Camera Recovered!!!!

It is a great day at my house my friends!!!!

Now anyone who knows me knows I'm a pretty emotional guy and right now it is taking a large amount of restraint on my part to keep from walking one block North and kicking in someone's door like what was done to me.

Here is the story.
I have a friend who is also a ISP owner and part time bounty hunter. He also happens to be my Co-Producer for Locker. His office is also where the office scenes for Locker were shot.

He knows all of the owners of the pawn and junk shops in town and did some leg work for me and put out the description of my camera to them. Well it turns out that the son of one of the junk shops had purchased my camera two days ago for one hundred dollars!!!!

My friend recovered the camera and I went by the shop and reimbursed them for their loss plus an extra twenty five dollars for the recovery of my camera!!!!

They can identify the guy and his car.

Now the smart thing to do is to wait until Monday when the owner's son can go to the police station and make a statement in which case they will be able to go through the mug shots and be able to identify the guy by that and his address.

Now the stupid thing to do is what I want to do right now and that is to walk one block, I kid you not, it is exactly one block to his front door and make my prescence known in his world.

How do I know it is this guy?

He has been borrowing my phone. He tried to sell me groceries a few weeks ago, I had some extra cash so I gave that to him and told him to keep his groceries to eat. He tried to sell me a digital cable box a week before I was robbed the first time of the DVDs.

He described this guy to me in person. It is him.

I want to hurt him.

I haven't been this mad in over a decade my friends and honestly it feels horrible. If this person happens to come to my house tonight, I would not be able to restrain myself and would wind up in some big trouble.

I was 99% sure it was him after his girlfriend drove them by my house last week. I looked at him in the passenger seat and he never once glanced at me. I was getting groceries out of my Suburban and was standing right by the side of the road. That kicked on the alarm in my head and in poker terms would be a "tell". I knew he knew something.

Now I know 100% for sure it was him.

I want him in jail but I want to spend a few minutes with him first.

Not Covered!

That is right my friends. My insurance company adjuster has decided to NOT cover the loss of my camera.

I now have to call the adjuster to try and appeal to them and hopefully that will work. If not I will have to go to the supervisor and appeal to them. Hopefully that will work.

If not then maybe it will be lawyer'n time, I hope it doesn't come to that.

I feel like I've been punched in the stomach by Ali, Holyfield, and Tyson.

COVERED!!!!

My insurance company called me today and they are going to cover my loss!!!!

They couldn't figure out what had gone wrong but they allowed me to renew my insurance adding personal property to it now and covering my loss!!!!

What a GREAT DAY!!!!

My door is going to be fixed this afternoon and my agent is calling the adjuster to tell her about covering my Canon XL1s!!!!

I'm so relieved now!!!!

Sopranos!!!!

This is a Sopranos post so for at least one of my friends you'll have to tune into the next post.

Yes! I was so hoping for a show like last night! That was a great show! They were going all mob and it was a good thing! There was a ton of tension along with Tony waking up finally after the stupid dream/coma storyline.

There was a lot going on and they might be on the leading edge of fulfilling that potential I wrote about in one of my earlier posts.

I can see Sil being on the way to fighting with Paulie which would rock!
Chris is still as hairbrained as ever.
Janice is still the most easy to despise character. Everytime I see her I just want to slap her!
Carm really is starting to confront her life and how she justifies being a part of Tony's life of crime.
AJ is still a waste of space.
Med is still a hottie!

All is well in Sopranoland!

Busted Bracket!

Yes my friends, 'Nova fell to Florida. As I type this Florida is up 74-62 with 28 seconds left in the second half.

No number 1 seeds have made it to the Final Four which looks like this:
LSU
vs.
UCLA
and
George Mason
vs.
Florida

For me it is over with. The most I can make is 71 points now which won't be enough I'm sure to win the top spot. To do that I need LSU to beat UCLA which is very possible. LSU has more than enough team to do that but my points end there and surely someone has picked the champ out of the 58 people who entered the office pool.

So Cinderella still has the glass slipper in George Mason who I will be rooting for against Florida.

Cinderella Lives One More Round!

My problem is that I didn't pick George Mason into the Final Four.

I had UConn, Villanova, Memphis, and LSU!

Yes my friends I did pick LSU into the Final Four! I need Villanova to beat Florida now and I'll have two out of four.

