Bacon, Sex, And The Internet

Recently I was talking to a friend about the best things in life.

I know what you are thinking!
The open steppe, fleet horse, falcon at your wrist, and the wind in your hair!
You'd be WRONG!!!!

So then you might think that it would be to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!
You'd be WRONG AGAIN but thanks for playing!

This side of life how could you get anything better than bacon, sex and the internet?!?!?!
I mean three great things that go great together! What tastes better than bacon? Chocolate you might say! And you would be close but still this is bacon we are talking about. One of the greatest food products ever invented!

I would put chocolate at a close second though. Maybe the Whopper at third, tied with pizza. What food is not made better by bacon being on it?!?!?! Salad is even better with bacon bits!!!! SALAD!!!!

Sex, well that is pretty self explanatory. I mean even bad sex is still pretty good! Its fun, can be a workout, morning, noon, evening! Its all good!

The internet! You can't overstate how important the internet has become to our culture today. It will be the catalyst for evolving our culture, whether for the best or not is still to be determined but it will evolve. This is the absolute best invention since the vagina!

You can find out nearly anything, be endlessly entertained, purchase anything you wish, research anything you wish, create at will. And those are just the common uses! If you start to factor in such great uses like online gaming, streaming video, and other wonderful uses then the entertainment factor multiplies exponentially!

A Good Run

Even though last night was flat. The audience was flat and the cast was a little off compared to the previous three shows.

I'll be looking forward to the next time I get to work with this group of people! They were really a lot of fun! Misery will be different though as I'll have more responsibility and have to put in a lot more work.

I'm relieved as I have a short break now before being at every rehearsal when they start back up.
My back feels great! I've got to get my laundry started, have to go to my dad's bday party at noon, I have to strike the set at the dinner theater, and find some time to just chill out for a while and get ready for the week.

Final Night

This is the final show! The audience is kind of flat this evening.

Three Out Of Four Down

One show left tonight in dinner theater and last night was an adventure!
The caterers ran out of food before two full tables got served! The director swung into action while the caterers ran for more food and handed out bottles of wine to each unserved table.

The show was about ten minutes late in starting but once it started the crowd got into it and it went very smoothly!

One show left to go tonight and dinner theater will wrap up! It'll be on to the next show.

I'm really loving my new monitors! I really did hope that they would be this great and they are! They far surpass all expectations so far and I'm thrilled!!!!

Friday!!!!

Tonight is the start of the last weekend of dinner theater. I really enjoyed my last two evenings off! They were really nice! I'll have a brief few evenings until the Misery production starts up full time. and then I'll be at the theatre full time again. Longer this time though.

I'm really looking forward to the next show! It'll be a lot of fun!

My monitors arrived and I had them all hooked up in quick fashion! Its always fun to have something shiny and new!

Back felt great last night, little sore this morning. I don't have another treatment until Monday after work. Right now I have theragesic cream on it and it is working on the soreness:)

First Evening Off

In over a week was very good! Sass and I went to supper and then I came home and relaxed. I had been doing something theatre related every evening for nearly two weeks now. I had last night and tonight off and go back and do dinner theater tonight and tomorrow night.

I just checked the UPS tracking site and my two brand new monitors are in town!!!! Woohoooo!!!!
I've very excited about that!!!!

I'm very tempted to call in to work today and get the day off. For one my back is killing me this morning but I'm going to a chiropractor friend of mine about that and it felt great after he worked on it last night. The second reason is that it is freezing out and I don't want two LCD monitors to be sitting outside in this weather. I'm not sure if it could damage them or not but why take a chance?

Auditions Part 2

They went pretty well last night as we had two more people show up for a total of four. They were both very good as well and made the Director's decision very hard. In fact she was completely torn on the two male leads.

Even right now I don't know who she is going to cast in fact. She said she would text me when she knows this morning. It was nice being able to see two different actors come in and give it their all too and then mix them up and see how they perform with each other.

I know she has a very difficult decision to make as we talked about both actors for nearly two hours after the auditions and when we left there still wasn't a decision made!!!!

It will be exciting to know who she put in there but I am sure that both male leads could do a fine job as I'm friends with both of them and know what both can do in this production!!!!

Audition Results

For the first evening weren't good. I mean the two people who showed up were very good but we had really hoped for more people than two.

It is a very challenging play and since there are only two people in it there isn't a big cast to rely on, Paul never leaves the stage. That is a big challenge for an actor to pull off. We'll see how many people show up for tonight's audition but if no one else does we will have a wonderful cast! It is just nice to see other people's take on the roles while you are casting.

It'll be a great show though! It will have some very intense scenes in it and very little humor. The audience won't really be prepared for what we do with this show!

Holiday!

Yeppers this is one of the great benefits of my job! I get all of the federal holidays off:)
I'm hungry. I didn't get any groceries this weekend so I'll have to find something.
It rained all weekend and today it is supposed to warm up.

As I blogged yesterday I have auditions tonight and tomorrow night. That'll be fun! This is one of the funnest parts of the process!!

I think I'm going to go to La Salsa and get some lunch, they have a wonderful chicken and mushroom dish!!!! I don't know if I can hold out until they open though......

Trainwreck TV Is Back

With Rock of Love 2.
Bret Michael's seasonly quest to bed lots of chicks in one house while choosing his true love started a few weeks ago and is just as amusing as it was last season. I mean the clear cut way to find your true love is through a reality show right?

Lots of girls with the IQ of celery compete in contests each week, fight all the time, and are obviously in it for true love....right?!?!?!

This show is all about how much bad judgment can you possibly exercise in a limited amount of time.

Flavor of Love just started last week I believe and of course that is the pioneering show about bad judgment. The show that unleashed the ever crazy New York upon the American trash TV watching public has gone into its third season and poor Flavor Flav has yet to find true love and is a big time ratings draw.

It is doubtful that he will find love this season either. Why would he since he gets to pick which girls he wants to spend time with, doesn't have to commit to them, and they fight over him in the process?!?!?!

He can be as crazy as he wants to be and gets to go onto all of these cool dates take the women to bed....well where is the downside?!?!?!

Oh yeah, you have to be Flavor Flav.....

Big Sunday

Today is the Daytona 500 which is a great event! This race is a lot of fun to watch!
Will Junior start a steady stream of wins now that he is backed by a premiere team? Will the F1 drivers adapt who have switched over this year? Can Jimmy Johnson repeat? So many questions to get answered this year and it'll be fun to watch them!

I ordered two new Samsung twenty one inch widescreen monitors to replace my two Viewsonic nineteen inch monitors that I've had problems with. As soon as they arrive this week I'll have replace my single monitor. I sent the defective one back and its replacement should be back in about two weeks.

