it felt short, and the end felt rushed. They could have used more of Iron Man in action, I felt. That would have been super-cool, they had pulled off the visuals right, they should have put more on the screen, you know? Give us 30 more minutes of Iron Man doing Iron Man stuff. We’ll love you for it!

Overall, I’d have to say that it’s a flat-B movie, on the verge of B+. Give us more action in the Blu-Ray release, and I’ll give you the coveted “+”.



The Bad side of the free tickets
Oh yeah, remember that? There was a downside to the free tickets. You see, these tickets were a $30 value, and included more than admission. We also got 2 large drinks, a large popcorn, and a large candy (which was medium at best, who are they trying to kid?) I didn’t have a problem with the popcorn or candy, but the drinks? Oh my, the drinks.

I damn near missed the last half of the movie. I had to pee so bad. I was doing the pee-pee dance in my seat. I had to tinkle oh so very badly. It was not right. I mean, where do they get off giving people drinks so big that they only serve to test the outer limits of your bladder?

Thankfully I did make it through the movie without peeing myself. Made it all the way to the bathroom actually, which I was very proud of. And there I peed so long that I almost fell asleep. You seen A League of Their Own? Yeah it was like Tom’s "performance" in that, except longer and without the breaks. It was an amazing feat, you should have been there.



Definitely worth the wait on Blu-Ray though
So about 10 minutes into the movie, the movie stops. The lights come on, the pre-movie stuff starts playing. Again. People in the audience were like, “is that it?” Yes you idiot, you paid $9 to see 15 minutes of movie and not ONE single Iron Man suit. Jeez people are dumb sometimes. DAMN!!!!...

Anyway, it starts back up once they figure out that they broke it (not sure how). The only thing was I think we missed 30 seconds to a minute’s-worth of movie. They were on the same scene, but different characters were on the screen than before, and in mid-sentence of something that I didn’t catch. Maybe Iron Man was gay? I just don’t know for sure now, and might not until it comes out on disc.



The VERY VERY End of the movie: Easter Egg?
I heard that if you wait past all the credits, there’s like a gold mine or something. A very cool gag-reel or something like that. Well they lied. There was something, but it was not really worth waiting for. So I’ll just spoil it for you right now, save you the time.

At the end, Iron Man comes home to Samuel Jackson, who’s the leader of SHIELD, the agency that tried to help cover up the tracks of Iron Man. He wants to talk to him about joining a program called “AVENGER.” This is comic book gold apparently, if you care. I don’t. They’ll either make a sequel or they won’t. Time will tell, not some slop at the end of the credits.

Peace.

The Day of J's: Juno & Jujutsu

Juno

So we had time yesterday to pop Juno in and give it a go-around. You know, it’s that movie that has a young high school girl getting pregnant, and shenanigans ensue. No, not Saved!, that movie was funnier. This is the less-funny version.

It’s not bad, and I think it could have actually been better than Saved!, if only it had lost a little bit of the “edgy” dialogue in lieu of some more refined dialogue. See, I get that they’re young and all, and they maybe talk a little different, but it felt like the characters were forcing crap to escape their gums; it had no flow. It was not believable. I do not expect my 7-11 clerk to tell me my “Eggo is Preggo.”

And see the whole premise is that this young girl acts more mature than her age would imply. Except that damn language! She manages to sound like a 9 year-old that watches too much Nickelodeon in the most inappropriate of spots. Like meeting the family she’s going to let adopt her kid. That whole scene needed to be reshot, minus the schtick, in my opinion.

But hey, I say it wasn’t bad still. Those are just where they could have improved it some. It’s OK. I don’t see it as the dark horse of the year or anything though. It was an ‘alright’ flick that got maybe even more coverage than it deserved, I thought. I give it a B-. Hey I’m a generous soul.



Jujutsu
Ah yes, before the movie began, there was that; jujutsu. I had mentioned signing up for this before, right? Well last night was ‘the night,’ as it were. I got to go go my first class, and look like a royal ass and make “HEE-YAA!” sounds all over the place, and generally accomplish nothing, whilst still being sore to show for it.

Ought to be fun!

I’m not actually that sore, except for a spot on my hip joint that I could feel popping over and over again on a specific move we were learning. The Move? “The Samurai Walk.” The use? Looking silly. No really, that’s it. I hurt myself on a maneuver designed to make you look silly.

Could maybe be why I didn’t like Juno as much; perhaps I was too busy looking at all the characters, thinking “I could totally juju his ass to hell.”

Hey I can’t help it anymore; I’m now a highly-trained death machine.

Peace.

Another BBQ Tip, Movie Night, & Zoey Goes Out

Barbeque tip #2

OK so last time we talked about how using brown paper bags seems to work better than newspaper, right? OK so here’s another tip I discovered.