The good thing is that I bet no one else had LSU in the pool. The bad thing is that some people probably had UCLA. Now if LSU beats UCLA and Villanova beats Florida AND George Mason I'm probably golden especially if 'Nova beats LSU for the Championship!

Wow, who would have thought George Mason would go from an 11 seed and make the Final Four!?!?

What a great accomplishment! I'll be rooting for them IF 'Nova looses today against Florida, my bracket would be blown at that point.

In other news my Photographer friend called me today to cheer me up. She is taking the loss of my camera as hard as I am.

My insurance agent is supposed to call me tomorrow about resolving the coverage problem. If it isn't resolved well then it's lawyer'n time my friends. I hate to go that route but I feel it is necessary if it isn't fixed.

You Would Think

That after losing your camera from a break in that it probably couldn't get worse, you'd be wrong.

Yesterday after talking to my insurance adjuster I was informed I had no personal property insurance.

I lost my calm and cool composure that I had been maintaining thus far.
I drove to my insurance agent and declared I was pretty upset because I was sure I had personal property insurance. She went to my file and found my original policy. It states I had personal property insurance. Not much but enough to cover the loss of my camera anyway.

Every renewal after the original policy did not have personal property insurance. There was nothing in my file that instructed the company to cancel the personal property part and I never canceled it. So therefore it has to be an error on their part and as far as I'm concerned they owe me.

My agent was very nice and happy to help. She said that it looks like I should have it but has to call the home office to straighten it out.

Talk about a punch in the stomach.

I also instructed my agent that once this is resolved I am going to MAKE SURE that I have more than enough coverage.

It won't happen again.

Now for some good news!

I have been dreaming of finally being able to get the copies of Locker to the people who helped me! Yesterday morning while browsing the pawn shops and getting an oil change I was able to give Big Country Meat Market their copies! It made them very happy and made me very happy in a bad time!

I was smiling all day long....well until I found out about the insurance thing.

Did I Ever Tell You....

That I had a camera once?
It was a beautiful camera that represented a new future for me. It was all shiny and smelled good too!

It had been used for two features and a couple of shorts.

It was glorious and worked very well and made me feel good.

Now my camera isn't mine anymore. I am sure that one way or another my former camera will be replaced. I have money in savings for the second camera I was going to purchase and between that and the eventual insurance money for the camera will help.

I also went to a couple of pawn shops this morning and did find my former DVDs that were taken last time I was robbed. How do I know they were mine? No one else in this town would have Hitchcock's Lifeboat let alone would you be able to find it in a pawn shop.

So now I am waiting for the police officer handling my case to call me so that I can tell him where my former DVDs now reside.

Remember that one time when I had a camera? Seems like yesterday!

My Camera Was Stolen Today And Good News!!!!

That is right my friends. My Canon XL1s was taken and my back sliding glass door was busted to a billion pieces.

I called the police and my insurance company to file a claim. I plan on going to the pawn shops in the morning to describe it to them in case someone tries to pawn it.

I was upset about it for about a half hour but I'm pretty much over it now. I mean my cats or dog weren't hurt or missing. I have a lot of glass to clean up but thankfully I have a shop vac for that.

Hopefully I'll recover the camera at one of the pawn shops or if someone tries to pawn it they will have a description of it. I still have the lens cap and the microphone for it. They don't have the batteries so it won't be much help to them if they actually tried to use it.

Now GOOD NEWS!

Locker is ready to send out!!!!
That is right my friends!!!! I have the newly made DVDs and printed cases and have given three away to my actors so far!!!!

I have twenty seven copies left that I have to give out to three other actors and the fine people at Big Country Meat Market and then some that I have to give to family and friends.

I am going to send what remains to distribution companies which should be about ten!

Entertain Me Now!

I have had a sudden moment of clarity.

It came while watching a mobile phone commercial. Mobile phones are now allowing you to see exclusive entertainment content. So you can now be entertained anywhere and at anytime.

So why do you feel the need to have to be entertained all the time?

I am really at a loss to explain this. When boredom starts in under a minute in this society and kids are constantly jumping from activity to activity without any kind of retention and quickly becoming bored with the given activity....how is this trend going to continue?

How can it continue to feed itself? How long will it be before you can be entertained while sleeping? More importantly how long will it be before people demand to be entertained while sleeping?