I'm also off this week until Friday from dinner theater which is the next performance. There is a pick up rehearsal on Thursday but they don't need lights or anything like that. I do have auditions on Monday and Tuesday though for Misery which as I blogged before am the new assistant director. It'll be a lot of fun!

It Was Great!

Opening night went very smoothly!
The audience was great and everything got laughed at! I mean EVERYTHING!!!!

Things I had no idea were funny were hilarious to that crowd! Most of them were a little (or a lot) buzzed, and at one point a guy stood up moved to center stage and claimed he was stuck in the middle during the first act with actors acting on stage.

It was hilarious but it annoyed the rest of the crowd and rightfully so. Tonight's show is the half way point and there will only be two shows left next weekend.

Opening Night

Everything is going smoothly so far!

Sigh

Stupid monitor!!!!
You long time readers know that I have two monitors. Well I get up this morning and one of the monitors has gone bad AGAIN!

I've sent one or the other back to Viewsonic at least four times now when they stop working.
Now I get nothing but a white screen that will do absolutely nothing. GGRRRRR!!!!!!!!

I'm going to have to call them and get it replaced AGAIN now. Likely they will send me another refurbished monitor.

I'm irritated!

King Of Kong

I wanted to watch this incredible documentary one more time before blogging it but alas my nights have been spent running the lights at dinner theater as you all know!

King of Kong is a documentary about two men who are in a struggle to achieve the highest score possible in Donkey Kong. One mad did it in 1982 if I remember correctly and the other just recently. One guy comes off as a complete jerk and the other more of a Rocky character. The guy you root for and want to win.

It also shows how people can obsess over something like Donkey Kong. These guys are just out and out crazy!

This should have been nominated for an Oscar in the doc category though. It is that good!

Fistful of Quarters: The King of Kong. Watch it when you can!

Man Hall Of Fame Part 15

Today's inductee into the Man Hall of Fame is actually a movie. This is one of the great overlooked Man movies of all time. It has kung fu fighting, a big monster, an evil genius, two beautiful women, and a truck driving hero!

Big Trouble in Little China is a man's movie! It doesn't take itself seriously and is overly entertaining! The story....who cares about the story! It has Kim Cattrell in her prime here! Her best role since the small role in Police Academy. She mostly labored on the TV screen and after Big Trouble she went to be hot in other roles too such as her immediate follow up, Mannequin.

Anyway Big Trouble is nothing but a great manly movie! It is adventurous and fun! Kurt Russell is simply Jack Burton. It wouldn't surprise me if you met Kurt Russel in real life that he gives you a Burtonism or two.

It is likely if you are watching Big Trouble and your significant other walks into the room she would probably nag at you to turn it to Lifetime Network or Oxygen or some silly thing like that.
That alone earns this movie a place in history!

Dinner Theater

Hello friends and fans! What you are looking at is the antique light
board and my view from the booth! Tonight is the second full night
with costumes and effects!

First Rehearsal

With props and full costume changes was last night. I figured out the lighting board at the theater and am now able to have the full blackouts and full lights as the script dictates! Woohoooo!

I was worried about it but once I had a small amount of explanation from someone who knows it decently well it made sense and I figured out the rest on my own!

Last night I also took Pam to the rehearsal. Her husband died last Fall and I've been trying to get her out of the house since she is set on acting like she is ninety all of a sudden. Usually when we would go out as a group after work to get a drink she and her husband would be with us. Now all she wants to do is get back to the house and start drinking.

So I got her to the show and put her backstage helping out with the props. It was chaos and she did have a fun time but I don't think I'm going to be able to get her back there again. I'm going to try though!

Man Hall Of Fame Part 14

Today's legendary inductee into my Man's Hall Of Fame is a living legend. He has had a career that has spanned decades and has produced many many songs that have entered into our national lexicon!

He survived a near fatal accident in the early 70's to go on and become a legend in his own right after his legendary father died years before. Hank Bocephus Williams Jr. is today's inductee. My first introduction to Hank was at my cousin's house in the very early 80's and that album was The Pressure Is On featuring the classic, A Country Boy Can Survive! Incredible song! Love it!

Hank is the very definition of country entertainer, representing country before the new wave of singers represented by Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Travis Tritt, among others. He was old school with Merle Haggard, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash.

Hank Williams Jr. is on my iphone, twenty cds worth! Did I mention I love this thing? I've probably got over a thousand songs on there now and have two full gigs free!

One Thousand

This post right here represents my one thousandth post. You, my loyal readers have gone through the banal ramblings of yours truly and stuck it out anyway. Through the ups and downs you have been there.

I try to post at least once per day and now that I can blog on the run it is likely that can go up on occasion. You may have noticed that the iphone doesn't format the same way my home pc does but it is readable and my point will get across.

Posting from Dinner Theatre while it is going on is on the agenda right now. I think that would be fun! The view from the booth is pretty cool! I'd like to show it! Some of you have the documentary I did and it shows the view pretty well but others haven't seen it yet.

The gist is that I don't plan on stopping my blog anytime soon. I think there are some good posts in there as well as some that just plain suck. Those are usually because I don't have much to say or am pressed for time in the morning.

Sometimes I am tapped for ideas but something always breaks free and I find something to blog about, sometimes it is just better than other times.

For you long time readers you have earned a drink or dinner on me next time we meet. Just hit me up about it and remind me!

Filming Success!!!!

I created a short home movie looking film that is simply horrible to watch!
It is completely out of focus, you can't see anything that is going on (which reminds me of Cloverfield) but that is simply the way the production is written.

Nothing goes right. Cues are blown, lights malfunction, lines are forgotten. Nothing works right and that is what makes it work. This home movie is just the tip off to that.

It is all edited, blurred out, choppy, and bad.

It is perfect!

Filming Today

The great thing is that now I have a really good handle on the production any mistakes will work in the advantage of the entire show.

I did the sound effects last night at rehearsal and the cd player was old and didn't work well so there were times when the sound cues were very blown and it was still funny. The actors are adaptable in this show and can really improv if they have to.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

I also have some errands to run today and tomorrow we are moving the set over to where dinner theatre takes place. So it should be an interesting weekend!

Bob

This is Bob. Not his real name and I forget the whole story about how
he got the nickname but this is him. He is also called the Professor.

He knows everything and if two people are talking and one of them asks
a question he will jump right on in there and answer it for you.

