Arrested Development

The past two days I have been watching the first, second, and third seasons of Arrested Development.

This is a very good series. There is this insane rich family who are suddenly not rich anymore because of some very shady dealings from the father who founded the business. Jason Bateman plays the straight man and the only responsible character. His only real weapon is his sarcasm and sense of family loyalty.

Well pretty much all of them have a sense of loyalty to their family but they really REALLY don't have a clue about anything else. All of the characters have their own unique personalities and approach to being shallow.

From Gob (pronounced Jobe) and his attempts at being a magician to Lindsey and her forgetfulness that she has a daughter named Maeby and Lindsey's complicated husband.
To Buster, the special sibling who has a weird relationship with his mother the lush.

This show is great for pop culture junkies, you will notice many pop references put to film. For example there is a red dog house with a dog sleeping on top of it but only if you look quickly. Many many of these can be found if you look hard enough. The dialog is sharp, witty, and very funny with nearly every line being some kind of joke of some sort.

Remember the old show Soap? Well you can almost call this show Soap 2. There are more site gags, more laughs, and to be honest this show is far more entertaining. The story arcs last several episodes and the overarching storyline of George Sr. and his legal problems lasts the duration.

Even the narrator (Ron Howard) gets into the act with witty narrating. There is a plethora of guest stars through out the entire run of fifty three episodes. This show struggled to find a steady audience and finally got axed.

It is a shame. This is a good and very affordable show.

Over There

I am one episode away from finishing this fine show. I am sorry to see this one end.

Over There follows several storylines from several characters. The one I find myself enjoying the most is the complex Sgt. Scream. There are several episodes that show his character's character but he is really showcased in Orphans.

There is the saint like Angel who grapples with guilt issues from his great aunt. Double Wide and her stay at home husband and how he copes with being at home while his wife is at war. Dim and his cheating, alcoholic wife. Bo Rider who grapples with losing a limb. Smoke and his transformation of being a racist street thug into a soldier who trusts his brother soldiers. Mrs. B and her troubles. Tariq who is an American from Iraqi descent who has gone to fight after 9-11.

The storylines are inspiring and heartbreaking. It is a shame that only thirteen episodes were done. I am sensitive to politically slanted material and aside from a couple of throwaway lines this is pretty balanced.

This set is on loan from Beersnob and I have been needing to return it for a couple of months now. This holiday weekend gave me the perfect opportunity to watch the whole series start to finish today. As I said there is one episode left as of this writing and I am sorry to see it end. Like a good book that you want to keep reading or a good moment you never want to end.

This is one of those shows. It is about the soldiers themselves and not about the policies. Yeah a lot of it is fictional but I believe that a lot of it strikes home for a lot of our troops.

If you get a chance, see it.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Everyone in this country can be thankful for something on this day.

See if you can find out what it is today.

Enjoy it my friends.

Red Beans And Rice

For breakfast you say? No way!

I say, "Sure why not?" It is nippy outside, looks like it is going to be a nice day though. So I decided to make a pot of red beans and rice. I can eat off of it all day, I have some Louisiana Hot Sauce and styrofoam bowls:) Life is still pretty good:)

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I'll have a ton of leftovers for eating the rest of the week:)

My fantasy teams went 2-1 this week. My money league was a victory but I only had 38 points. That was good enough to beat my opponent but no help in the league point standings. I have fallen to seventh. I was in second place just a few weeks ago....sigh....I'm 4-7 and pretty much done.

My Yahoo league teams went 1-1. I'm pretty much finished in both of those leagues. I am 5-6 in one league and 2-7-2 in the other.

I don't think I'll make the playoffs in any of the three leagues. This season has a fork in it.

MY PC HAS RETURNED!!!!

Yes my friends after a brief struggle to get it powered up and fixing the error that turned out to be a bad stick of RAM my PC is back home again.

Yeah so the case is tweaked from UPS and it has a few more scratches on it, it works well and it is as powerful as ever!!!!

Now I will be able to get Drinkbusters 1x5 edited, probably starting tomorrow and get everything back on track again:)

Yeah my laptop is very good, no doubt about it but this PC is what having a PC is all about my friends!!!!

Tomorrow I have decided to take off and enjoy five full days off from work. Life is good despite my lack of drinking buddies.

Runnin' Out

I'm running out of drinking buddies.

It seems that everyone is busy which is understandable this time of year. However I still enjoy going out with friends and having a good time. Since Winner's closed it is harder to get a drink after work and even then finding someone to hang out with is twice as difficult.

A few months ago I'd mention to a couple of co-workers (well the fun, sane ones I know) and we grab a drink after work to relax some and everything was fun and easy going.

Now it is like trying to build the Great Wall of China single handedly to find a drinking buddy. For the most part they can only break away about every three weeks and on a Friday....and then only for maybe fifteen minutes or so.

Yeah I recognize that I don't have the restrictions that most people do and my schedule is much easier to work in nearly anything. I get that but irony rears its head when the last time that I went out for an evening was with my partner Chris who doesn't drink and Wendy who is a former drinker and I had lunch with Beersnob a while back which is always welcome and enjoyable!

I'm not complaining, I just like to have a drink after work sometimes and it is difficult to find someone to hang out with.

1 Wins Out

Ohio State beat Michigan yesterday earning them a spot in the BCS Championship game over a month from now.

What? You didn't know that the championship game is around six weeks away? Crazy huh?

So what we get to watch in the BCS game are two rusty teams in a game laden with penalties and mistakes because of the long lay off. Instead of using the next few weeks as a playoff, keeping the teams sharp, and determining a true champion we are subjected to meaningless bowl games that any team with six wins, yeah just six wins can get into.

Why so many bowl games? Well yes for the local fans of the team and for the gambling public but mainly for the schools themselves and all of the dollars a bowl game brings in. So now you know why the schools want to protect a broken system.

Keep an eyes on the rankings this week when they are released. You will see Rutgers fall dramatically, far enough to safely be out of reach of one of the big bowl games. The BCS hates small conference schools. The deck is stacked against them just ask Boise State.

I want teams to be able to settle who is the best on the field and not in the polls. There are going to be some deserving teams shut out of the possibility of playing in the big game because a poll or a computer ranking system says they wouldn't be the best game.

That leaves out all of the intangibles though in a football game. The turnovers, the team that is on and playing well, the team that makes all of the crucial blocks and does all the small things that win games.

Some teams go those things better than other teams and on any given gameday any team can win. They just need the chance to play which is denied by a big coalition which demands only two teams can play for the championship.

It is a horrible way to run something that has so much potential to be bigger than it is and it is already pretty big.

1 Vs. 2

Yep folks, today is the most anticipated day in this years college football season.

Number 1 ranked Ohio State vs. number 2 Michigan. What is at stake is a chance to play for the BCS Championship.

The wild card is what happened yesterday when long time Michigan coach Bo Schembechler died suddenly at age 77. To me in this game Ohio State should be a heavy favorite. They are playing at the Shoe and believe they really are the best team. I think they are heads and shoulders the best team.

So will the sudden loss of the beloved Bo have that intangible effect on Big Blue and rally them to a close win or will Ohio State blow them out as Michigan is emotionally drained? We'll see. If I were to bet on this one my green would be on the Buckeyes.

The problem though is that if this is a close game will the loser deserve a rematch in the BCS game? Well therein lies the problem. There is no playoff system. College Football is the only major sport in the USA that doesn't have a playoff to determine a real champion. Usually it comes down the the team with the best record at the end of the season.

This year though there are two undefeated teams that if they run the table and finish undefeated they probably won't even have a chance to play in one of the top bowl games let alone in the big game.

Just because they play in conferences that are very small they are penalized by a very slow escalation in their weekly rankings to keep them out of contention. The BCS is a sham and should be abolished. America loves to root for a underdog if they have no emotional investment in a team. That is why March Madness is so popular, because everyone can see the underdog overcome long odds and make a run at the championship. Everyone can get involved and feel included and every team has a fair shot to play for it instead of who plays in the Final Four coming down to a computer poll and voters.

I'd be thrilled if they took the top eight teams and even more thrilled if they took the top sixteen!
That tournament would be THE premiere event of all college sports, including March Madness!!!!

It'll probably never happen but it needs to.

Next Wednesday!!!!

That is the scheduled arrival date of my PC!!!!

I'm all giddy!!!!

PC News

I got an email from the builder of my PC late last night. It is supposed to ship this morning!!!!

He said that it should be here in the next few days and that he was going to send me the tracking number today!!!!

I'll be very excited to have my PC back. Yeah my laptop is a very good one but for the most part there is no substitute for my desktop.

I'm excited and hopefully I'll have it hooked back up and have Drinkbusters 1x5 edited very soon!!!!

Creating Reality

Today we live in a world where technology is everywhere. You are actually no longer bound by the harsh realities of life.

Get yourself a minimal job that pays for a roof over your head and you can unplug yourself entirely by being plugged into a network, a game, a community of people who share your own distaste of reality.

What does this mean? It means that just last week, in one of the most important mid-term elections of this generation just over 40% of the population voted. That means that 60% either don't care or that they are fed up with reality as they see it and and decide to create and get lost in their own reality.

It is easy now to get lost in a game such as Everquest or World of Warcraft not to mention twenty others. You can spend days on message boards or forums and find exactly the kind of company you want to keep.

When I was in high school I wished I could connect like now to like minded people as easily. I had a lot of things that I wished I could have researched then and learned all I wanted to know like I can now. A thought, few strokes of the keyboard, and whammo! I can find out nearly anything.

So that leads me to wonder exactly how long it will be before we can create an entire reality where we can live someone's life through implanted memories or some such concept we haven't even thought of yet. The internet would be primitive for what I have in mind.

Don't like living in a one bedroom apartment anymore? Plug in and all of a sudden you are Mick Jagger, John Elway, or Cindy Crawford. I mean if you can do that why not just invent someone, program some kind of amazing life and live that in your head?