That is more of the crux of this issue. Is there something wrong with feeling the need to be entertained every second of every day? While you are at work, on your way to work, at lunch, on your way home from work, at home.

Is there something that has to capture your attention every second of every day?

What if there isn't?

What if all of a sudden you find that you have been entertained by every resource possible and there is nothing left to entertain you anymore???? You are no long amused.

You can't turn on your TV, turn on your PC, can't read a book, or look at a piece of fine artwork without experiencing the dread of boredom. Is that worse than death itself?

I'm sorry my friends that this isn't a more reader friendly and upbeat post but when I have a moment of clarity I'd like to share it with you.

When you have an Ipod that you can download your favorite music, TV shows, and music videos how long will it be before you are sick of that and ready for more? Have we created a endless furnace that offers up bite sized portions of entertainment that are quickly digested and produce a need that craves more?

Is that why Hollywood has been investing so much in remakes? No one will notice the difference and buy tickets anyway to fulfill their longing to be entertained no matter how poor the product is?

There used to be and still are geniune artists who have a genuine gift for creation. This is fulfilling to them and if someone sees their work and is also fulfilled then it can't help but effect the artist. Does that add or take away the value of the work?

If the artist if fulfilled by the mere creation and no one ever sees it is the artist less fulfilled? I'd say no. If I created something and put it in a closet and no one ever reads, sees, or is effected by my creation I am no less fulfilled.

Now this is a odd position to take since I am a filmmaker and want my work to be seen. I want my stories to have an audience. I want people to actually enjoy my creations.

I guess this is because a long time ago I have felt less and less entertained and just recently realized it in my moment of clarity.

Soprano Rant

Yes there will be spoilers in this post so if you are reading this and hate spoilers, and I know of one of you who should stop reading this now. So see ya next post buddy!

Now onto the Sopranos.

What has happened to this show? It has turned into a disjointed mess. What happened to all of the mob stuff? So far the first two episodes suck. Tony is in a coma, this is probably going to go on for several episodes instead of all of the interesting stuff that used to happen in this show!

All of a sudden The Sopranos has turned into ER. There is no "family business" going on right now and it has made this show hard to watch, in fact with Tony in a coma they are setting the stage for him to develop a conscious about his life's choices. Now this would be a great way to turn the story IF they follow through. I could see the whole family turning on him since he just went soft in their eyes and making his life hell.

There will be some predictable power struggle stuff soon so that will help pick things up.
There also looks like there will be a terrorism storyline shortly but I am not getting my hopes up. Potentially great storylines have been started and dropped before without even a second thought.

I'm not saying that this show won't be good again but after the first two episodes, I'm not holding my breath. There is potential but since this is the last season of the show, where are all of the fireworks?

The show is starting a nosedive and I hope it pulls up in a episode or two but maybe the ending will be well worth it.

Meadow is still hot though and that is good!

Bad Poker Night

I finished 9th out of 21 tonight. Out of the money by a long ways.

It was just a garage tournament where the blinds went up every 15 minutes. The problem was that we had a guy who liked to talk more than deal. It wouldn't have been much of a factor at all if the blinds were slower. But everyone played by the same rules so it was fair. Just not my game.

I need to play more aggressively during those fast blinds.

My crippling hand was when I missed my flush draw and couldn't put my opponent out of the hand with any raise.

That hurt me and I couldn't recover from his winning hand of one pair of 4's. That's poker!

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me!!!!

The remake trend of old TV shows continues.

Welcome Back Kotter will now enjoy a second life as a feature movie. You can now measure TV shows by how many haven't been remade yet.

This is insane people. Where has all of the creativity gone to? Has it just vanished into thin air? Are there no more writers in Hollywood who have an original thought bouncing around anymore?

Want to know why theater receipts are down?

HERE IS THE REASON WHY!!!!

You can't expect to keep putting out junk and have people just blindly go to it week after week!!!!

First of all it is in a theater! Second you get bombarded by COMMERCIALS in the theater where you just rented a seat for two hours! You don't feel like seeing a commercial! You don't feel like dealing with the people around you that talk all through the movie! You have a better set up at home that you can pause, head to the bathroom, pop some popcorn for a fraction of the price, grab a Coke, and head back to your seat on a very comfortable couch before unpausing the movie!

Despite all of that I will still go to the theater and see a movie or two because I don't want to wait the six month DVD turn around time.

But I REFUSE to see a remake of a TV show!