No matter what you know he knew it faster than you did. He also loves
to talk about the penis quite a bit. He works in another shop but is
still in my job classification. There isn't a day that goes by that
the guys from the other shop don't call and tell us the daily penis
story. It isn't so much that he likes to talk about the male member it
is the fact that he gets excited about it.

He has often talked about a guy here and there being handsome or good
looking, yet he is married.

What is also funny is that I don't really care for him but I like him
more than his immediate coworkers like him. They can't stand him.

They let Bob dictate when they take off. For example if they know he is
going to be off then they will make sure they are all here. There are
five in that shop all together and you can imagine how funny it gets
when they all start complaining about him.

Nothing is ever his fault either. When he screws up, and it is very
often, he never mans up to it and takes the blame. For example I cut
some decals and got them all ready to put on, Bob puts them on upside
down and then tells the other guys it was my fault somehow!!!! Two of
them told me this!!!! So from then on I mark what side is up and down!
I know it irritates him.

Rehearsal

Went really well last night for the dinner theatre production. It is a very short show. Well under two hours.

By contrast the last two shows I've had something to do with were about two hours and ten minutes. Wendy and I are going to film this Saturday afternoon. It will be fun!

Well the length of the rehearsal allowed Wendy and I to walk over to the pub and hang out for about an hour. I came rolling in just after ten. I feel pretty good today:) I nursed one drink, the first drink I've had since the one while watching the Super Bowl at Beersnob's house.

I believe we have to move the set on Sunday afternoon to where the dinner theatre takes place. It is at the top of this building, like four stories up! Fortunately the set only consists of a few chairs and some props. There are lots of costumes though.

Hilarious Doctor Note

So there I was, sitting in the office when my supervisor comes in to
chat a bit. It is a slow day.

A guy who has been off for a couple of months came back to work today.
He is at least four hundred pounds and has all kinds of health
problems. He can't walk fifty feet without getting winded!!!!

So the supervisor has to sign the note to allow him to come back. He
said that the doctor's note said he was authorized for unlimited
sitting!!!!

That is my workplace!!!!

No Football

Yeah, I'm kind of into football withdrawal right now. The ProBowl is on this weekend but who cares?
I mean really does anyone actually watch it? I have been promoted to Assistant Director of the next production at the theatre. (Yes it is spelled right) The current AD (that is theatre lingo) is going off to acting school next week. That is great! It is a very prestigious school and hard to get into!

Last night I also got moved from behind the stage help at dinner theatre to up into the booth where I'll be operating the lights. I happily agreed and also had the chance to time the segment I am going to film this coming Saturday morning with Wendy.

It'll be great fun! I am looking for an old typewriter now for the next production, Misery. I told a friend yesterday that I was now the Assistant Director of Misery yesterday and she laughed all day.....she likes shiny things too....keeps her fascinated for hours:)

So I'll have plenty to keep my occupied until the conference tournaments and March Madness rolls around!!!! Woohoooo!

First Iphone Drop!!!

Normally this isn't blogging material but I dropped it from about
chest high and no damage what so ever!!!!

The iPhone is very tough and durable!!!!

Not even a scratch!

Casablanca And Filmmaking!!!!

Last night while listening to Super Tuesday returns I was chatting with a friend and she was watching Casablanca (one of my all time favorites) so I asked her to stop the movie and I put my copy into my PC DVD player and we watched it together!

It was synced decently close, within a couple of minutes of each other. That was a fun experience! She had never seen Casablanca before so it was a great experience for me since I've probably seen it thirty times.

Casablanca is one of those perfect movies. There isn't one frame that doesn't work. The story is great all the way through. It is what Hollywood has forgotten how to do. Tell a good story and fundamental film techniques. Everything is all CGI'd up today. While that is good in many ways since it allows for movies to be done that were never able to have been done before, they tend to forget to put a good story with the effects.

Casablanca isn't like that. It is all story and characters. What few effects there are like shadows on the wall are pretty simple now and yet still effective today.

If you haven't seen Casablanca, see it. See it two or three times, you'll get something out of it every time!

Thunderstorm!!!!

We had a thunderstorm last night, in February! It is pretty warm out this morning, well above freezing anyway. Yesterday it was in the low 70's!

That rocks! It felt great out!

Not a lot happened yesterday at work. It was pretty slow. Today might be a little bit busier but I doubt it. If I took a week off I know I'd be super busy when I got back. Just the way it goes.

I've got a shoot planned this coming Saturday morning for the dinner theater production. Wendy and I will be doing a out of focus touristy shoot and try to make our town look like a tropical paradise.....yeah.....

It won't matter much, the director said it has to look bad because that causes a fight among the characters. Now that football season is over with March Madness is on its way! Time to get caught up on all of the college basketball teams and how they are doing.

18-1

Yeah, the Patriots lost in the Super Bowl, ruining a perfect season.

The Giants D dominated the Pats Offense keeping Brady out of sync all night. Somehow Eli was voted the MVP when it should have been someone on the D line. Anyone on the D line was way more deserving.

The Patriots still had a masterpiece of a season though. They were the first team to go 18-0 in the modern era. The highest scoring team in NFL history and setting multiple team records while doing so.

I am disappointed but this goes to show how difficult it is to go 19-0 in the modern era where things are weighted to promote parity. Give the Giants full credit though. They went on the road for three straight games and won. They controlled the most prolific offense in history. They won the game.

First Iphone Post

This is my first mobile blogging post and a test to see how mobile
blogging works. If this is succesful then you can expect lots of posts
from where ever I may be!!!!

Today You Get To Witness History!

This could very well be the last time you see an undefeated team in NFL history.
19-0 my friends. I've blogged about this quite a few times and now the day is finally here! Personally I think this game won't be close.

I think that now the Patriots have beaten the Giants on their own field in cold conditions which nullified the Pat's speed. Now that they have had two full weeks to prepare for a game on a neutral field which will play to the Pat's strengths and will be able to use their speed which is very hard to defend. This will likely be a blow out.

Most of the Giants haven't been to a Super Bowl before while most of the Patriots have been and it is old hat to them. They aren't really being bothered by all of the hype and are in their element. I really think this will be a long and frustrating day for the Giants.

They just don't know what they are in for. Tom Brady will be holding the trophy at the end of the game and you will have witnessed the perfect season!

I Picked Up Sass

Around 8:30 and we headed out of town, naturally without telling her where we were going. She figured it out about a third of the way there though. We got there and went into the newly reopened and vastly expanded casino for a fun night of frivolity.

Sass really doesn't like to gamble as much as I do so she played the slots a little bit and then headed to the bar. They serve massive beers there in these really cool glasses that have to be over a quart big for only three dollars! She was set for the evening!