Get up the next day, work a minimum amount to keep the rent paid and the lights on and then you can get back to your world. A world where things can go your way, anyway you want. Life too hard for you? Not a problem anymore. Just plug in someone else's life and you can escape yours.

Where is the line with that kind of reality? Virtual Reality would be tinker toys compared to these kinds of advances in creating your own reality.

Downside?
Yeah, compassion would die.
Art would die.
Creativity would die.
Apathy would run rampant.

Why would that bother you though? You have your own designed life at your finger tips and that is so much more satisfying right? It is as real as you believe it is. Why fix problems in reality when you can have them fixed and make a difference in your world. Why get your heart broken and beaten down in reality when you can have the person of your dreams and the life you desire in your own reality? Why die from cancer in reality when you can cure cancer in your reality?

What would I do? I don't know, I really don't.

What would you do?

Desperate Housewives Part 2

Well here is what I thought of the entire season as I finished watching the second season yesterday. I liked it. It was entertaining as I stated in the last post.

This is a show though that I don't know if they can maintain the interest or not. It seems that they have explored a lot of storylines already so how much further can they go and keep it interesting?

I can boil it down to my interest, Teri Hatcher: Hot, Eva Longoria: Hot.

Yeah there are some good storylines that keep my interest and I have enjoyed the season. I just wonder how long the show will last. I wondered the same thing about 24 and Lost and supposedly they have lots of storyline written for Lost.

Anyway just wanted so sum it up for you. Watch it if you have the time and nothing else going on, it is fun, entertaining, and a good ride!

Desperate Housewives Season 2

Well on my first day off of shooting I decided to watch as much as the second season of Desperate Housewives finally.

I've had it laying around for a while and just didn't get around to it but yesterday seemed like a good time to get it started. I could probably finish it today but the NFL is on today and it is week 10.

Well first about DH, it seems to have improved over the first season and that was pretty good. I'm just over half way done so far and it has been very entertaining. The storylines have been strong and unexpected. There has been a good mix of comedy and drama. All of the characters have a good share of screen time and the focus is never on one individual character. They all share in the storylines equally.

I don't know if that is because of the offscreen egos or just very good writing but it works on screen. For this show watching in long marathon sessions works well like Lost or 24. To me that seems to be the best way to watch TV anymore. I'd say this show is worth watching which is rare for me to suggest a show from the big three networks. I'm sure that there are some good shows on network but I'm more of a cable fan as many of you know from reading previous posts. I usually don't give the network shows a chance until they are on DVD.

Today is also week 10. The bye weeks are finished now and every team will be full strength the rest of the season. In my case it won't matter a whole lot unless Tiki starts scoring. This season reminds me of that one season that Barry Sanders led the league in rushing and had 2 TDs all year. Deja Vu for sure in my case. Tiki has 1 TD and yet has nearly 900 yards rushing and as a result my team is suffering.

When your blue chipper doesn't produce you really have to have a strong supporting team and mine is up and down. My WRs are strong, my RBs weak, and the rest is average. I've been on the waiver wire to try to improve my team but it hasn't helped a whole lot. I need to have at least two more 70 point weeks and right now I'm averaging about 30.

It is a longshot now to finish above average in my money league. The Yahoo leagues are split. One team, when full strength, will be above average while the other one is doomed to a losing record no matter what. Such is life right now, it seems like it is average at best.

In PC news I contacted the builder and the power supply should arrive to the builder by tomorrow. He said he hopes to get the rig shipped back to me by Tuesday!!!!

I hope so, I miss my machine!

A Good Day!!!!

Yes my friends I am off today because of an important day called Veterans Day.
Yeah I know it is tomorrow but today is the day that federal installations shut down in honor of our vets.

Is there another military in the world's LONG history that is willing to die for the freedoms of complete strangers? To volunteer to lay their lives on the line to free opressed people?

No.

America and the American Military are unique in nearly every way. America represents what countries strive to be, we are the beacons of freedom around the world. People want to be here.

Our Veterans have paid that cost, continue to pay that cost, and will always be happy to pay that cost. Do something nice for a veteran today!!!!

An Interesting Trend

Since working on the Coke project I have noticed a unusual and interesting trend. That trend is the abundance of contests as commercials.

I know of at least two other brand products who are requesting people submit a commercial for their product. This is actually a win win situation.

First it is like a talent search for untapped talent. Many people will see someone else's vision for a product that many ad agencies might completely miss which can only benefit the product.

The other side is the potential for stardom for a young fimmaker to break in and catch the eye of someone who can give a helping hand....plus some prize money that can help fund a project.

I do hope this trend continues but as with anything it will attract those who just go out and buy a camera and believe they are the next Hitchcock or Capra or worse yet don't even know enough to know who those two are....sigh....

0-3

Yep, no wins in any of my three fantasy leagues this week.

This week hurt me and my chances in the money league to finish anywhere near the top. It goes to show you how important your first round draft pick is to your team. If your blue chipper doesn't score your team will probably not do well.

One of the teams in the league was sinking fast until LJ picked up the pace and now he is a contender. The team who drafted Shaun Alexander is tanking like mine is. In fact my team is probably just about done.

Well I'm all settled in now and ready to watch election returns all night. This is a critical election and it should be interesting to see the results! I was able to vote at lunch today. The allegations of fraud are flying all over the place which will add an extra layer of drama tonight. When it all pans out who will be in charge of Congress?

I don't know how anyone can pay attention to the silly election anyway, I mean Britney Spears just filed for divorce from K-Fed!!!!
How in the world can the election be the big news of the day when K-Fed's career just went up in smoke....in several different ways I'm sure. I'm sure that Britney will be headed back to Louisana with both chitlins to take refuge in the nearest trailer park while writing alimony checks to K-Fed to fund his monthly pot bill in the lifestyle he has become accustomed to.

Breaking Blu

Well here we go, an endeavor into another post about a celebreality show....Breaking Bonaduce. It follows the lives of Danny Bonaduce and his behind the scenes mess of a life with his wife Gretchen.

What is strange about this show is that it is hard to tell if any of it is scripted. I tend to think it is actually real. Sometimes the drama tips into melodrama but I think that is more editing than anything else.

This is the second season of the show and I watched it last year with some kind of morbid fascination to see how much this guy is going to crack up. Just how self destructive can someone get and still be alive? Well Danny Bonaduce would be your answer. He just can't have some kind of normal existence without pushing things too far.

Honestly I don't blame him. I can see his pain and I sympathize with it. I can relate to it. For the most part I think it stems from his wife. She seems to be his downfall at nearly every turn. All he wants is to is be happy and have this romantic vision of a family. It really seems he would be very content with that and abandon his hard living ways if he had that. The problem again seems to stem from her lack of any kind of romantic bone in her body which leads to a massive amount of frustration and more drinking and drugs on his part.

Speaking of frustration I have resigned from working on Chris's project. Chalk it up to creative differences. We are still great friends and hopefully always will be. There are more a LOT of projects that I feel he and I have to do in the future but this one, well I can't give what he needs.

Please don't read more into this than what is there, it is a mutual decision and better for the both of us. I have Drinkbusters and I have the Fanfilm Project which will be an amazing piece of work when finished! Yeah I am bummed that The Passing Drummers didn't work out, I won't lie. There is a lot to do though and maybe this will finally get me into gear to write something and get another project going, maybe for the Summer!

Two Poker Wins Last Night!

Yeppers my friends, last night I won second place in two tournaments.

Not too shabby! Since I haven't played live in nearly three months I did pretty well and felt good about my performance. We played two tournaments from 7 p.m. until just after midnight.

Tomorrow my team will be playing without Reggie Brown. The Eagles are on a bye week. Brown has been one of my most productive receivers this season. It is going to hurt not having him in the lineup. This is the last week for byes though so my team will be full strength for the rest of the season.

That will help since my team has potential to score big or really bomb during any given week.

The shows on Adult Swim Fix were pretty good yesterday.

What? You don't know about the Fix? For anyone who watches the Cartoon Network after 9 p.m. they turn the network over to more adult themed programming. This is called Adult Swim. You can see such shows as Futurama, Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Squidbillies. There are many other shows and most of them are pretty decent.

Some are much tamer than others as well. Anyway on the Adult Swim website there is a part called Fix. At Fix you can watch Sunday's premier shows two days early on that Friday. It is pretty nice to be able to see the shows before they show up on cable.

Check it out sometime, you might even laugh some:)

Paranormal Experiences

I've talked to a couple of friends about this and have one that has told me she will tell me some good stories next time she and I grab a drink.

I was watching the Ghost Hunters last night and I don't know why but it seems that they really don't get a lot in their investigations anymore. It isn't like they got a lot but they did have a chair move in a haunted lighthouse.

Last night I saw one episode where some bed covers moved on their own. They had some EVPs but other than that, not a lot. They do go in with a different mind set though. They try to debunk a haunting and find reasons for everything. They don't fawn over every weird piece of video tape and pronounce something haunted just because they want to. They do look for evidence and seem to do a good job of collecting it.

So it just so happens that about the same time Chris called me up as I was pondering these things.

I asked him his opinions on the matter. We have discussed them before but that was a while back and I was looking for his fresh perspective. He just didn't know anymore. He said he had been on several ghost hunts and didn't really come up with anything. I asked if he had reviewed the footage from Saturday and he hadn't as of yet. He is still recovering from his cold and is a bit weak still. Saturday we shot at the former Sunny Side Center which was a nursing home for the mentally ill. The place had a lot of violence and sadness in its history so I was halfway expecting something weird to happen.

The only thing that really happened was that I felt really drained after we were done shooting. Even though we only shot for about ten hours I felt very very tired and slept from about an hour after I got home until the next morning straight through. Paranormal? I'm going to say no. If there was any place in town though that I figured would be haunted it would be that place.