First of all, I'VE PROBABLY SEEN IT ON TV FOR FREE!!!!

Second of all, it was ALREADY DONE ONCE AND FOR TV!!!!

Third it is a horrible trend that is encouraging absolute laziness and killing creativity!!!!

If it isn't a TV show being remade it is a classic movie! Where is it going to end? When theaters start closing because people won't go to them anymore?

Hollywood can be so clueless sometimes.

GO INDIE FILMMAKERS!!!!
GO DIRECT TO DVD MOVIES!!!!

Planet Of Ape Entertainment!!!!

Yes!
The ulitmate Planet of the Apes collection is coming out in a week I believe and it puts me into a dilemma.

This set contains every movie, every episode of the tv live action show as well as the animated series!

When I was a kid I had the Mego Planet of the Apes playset. I got it for Christmas when I was a very young kid. I was upset because my cousin received the Star Trek Mego set and I wanted that one! I watched the cartoon and I had the trading cards from the TV show. Planet of the Apes ruled!

However it has one drawback. Now anyone who knows me knows that I have no love for anything Tim Burton. I believe he is a hack who does weird for the sake of being weird. His movies are nothing more than flash with no substance and have little value to me and he ruined Batman!

Well this set also contains his horrible hack version of the original Planet of the Apes. He ruined a classic film. A film that not only was a definition of Scifi but a movie that stood out among movies! It practically introduced the twist ending to cinema with a outstanding script by the master writer, Rod Serling!

And then along came Tim Burton who was looking for a classic movie to ruin. That idiot found it and unfortunately convinced a studio it was a good idea to finance it.

You know the rest.

Well I am probably going to spend on this set because I do love the series. I own NO Tim Burton movies and I planned on NEVER owning any but now I might have to bite the bullet and purchase one....just because it is included in this incredible set.

I know I'll probably hate myself for putting one dime in Burton's pocket but maybe two dimes will go into Rod Serling's widow's pocket as well.

Now onto futher news, MARCH MADNESS STARTED TODAY!!!!

One of my favorite sporting events has tipped off and me with my two brackets so far am about 50/50 on my picks. Being able to listen to the games at work on Sirius is just incredible! Everyone has been coming by our shop to catch up on scores and listen to the play by play. No one has to take off to report scores from home this year!

This is a great time of year my friends!

More Software Coming!

Yes!

Now anyone who knows me knows I love new software!
I have purchased the latest in software to help me achieve the goals I have laid before me.

I have identified my weaknesses. I believe that my weakness is writing. So how do you improve that weakness?

Practice of course! Not only practice but advice from the pros. The people who could write a script before noon and make it in time for their three martini lunch before heading off to the power lunch scheduled with the hottest new starlett that wants to use your material as a vessel for her talents.

Yes I want THAT person to teach me how to write.

I feel that I have a good handle on the rest of indie filmmaking. I can frame a shot that Hitchcock would find little wrong with. I can light it and I can edit it. I know I need practice which I'm sure I'll get plenty of this Summer.

But that isn't the complete package that I'm happy with. I would be happier if I could write my own stuff and be confident about it. If I could write something and pour my soul into it and be proud to have someone read it instead of offering a script as a last resort because I can't improve it and want to get to the parts of the project I'm good at.

I have ordered a couple of seminars of screen writers. They are the pros who are brilliant teachers. They are technical writers and I could use some structure to my writing as you have probably noticed if you have read my Blog for this long!

A good filmmaker has to know that the script is where everything starts. A indie filmmaker a GREAT script is essential since there will be little else to attract someone to your project.

If you are Jerry Bruckheimer then you don't need a script. It isn't necessary since you will have a budget for effects that will wow the audience enough that they don't realize there is no story. It is misdirection in the tradition of Penn and Teller!

"What? You can't follow the story? Well here is an explosion to take your mind off of that!"

Fantasy Football Offseason

Yes my friends when you are a fantasy footballer there really isn't a off season anymore. If you want to be competitive you have to stay on top of free agents, the draft, and cuts....and now retirements.

My friends Edgerrin James has retired from the NFL. He will be the fastest player dropped from any keeper leagues. He will be one of the last RBs drafted in most fantasy drafts.

Edge has signed with Arizona. Where players go to quit the NFL.