We had a great time and I came rolling back home to bed close to three o'clock.

Don't know about a Super Bowl party yet, I am starting to think no one planned one! I have talked to several people about it and no one knows yet! Well we'll see how it turns out!

Drinks With Sass Tonight

But what she is unaware of is that I'm going to take her to another Indian casino and we are going gambling for a couple of hours! Yes she thinks we are only going to the pub to hang out! Woohoooo!!!!

STILL don't know where the big Super Bowl party is, I am starting to think no one planned one this year! That would be horrible!

I am still enjoying the newness of the iphone and probably will for a couple of weeks as I get more acquainted with it and its features. I've gone all over the net searching for tips and tricks for it. I haven't even loaded up any games on it yet as I am still learning about everything!

As long as the signal is strong it rocks but it has the same weaknesses as any other cell phone which is why I have kept my landline. Overall it isn't costing me as much per month since I had all of the landline features taken off.

First Day Iphone Impressions

It was more useful than I had imagined!

I did learn that the building I work in kills cell signal. If I get close to a window or door leading to outside then I get a lot of signal but where I work gets almost none. I don't get access to the wifi network at work so I am dependent upon the cell signal to surf and do a lot of the fun internet stuff that the iphone can do. I set up my home email account which was fairly easy. I am learning to text which is fun. When I had full signal the web was probably two and a half times faster than dial up. I can see room for improvement there.

If I have access to a wifi network though then it is a speedy little device!

I had supper with Catina, Wendy, and Jonathon last night to talk about Misery. The next stage production I am either going to stage manage or even be the assistant director. The current AD has been accepted into an acting school and could possibly be moving very soon, before rehearsals even.

It is supposed to snow two to four inches today. We'll see, it is snowing now and looks like it will be here a while but it is very fine snow and doing a lot of blowing as there is a steady wind.

I Joined The Iphone Revolution

Yes after many many years I purchased a cell phone tonight. Not only a cell phone but an iphone!
I have to tell you that this is one amazing device. It is absolutely stunning to behold and use.

I can see room for improvements but so far it really isn't with the phone so much as it is the network.

The bars are fluctuating. I can see some fluctuation but it is going from five bars to none and I'm in the same place! Since I've never had a cell before I don't know if this is normal or not but it is odd.

I can use my wifi network to surf here at the house. At work I am hoping the cell network is just as effective there as my wifi network is here.

I am looking forward to trying it today! The feeling that I was the lone rebel holdout in the cell phone revolution is slowing coming to an end. Yesterday while I was mulling this decision everyone I came across had a cell in their pocket, on their belt, or in their hand.

There is a certain amount of freedom associated to being without a cell phone but over the years I have needed one at times. Especially lately when I meet people and they need to get in touch with me and can't because I'm out of the house.

I've just loaded up my Hank Williams Jr. MP3 collection onto my iphone so now I have my ipod and iphone but will not be getting any other Apple products as I am very happy with a PC with Vista.

I'm One Mortgage Statement

Away from being able to file my taxes. Based on last year's numbers so far I'll get a refund and have to pay state less than one hundred dollars.

I adjusted my withholding a few months back so I get more per paycheck and take the chance of paying more in. That's fine though since every check I'm putting it into my Paypal money market account and it is drawing interest.

Love having only one bill! It rocks! I mean I still have utilities but you understand what I mean.

I watched Live Free or Die Hard last night! Excellent movie. I just watched the sixth season of 24 this past weekend and when they are going through every single avenue to catch the bad guys, Die Hard seemed to hurry things along very quickly.

It would be like watching Lord of the Rings: Extended Editions in a row (which I've done) and then watching Eragon. You get big epic adventure and then something that seems like it is a TV movie.

That would be an accurate comparison. Jack Bauer doesn't know who to threaten at first so you go through a couple of episodes but John McClain is able to find the bad guy pretty quickly.

I know I know, that movie has been out for a while and why am I just now watching it? Well that was part of my HD strategy when I put off buying any DVDs for a while in order to save for a HDTV set up.

I'm going to jump in now when Blu-Ray has a bigger catalog. I have time here so I'm not in a hurry right now.

More

YouTube - MORE, by Mark Osborne

This is an incredible short film that I saw nearly five years ago. It is inspirational to me as much as it is a cautionary tale. A lot of times I really feel like I'm swimming through the colorless world our protagonist finds himself in, I'm sure many of you do as well.

It is hard not to from time to time.

Back To Work

The Powerball group didn't call me yesterday so I'm going to assume we did not win Saturday evening.

I watched Away From Her Saturday. It is Sarah Polley's directorial debut. Julie Christie stars in this movie about a woman who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's and what she and her husband of forty four years do about it. It is a good movie. It makes me wonder what I would do were I in the same situation.

I don't know. It would be a heartbreaking situation to be in. Really tough. I don't know.

I'd say watch it if you are in the mood for a sad movie or a love story. It is both....but then again when isn't a love story eventually a sad story?

Man Hall Of Fame Part 13

Today I am going to induct a group of people who are rarely recognized by anyone. They do the work no one wants to do and yet we couldn't get through our week without them. Garbage Collectors perform an amazing service year round!

They work in the blistering cold and in the sweltering heat. They often go unthanked or even unrecognized day in and day out.

These are one group of people that society can't afford to let strike. Transportation people? Fine. you can get to work in one way or another it might just be a pain! If you let garbage collectors strike then you'll have rodents all over the place, an increase in the risk of diseases spreading, and a foul smelling city.

Garbage Collectors, you belong in my Man Hall Of Fame! Welcome!

I'm So Ashamed

I spent Friday evening watching The Transformers movie.....I can't tell you how ashamed I am to admit this.

Not only is this movie everything I loathe in movies it is bad. I can't even begin to describe how upset I am with myself.

I'm going to have to watch Citizen Kane like twenty times to detoxify myself. It is just so improbable. You have giant robots from.....never mind. You all know the premise. This is just one of those side effects of Netflix.

You get a little drunk, throw a lot of movies into your queue and forget what you did. You've all been there right? What can I say, I have no defense.

No Plans

Nope, no plans this weekend. Well nothing major at this point anyway.

There will be a Super Bowl party next weekend but not sure where as of yet. Suburban was in the shop yesterday so I stayed home. The thermostat got stuck for the second time in about a week. It hit nearly 240 before I got just a few blocks away and that ain't good.

So instead of going to work and cooking the engine I came back and took it to a shop. That afternoon they called me and voila! I have my truck back in perfect working order!

I watched a couple of discs of 24 season 6 yesterday in my free time. Good thing I actually had food at home this time!