So I asked an email list I am a member of if anyone had any paranormal experiences and the best story was when a friend and his buddy went into a club they belonged to but the founder's son had been gone for several years, and when they went into the building a music system started playing the son's favorite song. That was pretty paranormalish for sure!

So I can firmly say that nothing has ever happened to me but that doesn't mean it isn't real. I just have never experienced it. I'd like to see some kind of tangiable evidence that I am a part of like TAPS occasionally finds on tape or experience.

Night Of The Living Dead: Live From Wisconsin?!?!?!

Yeah, from Wisconsin and it was fun to watch!

If any of you have ever seen American Movie you are familiar with Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank. American Movie is a documentary on Mark and his faithful best friend Mike. It documents the making of "Northwestern" and when that falls apart the making of his movie "Coven". It is a fun watch if you can find it and better if you love documentaries and even better STILL if you are a filmmaker!

Mark is a fellow filmmaker from Wisconsin and has enjoyed some success since the documentary was released in 1999 I think. He has been in several movies and is currently working on a project called Scare Me. I am unsure what that project is or what it is about but you can bet that it will be funny but probably not scary.

Well last night the G4 network ran Night of the Living Dead, interspersed with the movie were comments from George Romero, commentary from Mark and Mike (Yeah I hope you Iowa readers get the irony), a live horror movie, live auditions, fan voting, and re-enactments from the movie. All of that was a blast!!!!

They did it all from their front lawn and had people from all over the neighborhood show up dressed as zombies. They had a cast member and long time friend Kenny cooking brats, and clips from Mark and Mike buying zombie hunting weapons at a local store. This presentation had nearly everything a horror fan could want and it was all just a party to watch!

I hope they do this every year and I really hope to hear more from Mark and Mike in their future endeavors!

Happy Halloween!!!!

This is a great time of year my friends. The weather is cooling down nicely, the leaves coat the ground, and it just feels nice outside.

This past week I was 1-1-1. Yep, one win, one tie, both in the Yahoo leagues, and a loss in the money league and again losing ground. I've gone from second to fifth. There is a lot of ground to make up now. Thankfully there is still a lot of season to go!

Work is very slow right now so I am spending my time reading Les Miserables. I started it over a year ago actually and for some reason put it down. But with work being the way it is I'm now being paid to read it:)

Yeah and I complain about my job. Actually I really only complain about the lack of a challenge with my job. That is the real problem. I do need a different job I really do and that is what the filmmaking is for. I can do this, I am doing this. I am good at it.

Sometimes I just want to pack up, sell anything I can't take with me and go somewhere else.
No I'm not complaining, well not that much. Things are actually pretty good right now in fact. I am missing my PC though very much. I'll get back to posting on a regular basis when it is shipped back to me.

I do apoligze to my regular readers though for the lack of posts. It is frustrating since I also have an episode of Drinkbusters to edit and get posted as well and no way to do it.

Bonds, Free Agency, And Week 8

Well the world series is over with and no one watched it....again. No one watched the World Series until the Red Sox made it in and no one has watched it since. I can't back this up with anything other than what ESPN radio reported but Dancing With The Stars beat the World Series in the ratings.

That is the state of the MLB. There needs to be some major changes if the league is going to remain viable otherwise it is going to loose ground to the NFL and NASCAR every single year.

Barry Bonds has also filed for free agency. Some team will sign him as a DH and in return he will put people in the seats. The same people who love to go to the side shows at the county fair. The same people who will stop to watch a car wreck. Barry Bonds is nothing more than a freak show and the living embodiment of everything that is wrong with the MLB right now. Some team will overpay for him to be injured most of the next season which in turn will make the prices of the tickets for that team go way up and which also in turn will limit the amount of people who will be able to go to the game which in turn will breed even more disinterest in your miserable league.

See how that works MLB? It really isn't the sport. Minor league teams do well with the fans. There are some indie leagues that do well with the fans. When it comes to the major's, who cares.

Now on to Week 8!!!! My money team will be full strength this week and hopefully will rebound and gain some ground back I lost last week. I was in second overall in points in the league but last week was a disaster and I lost ground to the first place team.

I'll have Bulger, Holt, Moss, Brown for my QB and WRs and Tiki and Laurence Maroney for my RBs. Tiki has been very frustrating for fantasy owners this year. He is putting up tons of yardage but isn't scoring TDs. I've made a huge error though and plan on correcting it this week. I have had Ladell Betts in my lineup and have the rights to Maurice Drew-Jones. So since it looks like he is the real deal at RB for Jacksonville and will take over for Fragile Fred Taylor before the season ends I plan on activating him today.

He'll stay on the bench since Jacksonville is taking on Philadelphia but he'll be an option for those weeks when you play the match ups.
I just need to gain ground this week and see if I can get back into contention again.

A Good Night

The evening went well and we all had a very good time!

The filming went smoothly and the Drinkbusters team was happy to be at "work" again! I can't wait for the return of my PC so that I can edit this one and get it posted!

Filming for the day is about to begin. We are doing two location shoots today. That will be fun, hopefully as much fun as the court house shoot last week!

Celebrity Paranormal Project

This is a remake of a show a few years ago on MTV called Fear.

The real draw of this show is the celebrity meltdowns. Right now Gary Busey is being Gary Busey. Want to talk about a freak. He could just snap at any time and take out everyone.

Hal Sparks, Donna D'Errico, Jenna Morasca, and Toccara I think are in this episode. They are "Investigating" Waverly Hills Sanitarium. The massive abandoned hospital that treated TB is supposedly one of the most haunted places in the US.

The thing is with this show is that I could see it being rigged. I could see it being edited and have some VH1 crew members hiding in the shadows and doing things. I mean that it isn't enough that a lot of the personalities don't mesh....well that is the real draw for me anyway. Mark my words, one of these days Gary Busey is going to snap.

He is one of the most unstable people I think I've ever seen.

Now I've never seen a ghost or even experienced anything paranormal. So I don't know exactly what to think of it. I enjoy watching Ghost Hunters on Scifi though and shows of that sort. I guess I'm just skeptical until somethine changes my mind.

My Drinkbusters and I are about to embark on our pre-show drinking and supper and then film 1x5 tonight!!!! Unfortunately I won't be able to edit it until the return of my PC but we will have it done and it won't take long to get it edited upon its return home!

How Many Of You

Remember my blog on Sun Ming Ming?
Arguably the tallest man in the world and he plays for the rivals of our local USBL team.

Well you can see footage of him and see what I'm talking about.

He is huge.

Yeah I'm off today my friends. I had a late night and an early morning.

Chris called me last night so I waited until he was up and around and returned his call. He works late nights on Wednesdays. He wants me to be in charge of the camera set ups now and the lights. I'm fast and efficient with stuff like that.

So what am I doing on a day off? Watching classic monster movies of course:)

The Wolf Man, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, and House Of Frankenstein. Amazingly all on AMC Monsterfest X. Well it is short lived, next up is House:(

Monsterfest X

There was a time when AMC was really American Movie Classics. They showed uncut movies and commercial free. They had an eclectic taste and every October they had Monsterfest, a few days of classic monster movies.

Now they are semi edited, have lots of commercials, and are far from classics. TCM on the other hand is having some classic movies! They aren't showing as many as AMC but they are doing a pretty decent job.

I wish AMC would return to their roots. Commercial free, unedited, and it would be wonderful if they were shown in their original frame ratio instead of the cropped pan and scan versions. It would be nice to see some of the old movies though, the big rubber creature movies. The space invasion movies. The classics, give me Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi.

Yeah. That is Halloween!

Week 7

Well I got whomped pretty good in the money league. I anticipated a loss but the lack of those key players really hurt!

It is alright though, the person who beat me is a very good friend and I am glad that he got first this week. Well there is one other player who can catch him but we'll see what happens tonight. I went 2-0 in the free Yahoo leagues. Well probably. I am 7 points up on one guy and likely to win but I have seen things like this go badly.

I have heard from the builder of my PC. He received it today and will diagnose it tomorrow morning and ship it back upon completion. I am sure it will go smoothly but we shall see.

Remember the old Lowenbrau jingle? "Here's to good friends. Tonight is kind of special." etc. ?
Well that is how I was feeling Saturday night as that kept playing around in my head as I sat there with good friends and enjoying them and the time as we talked over all kinds of things.

Yeah, here's to good friends!!!!

Sporadic Posts

My friends before I get to the post I am going to apologize for not posting more often as is my custom. I try to post every day or at least every other day but with my PC in the shop I just don't do it as much.

It isn't that I don't want to, I do. It is just more of a hassle. Once my PC is back I'll post on a regular basis again.

Well now the shooting went pretty well yesterday. We finished up around 8 P.M. and shot at the court house. That was a lot of fun! To have almost full run of an old court house and a lot of the rooms was a blast!

There wasn't any drama with the exception of one cast member who was steaming hot because his scene took some time to get to. I thought he was going to mutiny and leave but to his credit he didn't and was a real trooper through the process.

Afterwards Beersnob and I went to Callahan's to get a drink and some food. A cast member joined us and we had a great time! Weezy showed up a little bit later on as well as Sass, who could possibly be Weezy's replacement after she moves to LA.

I was hoping that Chris would have shown up, he said he was starving but he didn't make it.

The old Michelob theme kept going through my head, you know the one, "Here's to good friends. Tonight's kind of special." It was just a real good time for everyone involved.

I expect to lose this week in Fantasy Football. Bulger and Tory Holt are on a bye week and without there firepower my team will really have to find some points from somewhere. This bye couldn't have come at a worst time. I'm currently second overall in my money league and I need to have a good week to gain on the league leader but now I just don't want to lose ground.

Well that just about updates the past two days and soon we'll return you to my regular posting schedule.

Game 7

Well this is supposed to be what baseball is all about. Is anyone outside of St. Louis or anyone who isn't a Mets fan interested?