He probably would have gotten a ring in Indy in a season or two but NO, he was tired of playing football. He took the money which was cleverly disguised as a pension package in a warm nay HOT climate instead of a Super Bowl ring. He decided that being a champ wasn't in his future.

Edge go talk to Dan Marino. He would probably give up every single record he owns to get one more chance to play for what you just sold.

John Elway would probably have told you what it means to think that you would never have the opportunity to win a championship after being soundly defeated in the big game. He would probably tell you Edge what a moron you are after leaving one of the best offenses in the NFL to go to a team that has no clue what a offense is. A team that defines ineptness. A team that had only one peer in the Bengals until they got their act together and became a contender.

Barry Sanders would have committed any crime he could have thought of to have played for the Indy O. Barry would have personally brought at least two rings to Indy if he had the same opportunity you just sold to Arizona Edge.

You might as well have just sold your soul since you exchanged a full bank account for a empty finger.

My New PC Is Running At 100% Now!

After a small bios flash of the motherboard so it would recognize all 4 gigs of RAM, a problem that Asus has had for a while, everything runs perfect!

I am now a editing, no problem having, DVD burning, green screen filming filmmaker!!!!

I have barely slept from my excitement the past few days and when I did sleep I had visions of video cards and sticks of RAM dancing in my head!!!!

As for the Sopranos debut last night, I will try to give my thoughts without any spoilers. I think that it was a decent debut episode for the final season. I think they probably played a storyline card too fast but I'm willing to see where it takes the story from here. It was kind of a catch up episode where they introduced the characters again after nearly two years. It seemed kind of rushed and some scenes just didn't advance any story at all....for now.

My personal notes, Sil put on a ton of weight, Paulie and Melfi barely had any screen time, Carm was too June Cleaver after the previous two seasons problems, Janice is still easily dislikeable, and Meadow is still hot.

In Locker news I will be learning my new Adobe DVD burning software this week!!!! I will finally be able to get my LONG over due copies out to the Actors, family, friends, and location where I shot Locker!!!!

I also received this from the Tribeca Film Festival:

Thanks for allowing us to consider your film for this year's Tribeca Film Festival. We were grateful to receive so many outstanding shorts and features this year, and enjoyed the chance to see your film.

We regret to inform you that we are unable to include Locker in this year's program. Due to many high quality works sent to us this year, we simply did not have room for everything.

Please continue to check our website, www.tribecafilmfestival.org, for news about this year's event as well as for new information relating to the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.

Again, thank you for your interest. We wish you continued success with your film and in all your future endeavors.


Best wishes,

Tribeca Film Festival

The Return Of The Sopranos Tonight!!!!

I am a Sopranos fan. It has been almost what? Two years since the end of the last season? A year and a half? Something like that and now it returns.

Now here is the problem, with all of the legions of fans that watch this show with a massive amount of anticipation it can't live up to expectations. Even if they whack Paulie in the first episode people will be expecting more.

The last season with Steve Buschemi was probably one of the best! The two seasons before that, well lets just say they weren't that whippy. I can't tell you how frustrated I was with all of the forgotten storylines that would be built up one week only to be left alone later and lost forever.

Come on writers! There are only 13 episodes per season, there isn't that much continuity to keep in mind.

We will see how this final season goes, who lives, who dies, and how justice is meted out!

New Pc Is Here!!!!

I received it yesterday at about 3:30.

Set up took most of the evening as I have no experience with a Raid array or SLI. However my friends did and they basically took over the installation of Windows XP 64 and we had everything up and running fairly well in a few hours.

My first impressions are this system is blistering fast!!!! Being a dual core system I can play World of Warcraft and edit with Adobe at the same time with no problems, well that is if I could do that with only two hands!!!!

I have quite a bit of work of tweaking to do and getting my favorite programs set right but overall color me impressed!!!!

It's Friday!!!!

Yes my friends, it is Friday and I have just checked my UPS tracking numbers and the PC arrived in town at 1:37 AM this morning!!!!

It is a beautiful day in my world!

Twilight Zone is on Scifi right now. The eipsode called The Shelter. Where a man who has worked preparing a bomb shelter for the worst case while his neighbors who didn't prepare are left out in the impending cold war doom. It is a retelling of the Lazy Grasshopper tale with a TZ twist!

A great episode:)

Wednesday And The Longest Week Continues!!!!

Nothing bad happened at all today but, WOW, this has been one long week.