I Forgot My Ipod Yesterday

And the day dragged by.

I guess mobile entertainment is more important than I thought. It really helps me get through the day for sure. I had some work to do where I specifically use my ipod with ear muffs over the ear buds. It not only blocks out the annoying noise the machine makes but keeps me from going out of my head in boredom.

Things are picking up at work the past couple of days. Getting busier than we were a few weeks ago. That happens as more money is turned loose this time of year. It slows down dramatically at the end of the year and picks up again from about February to November then slows again.

I have a short film to shoot for the local theater. It is basically in my hands so I've got their script, a shot list, and complete creative freedom. The only thing is that it has to be a bad vacation looking film that has every frame out of focus and poorly shot. That is integral to the story of the play apparently. I need to read the script to get more of the context.

Tragic Or Not?

After the news of the death of Heath Ledger I got into a discussion about whether this was a tragedy or not with one of my most avant-garde friends. He declared it was a tragedy in an email to me while I replied that Greensboro Kansas being wiped off of the map was a tragedy.
Katrina was a tragedy. The OKC bombing was a tragedy.

An actor dying because of unknown circumstances which could be self inflicted is sad but hardly a tragedy. He lived a good life, yeah he had problems but who doesn't?

It doesn't fit my, I guess narrow, idea of what a tragedy is. It isn't the traditional Shakespearian ideal of a tragedy such as the ones he wrote about, it is more along the lines of things you can't control such as a hurricane or tornado. No there are even tragedies that are avoidable such as the spread of AIDS in Africa for example. The children who are exploited in Asian countries can be stopped but no one will stop it. Darfur is a real life tragedy. What the rulers of Iran are leading their population into is a real life tragedy. North Korea's standard of living is a real life tragedy.

Those are all real life tragedies.

Forgive me if I don't feel sorry for an actor I've never met but have admired some of his work, who has either OD'd or something similar. It is sad. It is a crying shame. It is even tragically sad but it is NOT a tragedy. When it is your time it is your time and it isn't premature. Your life isn't cut short. You have a limited amount of time here, make it count.

For the next few weeks we will hear all kinds of good things and bad things about Heath Ledger. Remember all of the Anna Nicole Smith coverage ad nausea um? Yeah all of that is going to happen again. He will be extolled about how great of an actor he was, the next Batman movie will do ten times the box office it would have done otherwise and it will be big regardless. I would imagine that the studio execs are doing some kind of morbid dance of joy right now in fact!

Again that doesn't make his death a tragedy just because everyone knows who he is. Get a grip people. He didn't know me and he didn't know you. You might have felt like you knew him but you only knew the characters he portrayed on screen. He was a real life person with real life problems like you and like me. He died just the same as you and I will eventually do. The only people it was a real tragedy to is his daughter and his family who are now left behind.

Man Hall Of Fame Part 12

Today I'm going to tell you about a man who if you were brave enough to challenge him as a player he would shut you down to single digit points, date three of your cheerleaders at halftime, score 50 on you alone, and quite possibly have a triple double at your expense.

Yes, Michael Jordan is THE man when it comes to basketball. Without a doubt the most fierce competitor to have stepped onto the hardwood. He revolutionized the game and was single handedly responsible for the growth of the NBA in the 90's. It exploded under his regime in popularity and profit.

Winning six titles in eight years at the high point of the Chicago Bulls' dominance of the 90's, the only two they didn't win were in the middle when MJ retired and Houston took the reigns briefly. Scotti Pippen was good but he needed MJ to be great. He made Phil Jackson a better coach, he made his team better by just his presence, he intimidated teams before he even walked onto the floor.

I still have the final two playoff runs of his career with the Bulls on VHS. I need to convert them to DVD one day especially since they are around 10 years old now. Jordan was the most dominant player in the NBA, he had the complete game and as such is a worthy addition to my Man Hall Of Fame!

18-0

History is rolling along and in two weeks will have a chance at perfection.
The Chargers hung in there for most of the game. It was a lot closer than the blow out I thought it would be.

The Giants really controlled most of their game with the Packers and thanks to some Bret Favre interceptions, typical of his career at crucial moments, Eli Manning is going to the Super Bowl to face the team that beat them in the last game of the regular season.

The Patriots now join two other teams that have won eighteen games in a season. The Bears and the 49ers both went 18-1.

Eli Manning showed a lot of poise in his play yesterday. Jacobs ran the ball pretty hard, Plaxico Burris had an outstanding game versus Al Harris, they earned the game all the way around. They out played Green Bay at Green Bay which rarely happens. They have now repeated what the Pittsburgh Steelers did a couple of years ago when they went on the road for three straight games and won their way into the Super Bowl.

Any team can beat any other team on any given day. That is one of the founding principles of the NFL. If things go right I would give the Giants a chance for sure. I believe that the Patriots will be at their best this game though. They will have two weeks to be focused for the G-Men whom they recently played. The Giants played a great if not perfect game last time they faced off and the Patriots had a ton of mistakes and still won.

It should be a good game but again I predict the Pats to prevail and be the first team to go 19-0 in a single season.

Championship Day!

Yes my friends the AFC/NFC championship games are on today.

I have communal football watching plans at Beersnob's house. There should be a good sized crowd. Plenty of food. Plenty of drink. The only thing that could be in doubt is how good the football games are going to be.

I predict the Patriots destroying the Chargers.
I predict the Packers narrowly beating the Giants.

And of course for you long time readers you know who I'm rooting for in the Super Bowl.

This should be a great football day, I hope the games live up to the football viewing company I plan on enjoying!
So get you some good friends, some good food, and sit down in front of the TV for two games and just relax and enjoy the good things in life for a little while.

Good And Bad Evening!!!!

The good, I hung out with friends after work at the pub. Got some supper, had a couple of drinks, just decompressed for a couple of hours. It felt good and relaxing.

The bad, I went with Beersnob to see Cloverfield. While I understand the concept they were going for it went bad very quickly and turned into an exercise in tedious frustration. Every time there was something interesting you wanted to see happening the very shaky camera quickly turned to something uninteresting.

If you are prone to motion sickness then you should not see this movie at all. It will make you sick. There are precious few steady shots, I'm talking about seconds at a time. When it was over with all I heard in the audience was, "Thank goodness that's over!" This movie wears on you and fatigues you and not in a good way. The entire movie is shot on the run in the style of a hand held camera. While some of the parts where the camera holder are out and out implausible, the camera alone takes damage far above what a normal camera would take in a giant monster attack.

Don't see it unless you just have a couple of hours of your life you don't care about.