Well Fox and ESPN don't think so. They have turned over the rights to TBS next year for the baseball playoffs.

Why?

The ratings have been so low that no one is watching anymore. If you aren't a fan you don't care and the fans are dwindling. Minor League baseball is growing in popularity though. That tells me it isn't the sport but the product that the MLB is putting out. You have read about me going on about Barry Bonds and what a disgrace he is to the sport.

I love the USBL and rarely watch the NBA.
I LOVE the NFL though. It is just my sport.

The MLB though? Eh, who cares. I might flip to see a score tonight but I doubt there will be much else.

It is October and I'm enjoying some classic Universal Monster Movies:)

Coke Commercial News

Well as I reported a few posts back the commercial I worked on has made it into the judging round which is in the top ten.

So what happened yesterday is that when I got home from work there was a DHL envelope at my door from Coke. I opened it and inside was a lot of paper work to fill out and have notarized. Lots of release forms and such and a paper explaining the prize.

So why is that a problem? Well it really isn't but I need Bryon, the guy I shot the commercial for to contact me so either he can fill all of this out or find out if he wants me to fill it out and send it back to them. There is a deadline on this and it is coming up so there is a time element in play here.

I'm excited and I hope it wins. I know Bryon will enjoy the prizes which are a new DV Camera and a new PC. Personally if it should happen to win I'd like to see it turn into some kind of opportunity for me to shoot something for Coke. I believe I mentioned this before but it is worth mentioning again:)

3-0!!!!

Yeppers, this week not only did I go 3-0 in all three fantasy leagues but I won first place again in my money league gaining me another forty dollars!!!!

Now get this too, in our office pool we pick the games and whoever has the most wins for the week gets twenty dollars, well I won that too!!!!

There was a five way tie going into last night and everyone had Chicago winning. So it came down to the tie breaker points. I had 43 everyone else had less than that. Chicago came from behind last night to win 24-23 over Arizona!!!!

WOOOHOOOOO!!!!

It was a good day:)

In other news I am shipping my PC back to the builder. He said that it would be very unusual for this power supply to go out but it is still under warranty anyway. I am responsible for shipping it to him and he is responsible for shipping it back. Hopefully it won't take long to fix and I'll have it back within a couple of weeks!!!!

Flavor Of Love Final 2

Oh my....I have never seen this kind of melodrama since....oh yeah, season 1.

What was good about this show? NOTHING....but I couldn't stop watching this train wreck.

It was the same as season 1, it really was but trashier. New York has got to be the biggest drama queen ever with the exception of her mother. New York's mom has got to be the biggest, most spoiled, most pampered, most horrible person ever on this show. I feel for that poor guy who was with her. He seemed like a down to earth nice guy, how in the world does he put up with that?!?!

So what is the appeal to me with this show? No clue. I really have no idea why I am watching this. I have to admit that New York is part of the appeal. I had no idea they still made people this crazy. She is a real nut case and needs to be locked up somewhere. It troubles me that she might reproduce....well not as much as it troubles me that Flav reproduces so much and if they ever got together....wow, it boggles the mind.

Will there be a season 3? I am 98% sure of it. The ratings are too high for there not to be. There might be some kind of twist on the next one but I am sure there will be one.

It boggles my mind that I stayed up to watch the finale. I don't understand my fascination with has been celebs. I really don't but I watch anyway. I can't even find some kind of clever defense for myself watching this dreck.

So what do I do? Bring on the Surreal Life!!!!

Week 6

Is kicking off in a couple of hours now and hopefully I can climb up to .500 ball in the money league. We'll see how it goes but after the very rough 0-3 start it is a lot to overcome, even in fantasy.

It is rainy out now and my dog has camped out on the back porch. I don't know why, he has a great pillow with a heat light in the garage. I still have to find a power supply this week, Staples is out of stock so I might have to order one.

I usually listen to Coast to Coast AM while going to sleep on my laptop through my wireless network and lately I have been listening to a MST3K episode per night. Well they all happen to be stored on the hard drives on my PC so that is not going to happen either until I get it fixed.

GGGRRRRR it is frustrating!

DISASTER!!!!

Alright so after a long day of shooting I walk into the house and what do I find?

A dead PC with two big blank monitors staring at me. I do a check of the power strip, change outlets, all of the technical stuff I know to see what the problem might be and settle on the problem. The power supply has gone bad.

There isn't a lick of power entering through the power supply to any portion of the rig. I call a pc mechanic and he confirms my diagnosis.

So what does this mean? Well for the time being I am laptop bound. Fortunately my wireless network still is working fine and I have a fast working portable PC so I can still have my addiction:)

A power supply isn't that big of a deal on a regular PC. This one happens to be a very powerful PC though and requires a bigger power supply than normal. This is a 500 watt box and it takes a lot of power.

They are reasonably priced so it won't take that much to replace it. The time consuming part will be the physical replacement of it. That will probably take a good couple of hours. I have built my own systems before and for the most part it isn't that hard. This one though is much more difficult since it was a custom built rig and as I said, it is a power hungry beast that connects to so many different parts that it is insane!!!!

Well the first step is to locate a power supply.

Exorcist Three

This is the overlooked gem of the set I purchased the other day. George C. Scott's performance alone is worth taking a chance on liking this movie.

What is unusual about this movie compared to the others is that it was not supposed to have anything to do with the franchise at all. William Peter Blatty wrote and directed this movie and it should have been Exorcist Two.

I really don't think I'll watch the DVD in the set that is called Exorcist Two. I have seen it and that was plenty. It is just a horrible movie all around. Exorcist Three was based on Blatty's follow up novel called Legion and the focus is on two of the minor characters from the first movie.

As I said before it is Scott's performance that makes this movie work. The story is above average for a sequel and will keep you entertained. As I also said before I am holding off on the two prequels to the original until Beersnob has a chance to watch them with me.

Watch Three, it's a good movie especially for October and scary movie month!!!!

The Exorcist

Since this is October and to me that just means that the NFL is in full swing and that it is time for scary movies!!!!

I bought the Exorcist Anthology yesterday at lunch. It is a set that has two versions of the original film, the sequel to that which as I remember sucked a lot, the third movie which had nothing to do with either of the first two and was directed by William Peter Blatty, and the reason I bought the set....the two prequels!!!!

When the original prequel was completed the studio decided they didn't like it so they hired another director and did a rewrite and FILMED IT AGAIN!!!! The second movie hit the theaters while the first has now found its way to DVD. It intrigues me to no end when I was reading about this whole decision in Fangoria last year, why a studio would do that. I mean they have no problems putting out horrible movies now and do so on a regular basis. So why do that with this dead franchise?

It just didn't compute to me. Well soon I feel I will have an answer to that and when I told Beersnob about it he expressed interest in watching as well so I feel that we will have an answer to this baffling question.

Anyway onto The Exorcist. Everyone knows this story and either has seen the movie or heard enough about it I am not going to bother with spoilers. The story is simple, girl gets possessed, doctors are baffled, psychologists are baffled, priests are called in, girl is saved, one priest is dead the other winds up in a bit part in part three.

This movie was out when I was a toddler and yeah I can remember stuff from then. I also remember hearing about how scary this movie was and for that time in movie history, yeah I can see that it would have shocked a lot of people. But by today's standards this movie has good acting, good storylines and subplots, but scary? Not in the least. Creepy? Yeah a little bit.

Max von Sydow is the expert priest who is called in to do the exorcism. His part is brief but powerful. He is a wonderful actor and has a great screen presence. Jason Miller who plays Father Karras is actually the real star of the movie even though Linda Blair is the possessed girl and has the most demanding job. Miller is the priest who is questioning his faith and has come to a crossroads in his life. He wonders what he should do about his ailing mother and then this case is dropped into his lap.

One thing leads to another and then the climactic big finish that everyone knows.

If you haven't seen it, don't worry about it. It is an OK movie but not a great one. It was probably more known for its groundbreaking special effects and the acting of Linda Blair who does an outstanding job.

I'll get back to this when Beersnob and I have had a chance to watch the prequels!!!!

....And Here I Sit

Watching the little blinking cursor and wondering what to write about today. Well that was easily solved. I mentioned this last Saturday to a friend and let it go, just forgot about it until now, I can't let this go further.

One of the icons of 80's metal and one of the best guitarists of his genre has done the unthinkable. He is now doing Volkswagen commercials. Yeah my friends Slash, star of the former Guns n Roses and now of Velvet Revolver has decided to hock Volkswagens.

Slash was part of the baddest band in the world, they defined rebellion of that time and still have one of the greatest albums EVER recorded. They broke the rules and then rewrote them, caused riots, were arrested many many times, had their stereotypical bouts with substance abuse and then burned out like the brightest stars should.

And now....we come to Volkswagen. My friend, Beersnob told me that everyone needs a paycheck. I'm paraphrasing of course because it went on for a couple of minutes but I'm wounded none the less.

Can you call Slash a sellout? Yeah maybe but does it diminish his incredible body of work and all of the hours of enjoyment I have had listening and watching Slash play?

Not a chance. Slash is still one of the best.

A Little Rainy

And gloomy yesterday, otherwise it was a nice day. You can really tell that Fall is here now, it just seems to be in the air.

I love the Fall and Spring. I like the other two seasons but not as much.

I had some weird dreams last night but darned if I can't remember anything about them now. I know I had the feeling that something was going to go right though. Maybe that is good huh? Well we'll see.

It is Wednesday already, well that happens on a short week, you wake up and BAM you are almost at the weekend again.

I am itching to do another Drinkbusters but there is some news about the Coke Commercial that I shot for that friend. It has made it to the Judges Round!!!! That means I have to get a hold of Bryon somehow (it is hard since his phone rings and rings) and tell him. He will be thrilled about this. I really hope he wins, it would be a nice boost to him. He could use the camera and PC too.