That happens when you are anticipating something. I don't know how I made it as a kid and I had to send away for something from a comic book.

My first Sea Monkey's....ah, memories!

I had a flash of brilliance last night. I set up my XL1s at the backdoor of my home. Since it is a sliding glass door the camera could see if anyone showed up to thieve more Duke DVDs.

Anyway I know that the XL1s has a interval setting that lets you do time lapse on tape, so in the middle of the night when I am getting over my violation feelings this idea comes into my violated mind.

With a burst of energy I get up and around and try to find my XL1s manual. I can't find it so I go online and get the .PDF and read it. I find the interval settings, get a tape, and set up the tripod with camera facing the back door!

My trap is set! All I have to do is turn it on in the morning before going to work!

So in the morning after a giddy night's sleep, I've been giddy a lot this week, I shower and rush to the camera to activate my trap. I turn it on, set it to 1.5 seconds of filming every 30 seconds and head to work!

So I work today and keep having these fantasies about someone cupping his eyes to peer into my back porch and seeing a camera staring back at him! Then it dawns on me that I should have left a sign, something for the perp (I learned that from TV I think) to read while the XL1s takes their picture! Something that makes him shake in righteous fear of me and my mighty Canon!!!!

So with regret I work the rest of the day that I didn't think of the sign in the throes of my brilliant epiphany. I clock out and head to Sonic to get some supper then rush home to see the startled face of my victim!!!!

I rush to the camera only to find it didn't work for some reason....sigh.

I am positive I had it set correctly but I will read the manual again to see what I overlooked. I am sure that today would have been the day of the return since they now know that my door is blocked and locked tight with no hope of entry.

Well perhaps they did show up and see my camera staring menacingly back at them and got the message and think that I have them on tape now. It is possible. I only have to replace my John Wayne movies now:)

Robbed And They Took My John Wayne DVDs?!?!?!

That is right my friends, I returned home this afternoon from work to find my cats outside, my back door open, and 7-8 DVDs missing!

Now get this, I had my Canon XL1s along with about 2,000 other DVDs right there. They took a few from a center stack on the floor....that were older movies! John Wayne movies to be exact!

Now don't get me wrong friends, John Wayne had some amazing movies but to either side or to the top of the stack were much more valuable DVDs. It would have been nothing to have gotten a trash bag and filled it up!

My new Adobe software was right beside my PC chair, my two monitors blazed brightly, my two tequila bottles and vase FULL of change were left untouched!

It made NO SENSE which leads me to believe it was someone who just didn't know their movies very well!!!!

I mean I have Citizen Kane close by, Captains Courageous was in the neighboring stack along with Crash. The stack was setting on my Adult Swim DVD collection that contains three volumes of Home Movies and Aqua Teen Hunger Force along with Star Trek: The Next Generation (the whole series!) while Twilight Zone (again the whole series) rested just above on a shelf!!!!

Among the titles taken: Island in the Sky, McClintok!, Donovan's Reef, Hondo, and In Harm's Way.

Honestly I don't get it but I'm happy that is all that was taken. In fact I'm overjoyed and blessed that just a handful of DVDs was all that is missing!!!!

My cats are safe but the dog is sleeping on the back porch for a while!!!!

So There I Was

When all of a sudden a email popped up that had tracking numbers for my PC!!!!

It has been shipped!!!!

I'm so excited about this that I know I'll be sleep deprived the next few days until arrival!!!!

There are so many things that this high end PC will allow me to do with the right software, which I have already purchased and have sitting right next to my chair, just begging to be installed on a system worthy of such amazing software!

My new liquid cooled, AMD dual core 4800 running two video cards in SLI mode with 4 gigs of RAM and half a terrabyte of storage will be here this week!!!!

Now in other related news I have been invited to an Oscar party tonight. I wasn't really planning on watching the Oscars and honestly I rarely do watch any award show except for the Indie Spirit Awards that is. But I'm going tonight because it seems like it will be a fun time!

Speaking of fun times, I've had a blast the past few days watching all of the small conference tournaments! They are always fun to watch. You get to see teams that you just don't see all that often and you get to see them playing for a guaranteed seed in the Big Dance, so you see them playing their hearts out!

If you like basketball you have got to feel that you are on the top of the world right now!

Don't Forget The Guys Or Why I Love Movies

When I was a kid I lived a few blocks, walking distance, from a theater. I used to take whatever money I had and walk there and get a ticket to whatever was playing that week.