This morning I went with a couple of coworkers to have breakfast. This was a place that has been there for years but I've never been to. It reminded me of the little diners I used to eat in when I was a kid. Wonderful food, lots of it, reasonably priced. They bring you water when you sit down, a rare thing in this day and age.

I then decided to get two new tires as I had two new ones put on a few months ago and needed the other two replaced. They didn't have four at the time so I could only get two. So now I have new tires, a good breakfast, a warm house, and it is a very very cold day out!

It's Great!!!!

Not to take Tony the Tiger's catch phrase or anything but this is payday Friday AND a three day weekend!

Those don't happen often enough and are a great way to spend a weekend! I have some research to do and this will be a great chance. Sunday will be the Championship day for the NFL. Those games determine who goes to the Super Bowl!

I think it will be Green Bay vs. New England with the Pats winning by about ten points in the big game! It will probably be a pretty good game, close most of the way. New York and San Diego just don't have much of a shot at going to the big game. They are both road teams. New York will be playing at Lambeau and that is tough this time of the year. San Diego, one of the ultimate warm weather teams will be playing in a frozen Foxboro where the Pats thrive.

We'll see but that is what I see happening.

Project: China

Is moving ahead slowly but slowly. The more I think about this project the more daunting it becomes and yet the more possible it seems. I read a few articles here about Christians around the world who are persecuted and find it over powering.

China is a good place to start. I even checked into airline tickets last night to get an idea about how much fundage I'm going to need. My original estimate of about ten thousand will be ample depending on ticket prices at the time. Twelve thousand would be more than enough if I have two other people accompany me.

Passport is one small obstacle I will over come in the next couple of weeks. Yeppers, I'm going to apply for one as I'm not leaving the country without it. That leaves plenty of time to find the subjects and raise the money.

Since I'm pretty much debt free except my mortgage I'll be able to kick in quite a bit to the fund once Winter is over with and my high utility bills.

This is going to be an outstanding and well planned project. I'm not even putting a time line on it. It could honestly be 2009 or later before it is prepared and ready. I'm keeping the excitement to a minimum right now as too much too soon will easily burn a project down and out.

Hot Sauce Of DEATH!!!!

Yes I tried The Source yesterday.
I put a fly speck amount on a piece of paper. Touched my finger tip to it and got a tiny smudge on my finger tip and dabbed it on my tongue.

The burning lasted for forty five minutes. Relentless and intense burning. Just that tiny amount was almost too much.

Several other people tried it with similar results. There will be more try it today as word spreads of this very hot sauce.

Tom Cruise Is A Nutball Part 2

The scientologist thugs are out in full force.
Sites have been taken down left and right but fear not!
You can go here, here, here, or here to either download it or see it.

He is crazy.
Get it quick, they are going fast.

Tom Cruise Is A Nutball

After you see this clip you'll never see another Tom Cruise movie again.

He is just sitting there ranting and then he cackles! Yes he cackles like a crazy wounded chicken!
Here is another link. They are likely to fall fast as the scientologists quickly have links removed by their thugs who keep the insanity of Tom Cruise a secret.

And here is the last one just in case the thugs are in full force!

Yes my friends it appears that Cruise is as crazy as he appears to be. That's fine with me. I never liked him. I'll give him props for being a decent actor though, he has acted sane in the public for a long time now. The Oprah couch jumping incident was just the tip of the iceberg.

I predict this video will go viral very soon and there will be parodies up soon.

DVD Dilemma

Yes my friends I have a dilemma. Do I make the switch to Blu-Ray or stick to SD (standard definition) DVD?

I blogged my original plan a while back which was jump into the HD realm in one giant leap with a TV, two players (one of each), and about three hundred dollars in movies for each format. Now with the imminent rise of Blu-Ray as the possible dominate format what do I do?

The problem arises when you realize I purchase a ton of classic movies, love the Criterion Collection, indie stuff, and TV stuff. It is likely that none of that will be released on a superior format in the next couple of years anyway. There are STILL come great movies out there that haven't been released on SD! African Queen anyone?!?!?! Brilliant movie that I dearly love!!!

Absent on DVD!!!! Yes that is crazy! There are many more lesser known movies out there that have yet to be released on DVD as well.

So what is a movie fan to do? Anyone who knows me knows I have an extensive DVD collection, extensive. They aren't going away. Well here is what a HD DVD or Blu-Ray player will do. They upconvert SD DVDs to 1080p! Yeppers that is correct! They will take your SD DVDs and play them at the maximum resolution your TV is capable of!

1080p is the maximum right now or full HD. Now even though a SD is 420 your player will take that and run it through a chip which makes it look nearly as good as full HD!

So I believe I'll go with my original plan once I settle on the TV I want. It is still taking quite a bit of research as there isn't one individual TV that has everything I want. All of the features and none of the drawbacks. When I settle on something I'll post it though! I've got time after all:)

Yesterday Was Fun!

First the Chargers knocked off the defending Super Bowl Champs, Manning's Colts then I went to a watch party at Chianti's house and we watched the Giants beat the Cowboys.
I'm a big fan of communal football watching.

It adds a lot to the fun of the game! Overall the weekend was quiet though.

I noticed something during the commercials of the first game. Dexter is going to be aired on network TV. It is a great show but I fear it is going to be heavily edited. That is a shame. A lot of the charm of the show is that it doesn't play by the rules of network TV.

I am glad it will get a lot more exposure, it is a great show.

17-0

Yes the Patriots, hated by many, are now a perfect 17-0.
The masterpiece of a season that we are likely not to see again for decades continues. Enjoy it while it is going on my friends.

This is something that doesn't happen very often at all in a league built on parity. Everything around the NFL is to push teams into being good but not great, to limit dynasties, and to keep the teams that experience a down year to get back up quickly to contend.

Winning every game is a curve breaking miracle in this day and age. The Pats have advanced to the AFC Championship game next week. Two games left to a perfect 19-0. The most amazing feat in modern sports! Well if the Celtics have less than double digit losses that would be impressive as well this year but it isn't 19-0.

They will get there.

Drinks After Work

Yes yesterday after work was a prefect day to chill out at a watering hole. You clock out, drive down the road, stop off and then after a couple of drinks you decide you are hungry!

Well they don't have food there so you have to go somewhere else. So I head out to a local coffee shop and who do I find? Wendy! So we chill with some coffee for a bit and then go and get some supper!

That was my Friday after work! Last weekend I ordered some hot sauce called Wanza's Wicked Temptation. It hasn't arrived yet so I went back to the site and found out they were out of stock. So I went on Ebay and found a hotter hot sauce called The Source. The Source rates 7.1 million Scoville units on the hot scale. The scale goes up to 16 million.