If I got anything out of it maybe they might hire me to do some Coke commercials! I'd be thrilled with that! That might lead into some beer commercials which I think I'd be great at! That might lead into some music videos which might lead into what I want to do full time which MIGHT lead into me being a little bit happy.

We'll see:)

First Place!

This week I held onto first place for a nice forty dollar payday!!!!

I believe that both of my Yahoo league teams have tanked yet again.

It is raining out right now and my three day weekend was pretty eventful.

So all in all I guess I am about the same right now, just forty dollars richer and I have a bit of a headache. I can't stand waking up with a headache. Kind of sets the tone for the whole day.

Oh well, this is now officially a short week and this payday will have one week of our yearly raise on it. I need coffee right now. Maybe I need to get a coffee pot again and start making my own here.

That'll give me something to think about today...

Leading The Money League

Well for the week anyway.

I have a whopping 38 points and have my D and Special Teams yet to play tomorrow night. The second place team has 35 points with his kicker going tomorrow night and LaDanian Tomlinson going right now.

So there is a good chance I will be in the money this week but not a good chance I will win first. I have no idea how the Yahoo leagues are turning out at the moment but I'll know in the morning.

Well today I was invited to watch the TO Bowl at Chianti's house, she is a big Dallas fan and it was a close game until a crucial turnover that probably sealed Drew Bledsoe's fate as the starting QB. I expect that Tony Romo will be starting next week.

Yaawwwnnnnn!!!!

Well after a full day of filming today I will still have two days off!!!!

Alright I have a confession to make.

Everyone who knows me knows that I gave up on baseball after the strike year. After that I couldn't have cared less about baseball. Both sides were squabbling and being very petty and most of America as well as myself were fed up with it.

Well I now admit that I watched the series between the Yankees and Red Sox in 04 as well as the World Series. I also admit that last night I watched the Yankees get destroyed by the Tigers.
This closet watching hasn't really rekindled my former love for the game. I do still follow the major stories since I listen to sports radio during the day like the disgraceful Barry Bonds who should be banned from baseball in Pete Rose fashion. Other than that the season is too long and the games are meaningless and the players/owners are spoiled by a forgiving American public.

There is no parity and most of the teams are eliminated from contention early on in the season. It is still my belief that the MLB needs an NFL style of collective bargining agreement. This would dictate to the teams how much they can spend and would bring parity to the sport. It would bring salaries under control and by doing that it would allow ticket prices to drop which would bring more people to the park.

Now let me be clear on this, I would rather watch the two worst teams in the NFL than watch a MLB game. I'm NOT a fan. If I'm not doing something else, if nothing is on, then I will watch a playoff game.

Baseball still has a lot of work to do to be interesting again and if the Barry Bonds walking affront to the game is allowed to top Hank Aaron then I'll probably stop watching what I am watching.

An Amazing Demonstration Of Grace

I usually don't write about current events but I have to write about this one. It is such a tragic shooting that has weighed heavily on my mind since the day it happened.

Late last week a small single room Amish school house was the scene of a tragic school shooting.
Charles Roberts decided he was tired of living and dealing with some deep personal guilt so he thought he would just go and destory the world of some of the most innocent and forgiving people in the world.

He killed five girls after barricading himself into the schoolhouse. One of the girls, thirteen year old Marian Fisher, asked him to be shot first in hopes of saving the others.

Friends she was THIRTEEN!!!! Can you imagine that kind of bravery and love for your fellow classmates to request to be murdered so others can live?

That my friends is grace.

Now do you want to talk about forgiveness?

The killer's widow, Marie Roberts, was invited by the family of the first little girl buried to attend her funeral. Can you imagine that kind of forgiveness in your own life? Are you holding a grudge against someone? Bet it seems pretty petty right now in relative terms.

Imagine the world as it is now and then imagine how different it would be if everyone was as forgiving as that Amish family.

I don't know if I was in the same situation what I would do. I would hope that I had it in me to do the same. I pray I never find out but more than that I pray this never happens again but since it has let us all take a lesson from this family and this brave thirteen year old girl.

A Three Day Weekend!!!!

Yes my friends I am headed into three days of not being at work!!!!

I wish today was payday as well but I'll take the time off:) See that is the real way they hook you at work, to retain you they give you more time off. It is a devious trap. The longer you work there the more benefits you get and they more time away from there you get. I'm pretty close to being topped out in all of the benefits you can get so I'm deep into the trap.

Tomorrow I'll be filmming on Chris's project and then Sunday is NFL day and then Monday is whatever I want to do day!

I have received some good recipes for the next Drinkbusters which we will be shooting on or within a few days of the 20th! That is the next time all of our schedules line up:) I'm excited about it! I think we will have some real good ones to try this time!!!!

Actually I'm real excited about the next Drinkbusters, it is becoming something I'm enjoying very VERY much and I'm really getting that sense of creative fulfillment that I've been craving!!!!

Can't wait!!!!

Busy Day At Work

For once.
It was nearly a nice change.

Picky Eater returned yesterday but was gone half of today for a funeral so basically I ran the show yet again.
The night shift production has continued to decline since Inc has gone to nights, things have gotten even sloppier if that is possible....well it is possible since it is happening.

There hasn't been much on TV to keep me interested so I have been actually watching baseball again. I have sworn off the sport since the strike year but from time to time I do watch some of the playoffs when there is no NFL on.

Now let me set the context of this statement so we are clear. I would rather watch the two worst teams in the NFL than watch a baseball game. The problem is that the NFL isn't on every single day.

They should be though. I'd watch a game every night if they would put one on.

Just Me

Since last Thursday I have been the only person in the shop. Picky Eater has been sick and well that leaves me.

It has been nice. Yeah I work a bit more than normal but it is worth it for the peace and quiet.
Scandal seems to have developed a weird obsessive fixation on Picky Eater, he mentions his name often and it is starting to just get weird.

I imagine though that Picky Eater will be back at work today, he has been concerned about his leave balance lately and he has taken off four days in a row. That probably cuts his leave in half right there. I have around one hundred fifteen hours so I have some time to burn if I want it.

The really bad thing is that I know he won't take off now for quite a while or at least until his leave builds back up some. So I am in for a long stretch of Scandal and Picky Eater stories.

Some good news is that I received a light bulb I ordered a few days ago!!!! It is a replacement bulb for the light kit that Beersnob owns. I broke one of the bulbs in a key light and now we won't be short a light. It would have helped shooting Saturday if this light had been intact.

So that is a very good thing!!!!

1-2

Yeah, 1-2 this week in fantasy play.

Well the good news is this. The one victory I did score also scored me third place overall this week in my money league. That means that I am going to get ten dollars back!

Woohooo!!!!

However you can balance that with two losses in the fun Yahoo leagues so I still feel I have lost my fantasy touch. We shall see what happens the rest of the season, it is only a quarter over with.

I can't afford another loss in the money league if I am going to have a small shot at the end of the season but in order for that to happen Tiki is going to have to step up and be the RB I drafted.

In other news I reviewed some of the footage we shot Saturday on The Passing Drummers. I was pretty happy with it and Chris seemed to be happy for the most part as well.

That is good and something to build upon.

Alright So There You Are, Thinking About

How bad things are for you right now and how to post yet another whiny blog about it when life smacks you upside the head.

I had to stop for groceries after work today and doing that very thing, rolling around my own self pity and trying to make it into a post when I see a man that I am going to call J.A.

J.A. retired last year and I have known him for a few years since we pretty much saw each other on a daily basis. So he was there with his sister and they were doing the same thing I was doing. Well except for the thinking about my self indulgent blog.

So I ask him how he was doing and he didn't recognize me right away. He played nice like he knew me but you can just tell that he didn't remember me. So I tell him to have a good day and head down the freezer isle. I meet them again and then a light goes on and he finally remembered me. He whole demeanor changed at that point and we chatted for a few more seconds.

So why did this little encounter change my day?

J.A.'s father died when he was nineteen I believe.
The last thing he told J.A. was to take care of his sister.
J.A. has taken care of his sister every single day of her life. His whole life plan completely changed at that point and he made her the focus of his life. He sacrificed everything for her and to keep her safe.

J.A. did exactly what his father asked of him. Good or bad, that really doesn't matter. What matters here is that the act itself was one of such beauty and grace.

So I have posted a positive story on my blog as I said I would.

I wish I could do that every day.

A 0-3 Slide Has Got To End

Hopefully it will end today.

Did I mention that this is the worst start I've ever had in ten years of fantasy play? It has got to come to an end, it just has to!!!!

This just can't go on forever. I'll have to turn in my Fantasy Football Card.

I dropped T.J. Duckett and picked up Ladell Betts. I am now hoping Clinton Portis stubs his toe and has to ride the pine for a few games.

In other news while we had some downtime in the marathon shooting day yesterday a few of us watched Drinkbusters 1x4 and EVERYONE LOVED IT!!!! They thought it was hilarious!!!!

I am very happy for that!!!! Drinkbusters has been a great project. There are just so many positives and the negatives are few and far between.

Dare I say it is nearly a perfect project to work on in our spare time? I think it is!
I've gotten very comfortable with the Greenscreen Keying process. I can edit a episode in about an hour now two at the most. I'm not counting the rendering process.

I can say though that I have experienced a lot of fulfillment in this very very simple project.

A Good Friday!!!!

Yesterday was nice, real nice.
I got a haircut, paid some bills, ordered a bulb for Beersnob's light kit I broke, and had a few drinks with most of my friends.

It was a great day!

I did get pretty wasted, sent some drunk messages, and slept it all off. I feel pretty good today and I'm ready for the film adventure that is soon to happen!

So now as I'm watching TV this morning and waking up I have to tell you what I am seeing. I am watching Jordan Knight and Debbie....sorry Deborah Gibson sing and try to jumpstart their careers. Apparently Jordan Knight is now trying to be Billy Joel.

I guess I'm still trying to get over his Surreal Life experience. Now THAT was entertaining!!!!