There was usually a release schedule sheet that they had that told what was going to be playing there for weeks at a time which was nice. I saw probably three 007 movies there, Star Wars, Going in Style, The Devil and Max Devlin, and countless other movies there at the Esquire....And many others at the Lucky Seven drive in when we went there for a drive in movie. There I saw such classics as Battle Beyond The Stars, Stir Crazy, and Airport 77.

Well, so there I was at a local grocery store today when I saw Guy's Original Tasty Mix!!!!

What is Guy's Original Tasty Mix? Well think Chex Mix but a little bit better and more....um, Indie.

Guy's is a brand of potato chips but much much smaller than Lay's or Ruffle's. When you are walking down the chip aisle you can sometimes find Guy's there. In a world where Doritos has so much shelf space that they practically OWN the chip aisle along with Cheetos, Guy's would be usually at the end by the generic brands or maybe a local brand that is just getting its start and personally requested some shelf space from the store manager who used to coach their kids in little league.

They usually have the usual flavors there like Original or BBQ and maybe some cheeseys but rarely and I mean RARELY you will find Guy's Original Snack Mix in a store. Guy's Original Snack Mix has a unique flavor that is addictive and tasty. Everytime I am in the snack aisle I look to see if there is a bag there on the shelf....and sometimes there is one:)

Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to try and support the smaller things in life. The smaller brands, the Indie films, the people who are hungry and struggling and creative. The people who had their own unique vision and are trying to fulfill it. I like the Independent Spirit Awards over the Oscars. They are just fun and mean more!

To me Guy's is that.

Sometimes I get the Michael Bay or Steven Spielberg brand of chips like Lay's and Cheetos but I try to watch the Jim Jarmusch or Richard Linklater brands like Guy's, Andy Capp's, or Cape Cod chips. MMMmmmm, Andy Capp's Hot Fries!!!! Talk about a Lance Henrickson kind of movie and you have Hot Fries right there!

Well in the theater where I used to go to when I was a kid and developed my real love for movies there was a clock over the exit. It was a clock that had a intentionly dim blue neon look to it, well since it was in the theater and all it had to be pretty dim but it was bright enough that it could be read. The clock was a Guy's clock and it said, "Don't Forget The Guy's".

Software And Second Monitor Arrives!!!!

I'm practically giddy. The past few days I have been living with the anticipation of setting up my new second monitor. Now I just have to await my new PC to install the new software that also arrived!!!!

This presents another anticipation problem....er opportunity for me that is. I am awaiting the arrival actually the shipment of my new PC that is being assembled as I type this.

I was off four hours yesterday afternoon to be here for the monitor that I missed the day before. Fedex decided against leaving it on my porch, which was a good thing as it was a bit rainy out. It arrived and it took a couple of hours of tweaking to get them to match. Now I believe that this is because I have to use a digital output for one monitor and a analog output for the other monitor.

However the new PC will have two digital outputs per card and there are two cards so I could actually have quad monitors!!!!

But I won't....not yet anyway.

Why do I require two monitors?

Well the thing is that the new Adobe package has resizeable windows inside the software that you can break away and resize to what you wish. Simply put I have double the workspace now and for detailed work this will be extremely helpful!!!!

Oh, and I'm off today as well. At work there are days called "Goal Days" in which nothing much is going on and you are encouraged to take off:)

March Madness!!!!

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE March Madness!!!!
A pure tournament with the best teams in the country going head to head like it should be ( take a hint BCS) to determine the best team in the country!

Here we are on the leading edge of Championship Week where every conference has their conference tournaments to determine the champion and a automatic bid into the Big Dance. Cinderellas are made here and then they get a chance to try on the slipper to see if it truly fits!

A good Big Dance showing has lead to a powerhouse team called Gonzaga, this showing was a few tournaments ago but the slipper did fit. They have been able to build a contender year after year because of the consistently good showing year after year....in the Dance.

With the addition of Sirius in our shop we will be able to listen to every game during the tournament. Usually we had to rely on someone staying at home and calling in scores since we could get maybe one game at a time and that was rare since the reception was so bad.

So we are all set my friends and I hope you will do yourselves a favor and watch March Madness this year. You will see basketball at its best and hopefully you will see a team that no one will give a second glance open up a few eyes and advance further than day one!