I got a good deal on a bottle on Ebay as I said and hopefully it will be here this coming week! Some of the guys at work were going through a manhood phase I guess. One of them brought a shock collar to work to see who would be able to hold it to their neck on the highest setting of 8.

We'll give them a chance to try this, The Source. This will challenge their manhood!

Eagle Vs. Shark Vs. Death Sentence

Well last night's double feature was Death Sentence and Eagle Vs. Shark.

First up was Death Sentence directed by James Wan of Saw infamy. Yeah infamy as it was a below average movie at best but this is about his new project.

Kevin Bacon stars in 2007's Taxi Driver. Yes the last ten minutes were very close to the last ten minutes of Taxi Driver. A family man's son is killed in a random act of violence. We watch as he exacts justice on a gang of thugs.

So what is the difference between this killing thugs movie and other killing thugs movies? This one is pretty intense. I enjoyed it all the way through. It was a dark and compelling look at revenge. Well the Hollywood style of revenge. Bacon is intense, the script is tight, the shots are amazing. There is quite a bit of brutal violence but it wasn't over the top. It works in the context of the movie.

Eagle vs. Shark is on par with Napoleon Dynamite. This one is a bit funnier though. A pair of shy and awkward young adults fall in love. Jarrod is a formerly bullied misfit who swears eternal revenge on his high school bully. Lily is a fast food worker who just got laid off. She accompanies him to his home town so he can fight said bully. The final confrontation is one where you are thinking, "I can't believe he is doing that!!!!"

This one is sweet. It has heart, really awkward heart.

Misery Meeting

The meeting last night about Misery was very good! The food was excellent!

This is going to be a complex set with lots of timed sound effects, lighting effects, blood effects, in fact the stage crew might be around five people. That is two and a half times larger than the cast!

This is going to be a fun production!

Everything else went smoothly yesterday and today looks like it will be windy and cold out. It might snow in a day or two! Wooohoooo!

3:10 to Sunshine

I watched two movies last night.

First the remake of 3:10 to Yuma and then Sunshine.

3:10 was a pretty good movie for a remake and expanded upon the original. In the original Ben Wade was ambiguous in his good and evil state. In the remake there is no doubt Wade is evil. The ending is different and less satisfying than the original. In fact I'd say the ending was unnecessary and stupid. The banter between Christian Bale and Russel Crowe was the highlight of the movie.

Watch it if you want just prepare yourself of an ending that makes you say, "Now why did they do that for?"

Sunshine is a scifi from the director of 28 Days. The Sun is going out in the future so a ship is being sent to set off a nuclear weapon to reignite it. The was in fact the second ship as the first mission failed.

There is a really big ship and the crew dies for reasons that should have been calculated out way before the ship was built. It is a logical flaw in the movie. The movie itself is highly stylized and would have benefited from a more straight forward direction. It was hard to tell what was going on a lot of the time. I found myself hoping it was over with quicker.

It had potential but wasted it. You are better off skipping it.

Supper At The Pub

A few weeks ago the pub gave out secret discount envelopes. You can only open them in front of a waitress to see what you win.

So Wendy and I both had one and last night we met for supper. Our waitress came up to take our order and asked if we wanted to open up our envelopes and we both won free appetizers! Not bad, the most expensive one is about nine dollars. So we both ordered an appetizer and then filled out the discount sheet.

She comes back with my tea and Wendy's coffee and tells us that we can only use one envelope per table and asks which one of us will be using ours tonight. I tell her I will and then she gives another envelope to Wendy for next time! Pretty cool!

Then we get done and ready to tab out and she gives me another envelope too!
Very cool evening!

I bounced some documentary ideas off of her, one particular one that would be very cool but I confess at the moment difficult to get going with. I believe it would be an excellent story to document the persecution of Christians in China. That story alone is compelling but I have no contacts in China and really don't know where to begin to find one. I have another friend I'm trying to talk into going but she is understandably hesitant right now. It could be really be dangerous.

The first step though is to find a specific story. If I can find that story, that person then I think the rest will start to fall into place!

A New Week Begins!

Who knows what this week holds in store! Good, bad, incredible?
As long as it isn't average and uninteresting! I think I'll get out and get supper at the pub this week. They give out these secret envelopes which are sealed up and you can only open them between certain days in front of your waitress.

I've also got a gift certificate for Panevino so that is an option.
We might get some major Winter weather in a few days if everything West of us gets this far! That would be cool! What is Winter without snow after all?

Work will be as busy as I want it to be right now. We are caught up but there are some things I can do to get super caught up. My ipod is charged and ready to go!

Fun With Sass

I wanted to go to a local Indian casino last night but Beersnob informed me he was on call and had to stay in town. So I called up Wendy and she was sick and medicated and wanted to just sleep. Sass was next up and she said she would be ready in half an hour!

So now I had my traveling companion! I didn't tell her where we were going so it was going to be a surprise for her. We arrive and she tells me she has never been in a casino before but it was going to be fun! Of course it was going to be fun!

We get in and I go to the 1-2 dollar poker table to shake the rust off and in about forty five minutes I bust out on beats, one I had a full house cracked by quads. The second wasn't as bad but I got beat by a bigger spade flush but I was very short stacked at the time and on tilt from the quad beat.

We then walked around the slot machines and she didn't know what to do so it was just put money in, push buttons, and cash out your ticket. It was a blast!

So after about two and a half hours we drive back and get some supper at Sonic. Get back into town and hang out at the pub for about an hour and a half and then I take her home.

A wonderful evening!

The High Definition Format War

Appears to be over with. Warner Brothers, the biggest studio supporting both Blu-Ray and HD DVD has chosen to support Blu-Ray exclusively. This is a major blow to HD DVD as a future format. What it also means is that you will be able to get some great bargains on HD DVD players and movies very soon!

If there will ever be mass consumer adoption of a HD format it is popular opinion that there needs to be one unified format. I believe that the format war could have lasted for years if the Warners had stayed neutral.

It isn't so much a war as very good competition. They both pushed each other further to become better products. It is great that it has lasted as long as it has in fact. I don't own either but when I was ready to buy I was going to purchase both at the same time to be neutral. All you had to do at that point was just go buy the movie you wanted.

Both formats had identical picture quality. One looks as good as the other. HD DVD is a bit cheaper, Blu Ray has more storage. They have advantages in their own way.

If you have HD DVD don't worry. The movies will still work, the format will still be around for some time to come as there are studios that exclusively support HD DVD. When I am ready to purchase a HDTV I'll still be purchasing both formats at the same time and they will be around.