I also see that Congress has now passed legislation to ban credit card companies, electronic wire transfers, and electronic checks from funding online poker sites....sigh.

I'm sorry I'm a big boy, if I want to play poker it is my business and not the concern of anyone else. The government is not my big brother and it should NOT be interjecting itself in this sort of business. What is next? Are they going to require a five point harness and helmets in every vehicle? You just never know when you are going to be in an accident afterall.

Sheesh.

Maybe we need warning lables on Coke cans that say that you should be careful because when you open a can the spray might get into your eye and cause irritation....

Happy Friday!!!!

I need today my friends. Today is the end of the fiscal year at work so they encourage everyone to take off. You can show up at work but no one does and there is nothing to do so everyone takes off.

I have a couple of errands to do today and then I'm meeting some friends for drinks at around 4:30 at Callahan's. I'm excited about that!

It's payday as well so what more could you ask for? A three day weekend, payday, and some time with your friends?

Not bad.

Are You Entitled To Happiness Or My Own Green Grass....

After yesterday's post I decided to ask myself this question. At least I know the answer to this one.

No. No one is entitled to happiness. You have to make your own happiness. As the Founding Fathers wrote, The Pursuit Of Happiness. That is what you are entitled to.

Well in the general sense that is. On a personal level it can be a lot more complex. For me, and today is one of those days, I have a full coffee card. That makes me happy!!!!

Filming Drinkbusters is a source of happiness.
The bonding I have shared with my friends has made me happy.
That is really all that is coming to mind right now though, well on a larger scale. I wish I could say there was more but there simply isn't.

So that means I can be unhappy or do something else that makes me happy, right?

Well not necessarily. Since Happy is relative to each individual and each individual is entitled to make their own happiness then perhaps the pursuit is what most people are after? When they actually can see happiness in whatever form that takes they become unhappy again. I know in my life that once I have obtained a goal then it just wasn't fulfilling anymore.

So what does all that mean? Well it means that you have to find a new goal of something you think is going to make you happy. It also means that there might be a whole lot in your life right now that you could be very happy with and just not realize it. Yeah the whole, "The Grass Isn't Always Greener" theory.

There are countries around the world where there just isn't any form of happiness at all. Where misery is a national commodity and death, starvation, genocide, and any number of other horrible things are too common. Where even if you knew what would make you happy there are people standing in your way to see that you don't get it. Say like the simple freedom to worship as you please in Darfur. (Look it up if you don't get it)

Tonight I am going to come home after work, I'm going to light my Dreamsicle candle, drink a coke, take off my uniform and enjoy a small measure of happiness. The contentment of relaxing in my own house and knowing I don't have to be back to work until Monday. I have the knowledge that I have family and friends that care about me and that brings up a wellspring of inner happiness. Is there something missing?

Well of course there is.

The pursuit of the next thing that I believe would make me temporarily outstandingly happy that once obtained is just my own green grass again.

What Keeps You Going?

This is the existential question that every thinking person out there struggles with.

What is it that makes you get out of bed in the morning?
What is it that keeps you going?
What is it that keeps you from just giving up?

Everyone has their own reasons, maybe family, friends, some purpose they feel that they have to fulfill. Some people just haven't figured it out yet and go through the motions.

They fake living. They know what they are supposed to do since that is what everyone else is doing so that has to be right, right?

They might even know what they want to do but have a hard time making the opportunity happen. They might be a bit more jaded than that though.
They might go the same route as everyone else, get married, raise kids, work a job, retire and then what? What is there next? What accomplishment really means something?

Do you keep telling yourself that one day you will be able to do what you dream of?
Oh yeah....after you pay off your mortgage, get out of debt, retire?!?!?! And then do what?

Have you ever been fulfilled to the point that you know you are where you are supposed to be?

What fulfills you? Do you even know what would fulfill you?

Sadly I feel I am faking being alive right now. I can't answer any of these questions with any certainty. I've often thought of doing something radical and just quitting, packing up my essentials and moving but can't find the guts to do even that. I've got a strong sense of internal responsibility but sometimes I feel it is misplaced.

I do feel I used to know what kept me going but somehow I have forgotten it along the way. That maybe shutting everyone out and keeping contact with other people to the barest of minimums might be an alternative.

No I'm not feeling sorry for myself and having some kind of pity party fit right now. I'm just asking myself one of the essential questions of life, "What am I doing here, where am I going and why?"

Well I didn't like the fact that I couldn't really answer my own question and that lead to this post.

Honestly my friends I don't know the answers.

Drinkbusters 1X4 IS UP!!!!

Enjoy the funniest Drinkbusters yet with the roughest drink yet!!!!

Friends Chianti, Weezy, and Beersnob went above and beyond on this one!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTgLLxUIbqo

1-3....Sigh....

Yes my friends another dismal week of fantasy football is in the books.
I went 1-3 and I'm starting to wonder if I even know football anymore.

Tiki Barber still has not seen a return to last year's form when he was a fantasy powerhouse.
Bulger and Holt have connected two times in three weeks which is nice but still need production from the supporting cast.

My D, Cincinnati, has been strong and been a fantasy dynamo but if you are depending on your D for points every week you are in trouble....which I am anyway.

My kicker....well he is a kicker.

Randy Moss....well he is a different story, you can sum up Moss this year by saying, "The Oakland Raiders are now on the clock."

Laurence Maroney has been strong but he is getting yardage and not TDs same as Tiki.

I know this team has potential to be a force, they are just too talented but alas they are also 0-3. I am starting to feel like I drafted a USA basketball team and they are in international play. Talented individuals but this is one group that can't win.

I was nipped in one Yahoo league after leading into Monday night and dominated the other Yahoo league with a large victory margin. I'm not completely incompetent in fantasy play but I feel like it.

One More Day

Back to work I go to support my breathing and eating habit. Five days on two days off. I am starting to see a pattern. I might be a little slow some times but yeah, this one is pretty clear.

It isn't that I don't like working and being productive. I LOVE it. It gives me worth. It allows me to do things for others I wouldn't normally be able to do. It is the fact that I feel I'm wasted at work, not wasted like they have a bar set up or anything like that, just that I have a lot to offer a company and my talents just aren't being utilized correctly.

See here is a little secret of mine. Since 99% of you who read this I'll probably never meet and the other 1% who do probably already know it about me I think it is safe to divulge. If I were in love with someone who meant the world to me I would work this job for the rest of my life and never complain once. Heck I'd work two jobs if that is what it took to keep my friend, lover, and or spouse happy. Yes, I would give up my dreams for someone who meant the world to me.

Gladly.

It would not be a cause of resentment either. If that is what it would take that is how far I would be willing to go.

However since nothing is even close to that point yet I am still working on becoming the next great screenwriter/director/editor....your basic indie filmmaker.

Yeah!!!!

"Remember When We...."

I realized something very important last night with my Drinkbuster companions.

We are doing something very good right now and one day we WILL look back on this time and think about how good it was. Now let me clarify I'm not talking about the quality of the show itself, I'm talking about the kinship we are really starting to share with one another.

I'm talking about how fondly we will remember this time with each other no matter what changes we will endure in the coming months. This is a special time.

Filming on The Passing Drummers was cut short this weekend by an illness of one of the co-stars so we had the perfect opportunity last night to film 1x4. We got together before hand at Chianti's house to watch a football game while Weezy researched drinks online. She came up with some recipes and they were soon narrowed down to three.

We quickly headed to the Drinkbuster's Studio with our intern and Sass, our audience for the evening. By 10:00 we were ready to roll. We wrapped up one of the funniest shows so far and then headed to a local pub to hang out and talk.

Drinkbusters is fun to shoot and fun to be a part of. I'm happy that everyone involved believes the same thing and looks forward to doing it and I look forward to many many episodes that have yet to be shot!!!!

I just want to say to all of my readers that I am really honored to have this incredible cast of people around me and I'm proud to call Chianti, Weezy, and Beersnob my friends. They are wonderful people and if you ever get the chance to meet them you would think so too.

I am sincere when I say that and mean it will all my heart.

Hard Candy

This is the kind of movie I was trying for with Locker. Unfortunately I'm not as talented a writer as the writers of Hard Candy.

The story is very simple. A fourteen year old girl is propositioned by a pedophile photographer online, they meet at Nighthawks coffee shop. Yeah Nighthawks, from the very famous Hopper painting. You'll know what I'm talking about if you see the painting.

Anyway, they meet and she practically throws herself at him and they go back to his place where the movie starts. This one house location shoot was simply amazing. It is 98% dialogue and clocks in at just over 100 minutes. The pace never drags. It actually goes so fast you wonder where the time went! The drama is tense and I'd have a tough time defining this movie in any genre.

It isn't a horror movie, it isn't a thriller, it isn't drama, it isn't suspense, but at the same time it is all of those rolled up into one intense package. Hitchcock would be proud of this movie. Somehow it cost nearly 1 million dollars to budget this movie but it must have gone to film stock because there are only a handful of actors in it. I believe that the real budget is about a 100 grand. There is just no way that it could have cost 1 million bucks to shoot.

Hard Candy is a great movie. It is a film school in a DVD box for a Indie film. If I had half that story in my imagination it would launch a very solid film career!!!!

See it, you'll enjoy it but you'll wince as many times as you'll marvel at the brilliance of it.

Happy Friday!!!!

Yes my friends it is Friday and I'm about to head out to supper. I am meeting Chianti and Sass at a local Mexican food place and then might venture forth for some drinking....unless Beersnob checks in and we can shoot Drinkbusters tonight.

Otherwise it looks to be a nice evening with friends before heading into the weekend and working on Chris's movie.

Hopefully my fantasy team will make a turn around and decide they are going to score a little bit. I'm sure there is a Paris Hilthong joke in there somewhere but I'll just leave that to my readers:)

Have a good weekend everyone!!!!