It was one of those “hey, I think I am on to something” moments. I tore off the top half of a brown paper bag to light the barbie, and this part when open looks like a big brown donut, right? Well I crumpled it up like it was, and put it in there like a small brown donut. The figuring was that this would keep the paper from snuffing out the flames below completely, allowing all the heat to hit the coals directly. See because now it’s a chimney all the way through, not a ceiling of paper and then a chimney.

Trust me, it works so very well; your coal will light so much faster & easier. Trust the ‘bob, OK? Give it a shot.



Dammit! I’m made a LIAR!
The Girl made me do it, OK? Not long after I posted the blog about waiting to see Iron Man on disc, she went and told me that we had two free tickets to the movies. Free. And, Tickets.

Of course now we have to go see Iron Man. Tonight. :-D.

Dinner will be ready in 10 minutes. I will be ready a little afterwards. Iron Man and I will meet in person about an hour later. Oh Yeah, baby.



Zoey went OUT today!
Well I wanted to take Miles out today, and Zoey wasn’t limping around nearly as much, and I wracked my brain figuring out what we could do about it. Well I figured a trip to the beach would be OK. The sand would be forgiving on her foot, MIles could still do everything he does, and we’d get out of the house.

It worked wonderfully. So wonderful in fact, that Zoey was running around full-tilt. Yeah, limp at home, go full-bore on the sand apparently. She had fun! She even went so far as to go swimming. Yeah, swimming. Zoey. Swimming.

So she’ll probably be a little sore later, but hey now she’s run off some energy and we know that she’s OK. Might have set her healing time back a day or two, but I would bet she thinks it was worth it.

Headache, Iron Man Reviews, Zoey's Foot update, & Cyclone woes

The Headache

Has gone. I gathered that it was not the creatine, but rather some serious sinus-cavity backup. I figured this because a few days prior to the headache I was having issues with my tooth aching, which I had hoped was a sinus/drainage issue and not a dentistry issue (because I loathe dentist trips even more than doctor visits). I noticed that as the toothache subsided, the headache began. Then they both started disappearing as my midnight breathing improved. So…


The Creatine
I’m went back on it. Going to give it a shot, see if my muscles just absolutely explode out from where they are. If I’m not ‘ahnold’ by July, then truly this stuff was a gimmick :-D



Zoey’s Foot Update
Well the foot wrap lasted just 24 hours from put on to stayed off. She lasted longer than we thought she would honestly, but eventually it was off. We figured that since she’s home-ridden until it’s better anyway, we’d see how she did with it off and not struggle about it. Well shortly after the wrap came off, so too did the little flap that was hanging on by a thread.

It seems to be healing well, though. She’s not really limping on it anymore, she’s still being cautious about it, but not overly so. In fact, we’re contemplating taking the dogs – that’s both of them – to the beach later this afternoon. See I figure the beach is a great place to test her out; it’s soft & forgiving, and there’s really just not much there for her to hurt herself on. The only worry is sand in the wound, but it’s mostly sealed off now, and that’s just a wash away from being a never-ran thought, so whatever.

I wish I would have taken a picture of it when it happened or when we got home and cleaned it up, so that you could see the progress it’s made. Sorry though, wasn’t thinking of it at the time.



Iron Man
This movie has been on my must see list since I saw the trailer. It looked fun, and I knew it was going to be a Summer blockbuster, so I wasn’t overly-concerned with the plot premises being weak, which I totally expected. Well it turns out I needn’t have feared at all.

The overall reviews for the film are far better than I had predicted. Now the trouble is trying to keep myself from having the “high expectations” mentality when I finally get around to seeing it. Which, of course, won’t be until it comes out on Blu-Ray. So, end of Summer?



Also looking forward to…
The Dark Knight. I hear that the teaser trailer in Iron Man is like 6 minutes long and has caused people to consider other religions, it’s so good. Which for me is actually enough reason to avoid Iron Man in the theatre. See I really really want to see The Dark Knight, and I have since I saw Batman Begins even. But I fear they’re hyping it too much (see “high Expectations”). Not only that, but they’ve gone so far with the whole Exclusive Trailer bit that I’m afraid I will have seen the whole movie by the time it comes out this Summer, and ends up on Blu-Ray this Winter when I will actually watch it.

Anyone else feel me on that?



Don’t f*ck with Cyclones/Hurricanes
Myanmar was recently hit hard, some are expecting the toll of dead to reach well over 10,000. WOW. That royally sucks.

But yeah, I’ll gladly take the occasional earthquake over the yearly thousands of dead and billions in rebuilding, thanks.

By the way, did you know that Cyclones & Hurricanes and whatnot are really the same thing? Just a different name depending on what ocean they stem from. Kinda weird. I know a lot of people that think that cyclones are something much worse than hurricanes. Nope!

Peace.