From Rainy To Windy

The winds are gusting at about fifty miles per hour. There is a ton of dust in the air and my sinuses are killing me.

I picked up some alka seltzer at Walgreen's at lunch to try to dry up my sinuses. I am sure it isn't a cold now and just the junk in the air that is stopping me up. It is almost the weekend again and to tell you the truth, I need it.

Well duh....who doesn't need a weekend right? I mean even if a weekend is bad it is still pretty good right? There wasn't much going on at work today and I had practically finished everything that needed to be done by 8:30. So at lunch I also picked up a Sudoku book. That is a pretty fascinating way to pass the time.

Yeah I know I should be writing and I have been doing some of that as well. Sudoku is a puzzle in which you have to put the numbers 1-9 in nine 3x3 squares. They just can't repeat and most of the numbers are missing.

It is a good way to pass the time and give your brain a workout. Try it once. You might like it.

It Rained Last Night

It feels good this morning. It is cool, still pretty windy though but nice.

It is trash day. I have to remember to put my trash outside so it isn't setting in the hosue for another week. I think I have developed a small cold. I thought yesterday that it was probably all the dirt in the air that stopped my sinuses up but it might not have been afterall.

We'll see if it develops further.

I am about to head back to my job. Eight hours on sixteen hours off. It has worn me down my friends. There are rumors Mr. Hyde might be back as our supervisor again. Our new supervisor, the one that is probably the best we have had ever, will soon be advancing to a better job. That leaves his job open which means that there is a chance that Mr. Hyde The Boy Idiot will be back to make life miserable again.

The Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi Collections

There really is no two names that inspire instant recognition than Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
They made Universal a vast fortune with their movies and characters.

Practically everone knows the story about how Lugosi turned down Frankenstein and at the same time catapulted Karloff into the stratosphere of Hollywood. His career never flagged as Lugosi's did.

They paired up in eight films during their careers. Boris Karloff's career was for more prolific and some would argue that he was the better actor. I couldn't even begin to compare them as actors. They are both legends in every sense of the word.

Where they separated in their careers is the pivotal movie of Frankenstein. The monster connected with audiences. Even though he was "the bad guy" he was still a very sympathetic character. Someone you rooted for despite the villagers and their pesky torches.

Dracula on the other hand was not sympathetic. He was a vile character and you wanted to see him get staked in the end. These ARE the defining roles of their careers. Their bread and butter. While Lugosi wanted to expand his acting career into many different roles he was destined to do horror. He felt stifled by this and frustrated as work slowly went away.

Meanwhile Karloff never really was out of work. He dominated the horror genre for years afterwards and only started to give way to the Roger Corman/Vincent Price movies of the 60's.

So what do you do if you are craving a horror movie and you own a DVD player? You get The Boris Karloff Collection of course!!!! You get five movies that aren't Frankenstein or The Mummy.

You get movies that have been long lost from the memory of cinema. These are very enjoyable movies my friends. They not only star Boris Karloff but Charles Laughton in his psychotic, evil best, Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Jr. and Basil Rathbone to name a few.

For value you can't beat them but I can tell you that by today's standards you might find them dry. There are no explosions. No rubber monsters. No car chases. No gore. No big budgets even. These were set pieces that were probably recycled for several movies. These were shot in simpler times and actually had involving plots. The dialogue isn't on par with today's standards but you will have no problems following along....trust me. You don't have to be spoon fed a plot.

It is probably a stretch to even call them horror. It simply isn't. You get The Tower of London, The Climax, The Black Castle, The Strange Door, and Night Key. All of this for about twenty bucks.

If you can still find it you should also get The Bela Lugosi Collection. It is also a marvelous collection of five movies and they are decidedly darker and four of the five also feature Boris Karloff. You get The Invisible Ray, Black Friday, The Raven, The Black Cat (The first pairing the two legends) and Murders in the Rue Morgue.

These movies feature much darker topics such as torture, satanism, ghastly murders, and some real chills. They are aged and a product of the studio system but still very very enjoyable. Lugosi was at his best outside of his signature Dracula cape. He really showed his acting prowse and played well with Karloff.

I suggest finding both of them. You won't regret it.

Paris Hilton: America's New Punchline

While Britney Spears is enjoying a brief honeymoon with the tabloids until they can vulture some pics of her new bundle of joy, Paris Hilton is taking center stage in pop culture.

How so? Well again on sports radio at work one of the hosts said the line, "Paris Hilton couldn't score on that defense!" Now why is that funny?
Because they were referring to the worst defense in the NFL at the time.

Now that is funny, I don't care who you are!!!!

To me that signals that Paris Hilton, though she has long been in the collective public eye a new era of Paris Hilton bashing is upon us.

Just wait until Matt Leinart's ex-girlfriend's child is born and watch the cat fight unfold in the tabloids!!!!

Just wait until Surreal Life 18, when Paris Hilton's "career" has hit the skids and she is looking for some kind of publicity boost!!!!

There is only one person in America that is happy that Paris Hilton came along and that is OJ Simpson. Her infamous exploits have snagged the tabloid attention away from OJ looking for the real killer on Florida golf courses and focused them squarely on her. From her sex tape to her recent DUI arrest, Paris Hilton has secured her place in slutty tabloid history....and insured her place among punchline lore for years to come!!!!

Perhaps An Attempted Drinkbusters On Friday!!!!

If Beersnob is back in town by Friday we might be able to shoot 1x4 of Drinkbusters this Friday evening.

I believe that it can be done fairly easily but with shooting this weekend for The Passing Drummers it won't leave much time to relax.

I am anxious to get the next episode filmed and finished to keep the momentum rolling! It has been a good ride so far and Chianti, Weezy, and Beersnob are really getting into it!!!!

It has been a blast and is accomplishing what it is intended for:
1. A fun, easy project.
2. Allows me to get familiar with the software on a real project.
3. Its a blast to film!
4. I get to hang out with some very cool and funny people!!!!

0-3

Yep my friends, I went 0-3 this week in fantasy play in three leagues....

Not a good start since over the past two weeks I am now 1-4-1.
Can you say pathetic? I can.

In my money league, Tiki just isn't scoring. Your first round pick is the hoss, the one you can rely on to get you steady points every week. Well he isn't but I do feel he will. He is too talented not to come through. It might be at the middle of the season but the Giant's offense is just too talented not to put up some big points with Tiki.

The free Yahoo leagues, well in both leagues I scored big but not big enough to win the weekly matchups. I am sure I will finish in the top half of both leagues but my money league is what is concerning me right now. It is just too early to tinker too much with the lineup right now.

So for the short time being I am going to ride it out and wait for the scoring to pick up.

Fantasy Football Week 2

Well today I hope my teams perform up to their potential.

In my main league, my money league, I have Marc Bulger and Tory Holt. Well St. Louis has San Francisco on their plate today and the Bulger/Holt combo should rip that D apart.

I'm not expecting anything much out of the Oakland players so I benched Janikowski in favor of Josh Scobee.

I am putting Laurence Maroney into the lineup to pair with Tiki. I think he should at least get 100 yards today against the Jets. If not then maybe he will snag a TD.

My WRs are very strong today. I am going to gamble on Randy Moss and I know it is probably a losing battle but I'm going to leave this fantasy heartbreaker into the lineup all season baring injury. Reggie Brown is up against the Giants and that might be a tough D to score on but he is a solid WR and should get 7-9 catches today.

I'll give this a wrap up Tuesday to let you all know how it went!

Star Wars!!!!

Yes my friends it is true! The Original Original Trilogy has been released....finally.

My first impressions are good. I can tell you that it is a non-anamorphic release and that it hasn't been restored like the Special Editions were when they were released on DVD for the first time.

The OOT isn't quite a quality release as it could be however it has looked better than it ever has since VHS and Laserdisc are the only ways to enjoy the OOT but in its original widescreen format the Laserdisc is the only way until now.

I know that in many ways the Special Editions are technically superior. The effects have been cleaned up, the soundtrack has been vastly improved despite some glitches, they underwent a massive restoration, and they just look cleaner.

So what is the problem with the SE's?

George Lucas is the problem. He decided that he wasn't happy with the way he filmed it then. As a artist I can understand that. I wish I could go back and reshoot Locker again with what I know now but I'm not.

He decided that Han Solo needed to be a bit softer as a character so he had Greedo fire on Han, Han amazingly dodges a blaster at point blank range before shooting back and killing the bounty hunter. That is the prime example that had so many fans up in arms over the SE's. There are numerous tiny things that have been tinkered with and if you watch each version back to back you can make a sizeable list. If you want an exact comparison a short search will give you the details in spades.

So how does the OOT compare today? To me it is hands down better. It is the ideal that the movies I saw as a kid and I did see all of them, are available to me to watch and enjoy again. It is the same thing with most people I guess. When it was then it was better than it is now. I don't always hold to that but in this case I am an ardent defender.

To see Return of the Jedi I mowed lawns and earned enough money to see it three times. That was in 1983 and I was just a teen at the time. I knew that I wanted to find out how the story ended and I was happy with it. Yeah the Ewoks defeating the massive Empire was a bit farfetched and still a bit disheartening but the rest of the story is still a fitting ending.

What is really disheartening is that Lucasfilms didn't spend the bucks on what could have been a perfect release. They should have given the OOT the restoration it deserves. However since they didn't I will have to be satisfied with the current state of the movies which is still pretty good my friends.

I have no problems telling people that if you want the movies as you saw them in the theaters without all of the Lucasing, then get the new releases.

Drinkbusters 1x3 IS UP!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IRD_Tunk9E

Watch and enjoy!!!!

Kidney Stones Suck

That is my statement of the day.

I passed my....I don't even know what number that was but it had to be between the ninth and eleventh since I was eighteen....today.

They are actually pretty painful. They make you feel all kinds of bad but you really can't put your finger on it but you just know something is wrong. Then all of a sudden you get this big ole' shock of pain as it actually leaves your body.

Yeah, they are a big box of suck.

On the plus side for the day there is a film meeting at Chris's place in which we are going to wrap up the discussion on last weekend's shooting and to see what we can do to improve it for this weekend.

My monitor which quit just over a month ago is scheduled to arrive any minute on UPS!!!! That is great!!!! Once you get used to dual monitors it is very difficult to just use one, I've really been missing it.

Drinkbusters 1x3 is just over 90% finished. With the filters I applied to this one and the deinterlacing and deartifacting process I am using this time, the rendering has taken just about twenty four hours.

It should look much better though! I'm excited to get it posted tonight and will probably be able to before bed time!

It has given me a chance to watch the OOT though.

What? OOT?

The Original Original Trilogy. The UnLucased version of the movies that were as shown in the theaters. I'll post a more indepth review soon on these:)

Stay tuned!

Drinkbusters Update!!!!

I am trying a bit of a different approach for 1x3. I have rendered the footage first and then will edit it from there. What that will allow me to do is make the title cards a bit better and some small improvements that probably won't show up online but I will notice.

I started the render process at 6:30 last night and it didn't finish until early this morning before I went to work.

I do believe that this will lead to a better looking show!
I'm excited to see how it looks when it is finished!!!!

An Improbable Start

After week 1 I am now 1-1-1.

I lost my opener in my serious league, tied in a fun league, and am sitting at the top of the league in another fun league....

The Marc Bulger/Tory Holt combo struck out for me and to add to that the Raiders struck out for me so that means that my QB, two WRs, and my Kicker got 0 points and that really doomed the Predators for the week, assuring me that I'm tops on the waiver wire.

In a fun league I tied Beersnob in our heads up game. I was trailing going into last night so my team eeked out enough points to grab a tie.

The E-Town league is the one in which I dominated, and two of my WRs were inactive to boot! That team is scary good.

I can't wait for the following Sunday to see how the teams do this time around!

Busy But Good Weekend!!!!

With the main project being worked on this weekend and Drinkbusters 1x3 being filmed Saturday night this has been a massively busy weekend!!!!

Despite a couple of small drawbacks this was a very good weekend and I'm glad it was!!!! I needed a weekend like this for a long time. I am going to feel rejuvenated for at least a couple of weeks now and I feel like my energy is slowly returning. I will be ready for the next few months of difficult shooting!!!!

Drinkbusters went pretty well, we tested three strong drinks and amazingly two of them were highly rated with one scoring very low. I had anticpated that the lowest rated one would have been the best drink but it didn't turn out that way.

My fantasy players should finish up tonight in the money league so tomorrow I'll know how I fared. In the free Yahoo! leagues I am 1-1 but I have my kicker going tonight in one league so if he does good then I'll be 2-0.

Tomorrow Is The Big Day!!!!

Shooting starts on The Passing Drummers and then if there is time we will shoot Drinkbusters 1x3!!!!

Yep, it is going to be very very busy!!!!

I should be in bed asleep right now but NO, I'm up and nearly too excited to sleep or even nap. That is strange because at work I was ready for a long nap....go figure.

Tomorrow there will be an update on how the day went:)

Today Was A Great Day!!!!

First of all the main thing.
THE NFL STARTS TONIGHT!!!!
Anyone who knows me knows that one of the few pleasures I get out of life is the NFL and fantasy football:)

Pittsburgh and Miami square off tonight to kick off the '06 season! Yeah Big Ben is recovering from surgery but he will be back in full form in a couple of weeks. Culpepper though will be showcased and the whole world will see if he really has recovered from the devastating knee injury he suffered last season. Should be a great game with Miami overcoming Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh. I could be wrong but I think Miami is just better this year.

The second great thing is this! As anyone who reads my blog knows I was very hurt after Winners closed its doors. Winners was a sports bar where my co-workers and myself came after work to unwind and have a few drinks.

Well today we discovered the Trey of Hearts!!!! It is on my way home so it is convenient, the owners, Andrew and Gerry are extremely nice and welcomed me and a couple of my friends with handshakes and greetings. If there wasn't a bar between us they probably would have hugged us! I do believe that now when I am on my way home I will frequent the Trey of Hearts as my new relax after work place!!!! It had a very nice atmosphere and a full liquor bar:) Although someone like Beersnob probably wouldn't like the limited selection of beer I don't drink beer and found myself quite at home with their wide array of liquor:) Yeah I do only drink tequila sunrises but you never know, Drinkbusters is tempting me to expand my horizons and experiment like I did when I was 21 again:)

The third great thing that happened today was that PARIS HILTON WAS ARRESTED FOR A DUI!!!! Oh man!!! I was so happy to hear about this small bit of misfortune!!!! Normally I do not revel in the misfortunes of others at all. I don't believe that it is a good thing to be gleefully cheering what happens to another human being like that but Paris Hilton has been a thorn in America's side for too long. It is time for her to experience a bit of reality in her life and maybe get a grip. She is someone who would greatly benefit from being kicked around by life a little bit. She has the resources to be such an amazing force for good and help so many people, maybe now she will be on the right path.

The last but not the least good thing that happened today was that my candle order from Courtney's Candles arrived!!!! Courtney's Candles makes the absolute best candles in the world!!!! They are very reasonable in price and every single candle smells great and is very potent! Just one of them will fill the lower part of my house with the most amazing of scents!!!!
Now I am burning the Dreamsicle candle which smells like oranges and cream:) It is so wonderful!!!!

Well I hope that your day was twice as good as mine was and as you can tell mine was pretty darn good!!!!

Veronica Mars Wrap Up

Season 2 of Veronica Mars was amazing! Without giving any kind of spoilers for the twisting plot I can say that it was almost like Season 1 part 2.

That stands to reason right? Well what I can say is that when you thought that season 1 wrapped up everything it really didn't but you don't realize it until the season is winding down. Then all of a sudden you get this light bulb feeling that you missed what was actually going on followed by a head smack.

I love shows like that! Babylon 5 was very much like that, well thought out and planned!

The X-Files seemed to have started like that and then became so convoluted that it was clear there was little planning behind the story. They had to wrap up the series as best as they could in the final episode with a episode that was pretty much nothing but exposition. It was a sad ending to a show that was great...at times.

Veronica Mars probably won't have the lifespan of the X-Files and that is a real shame. I'd be happy if it had the lifespan of Babylon 5 or Angel. Five seasons is plenty to tell a well thought out story.

Not to mention that this past season had Charisma Carpenter in it and WOW she is surface of the Sun hot....and yeah I do have that issue of Playboy.

Brick

What a great indie treat this movie is!

An inspired film noir set in modern times. The lead channels Bogie from The Big Sleep while the writer/director obviously did the same. The dialogue is straight from the 40's, the rest is indie magic.

It might take a few minutes for the style of words to sink in but once they do you are set to enjoy this great movie about a man who solves his ex-girlfriend's murder....in high school. Joseph Gordon Levitt (fresh from Mysterious Skin) plays Brendan, actually he seems less like he is playing Brendan and more like him, what a tremendous job of acting.

The movie is throughly enjoyable in every sense. It is smart, not much humor, intense, and engrossing. You will feel sucked into this small time world of drugs and thugs as Brendan struggles to put all the pieces to the puzzle together with the help of his friend Brain, his only real peer.

This high school Holmes is a serious Veronica Mars sans one liners. He is tough but takes a few beatings along the way ala Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe in his quest for the truth. If I could only write this well. I have the camera and editing skills to make this movie.

Rest In Peace Steve Irwin

This is a sad day and fittingly it is raining now.

Stever Irwin was killed in an accident with a stingray after his chest was pierced yesterday. He seemed larger than life, like he was the exact same person behind the camera as he was in front of the camera.

Happy, energetic, and curious. He really loved his work and it showed.

I really enjoyed watching him and I would have loved to have met him.

Goodbye Steve.

Who Wants To Be A Superhero

Well the show wrapped up and soon Feedback will have a comic title and a Scifi original movie made with him....both shortlived I'm sure.

I would be amazed if there was actually a movie made but that was part of the prize package so we'll see.

It was a fun show and pretty enjoyable. It is worth watching but I really doubt that there will be a season two. The finale of the show had about one hundred people at Universal Studios watching Stan Lee eliminate Fat Momma and immortalize Feedback.

If you get a chance to see the show and since it is on the Scifi Channel which basically will ride a show to death and beyond, you will get plenty of chances. Watch it. It isn't bad at all:)

Drinkbusters 1x2 Is More Successful!!!!

In less than one day 1x2 has had more views than the first one has had in five!!!!

The third one will hopefully be twice as successful when it is finished! There is no shooting date as of yet but schedules are being synchronized! Everyone is excited about 1x3 and that encourages me!

Alright, yesterday went very well and smoothly. The biggest preproduction day so far and it was fun! We shot some footage, got the actors used to the cameras, and kept them long enough to gel together a little bit. Once the gellage is full on jello we are going to have a great production!

Going to be a great Fall and Winter!!!!

About An Hour From Now

We will begin the biggest day on The Passing Drummers preproduction.

This is a day in which hopefully the cast will bond and come together. When us behind the cameras will be in the actor's faces to get them used to us. It should be pretty busy.

It is nice out, it is slightly raining with some full on rain in the forecast right now. Good thing I mowed last week.

Well Drinkbusters 1x2 has been a bigger success than 1x1. It hasn't even been up 24 hours yet and has had way more views than the first one at the same time.

Small success though it may be it is still a success!

Hopefully next weekend 1x3 will be on tap and The Drinkbusters will be well on their way!!!!
They have done such a great job! Some people don't realize how hard improv really is but all three of them have met the challenge and I can't be prouder of them!!!!

Drinkbusters 1x2 is LIVE!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr8tAFkdnb8

Here you go friends!
This is the second in what I hope is a long line of episodes!!!!

I hope you enjoy this one as much as we enjoyed making it!!!!