HD DVD will probably not be the format of the future but it is here now and will be a great value for a long time! Blu Ray is a great format as well and if it is going to enjoy broad consumer support will have to get cheaper which I am sure it will very soon.

My Beloved Oklahoma Storm

Are now likely defunct. The USBL has suspended the 2008 season to restructure.

Last year's post season tournament had five teams after I believe three folded during the season. The three most stable franchises, us, Dodge City, and Salina were rumored to be looking for their own league however I doubt anything will come of that.

I have made it clear in my blog several times that I loved this team. I haven't missed a game in several seasons. I will miss them very much. I suppose there is a very slim hope that the USBL will get their act together but that is at least a year away.

R.I.P. Storm.

Back To Work

That's alright though, tomorrow is payday.
I'm looking forward to the coffee I don't have to brew though. Yep in a few minutes I'll be sipping coffee from a quick shop and since it is twenty degrees outside it'll really taste good.

There is just something really good about coffee on a cold morning. It would be better if it was snowing outside but it isn't.

Just cold.

The Suburban is started and warming up, probably another ten minutes and it'll be decently warm in there. It is great on a cold morning to get into a warm truck. A simple pleasure but still a pleasure.

I don't know how much work will be at work but it will likely not be very much. Things will start picking up soon though.

Last Day Off

And I find myself watching the second season of Dexter. A brilliant and humorous show about a serial killer who's foster father was a cop and detected the signs very early in Dexter.

He trained him how to avoid the police and to only prey on murderers. The ironic part is he works in forensics of the Miami Police Department. Usually you accompany Dexter as he stalks his victim, does background, gets close to being caught, and administers justice.

This really is a show that is on par with The Shield, well except that The Shield hasn't got any humor to it. That's not a bad thing but there are similarities as well. Both main characters, Vic Mackey and Dexter Morgan, have a lot of problems relating to their job, relationships, both of their worlds are starting to crumble. They both love their jobs as that is their solace from the problems they face.

They continue to overcome inventive situations. The producers of both shows are really on the top of their game and do a sublime job. I'm really looking forward to the new season of The Shield, I believe it is the last one but I could be wrong.

If you get the chance to catch Dexter, jump on in.

I go back to work tomorrow but that's alright. I've had a nice twelve days off now and I'll only have to work two days before having a weekend off. Kind of easing back into the flow of work.
I'll have to think about saving up enough leave to take a full two weeks off next time.

2008

Over night the year changed from 2007 to 2008.
I had a lot of fun in 2007, played it safe last night though and stayed in. I was kicking around the idea of going to a big shindig but really thought better of it. It is just a bad combination on that night.

I end 07 with a lot of the same questions for 08. What am I doing to do this year, how am I going to do it, am I going to have the same joy and frustrations from last year and the year before and the year before?

Well we'll see. I have goals and ambitions. I'll have a great starting point as I now have no bills other than my mortgage/utilities. I plan on being without a mortgage in thirty six months or less. That gives me the ability of have a sizable emergency fund, a weekly budget of more than I live on now, and being able to increase my retirement fund contribution.

That is a great start on the future and with my additional fund I have the ability to start nearly any film project I can come across or start myself.

Catina asked me if I was available to have a production meeting for her next theatrical production, Misery. I'm all about this! This will be a lot of fun to accomplish and work on! I'm really looking forward to it!

I'm happy that it is the new year, I'm happy to begin again essentially, I'm happy to have a pretty good life going and great friends to share it with me.

New Year's Eve

Last night I hung out with friends until the wee hours of the morning.

Tonight I traditionally stay home however there is a tempting get together with a large conglomerate of friends attending so if I go I'll be sober.

Just not a good evening to chance it as I am aware of roadblocks being set up.

Well until that happens I have the Twilight Zone marathon on Scifi to pass the time. I am planning on going to the movies today with Beersnob. Got to see Alien vs. Predator: Requiem!!!!

Perfect Part 1

Yes the New England Patriots have not only completed the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history but they were setting records along the way.

Tom Brady set the regular season TD record with 50. Randy Moss set the receiving record with 23. The Pats themselves set the NFL scoring record topping the 1998 Minnesota Vikings in total points. They had a strong defense all year so it wasn't a lopsided achievement.

The next goal is 19-0 and will likely happen as the road to the Super Bowl goes through Foxboro, weather and all. The Indianapolis Colts have the best shot but as I blogged before they play poorly in cold weather. They have also been inconsistent in their play. At times looking less than average.

There has never been a team this perfect in every dimension of the game. Teams have been close but not this close. History will show that this team is the benchmark for what teams will strive for in the future even if they don't win the Super Bowl.

Closing!

I got great news yesterday, I'm closing on my house Monday at 10AM!
This means that the first two steps of the Dave Ramsey plan will be accomplished and half of the third step!

By sticking to a budget for thirty six months I'll no longer have a mortgage payment either! I can speed that up with just a little spending discipline! Not having any bills and being on a cash basis is a good thing.

Kicking in 15% on your retirement is a great thing! I can get there from here!
I'm excited!

The Christmas Spirit

YouTube - Angry Grandpa Ruins Christmas Yes the Christmas Spirit is alive and well. I usually don't post things like this on my blog however it is the contrast to my usual good mood and happy go lucky persona. What you see here is the exact opposite of what Christmas is about. I hope it repulses you. I hope that if you see this that you'll find it stomach churning and encourage you to be forgiving, to practice kindness, to practice compassion.

Friday!

It snowed a little last night but I got out and met Wendy at the pub for supper. It was cold but the roads were clear.
There is just a little snow on the roads now that will likely be gone quickly.

I don't have any plans today but I've enjoyed my time off. It is nice to have a week of no responsibilities and nothing pressing to do and I still have four more days off after today!

Pakistan is in chaos today which means that the control of their weapons is in doubt and should be questioned. Meanwhile we are a few days away from the Iowa caucus and the first step towards finding out who will run the country and the free world from 2009 to 2012! I don't think there is a lot on TV today.

Well I think the coffee is finished!

Turmoil

With the assassination of Benazir Bhutto opposition leader in Pakistan, a nuclear power slips into turmoil. It is too early to tell what the full range of problems this will cause.

India is very nervous at the moment, Iran is happy, Afghanistan is still too devastated by the Taliban to be effected. Al Qaeda hated her. She was a former Prime Minister and lived with these daily threats. Very courageous.

Today Bin Laden is smiling somewhere.

YAWWWN

I was able to sleep in until about 7:30 this morning!
Fixed some coffee and I'm drinking that now.
It is about freezing outside and I have no plans.

Was debating Bob last night whether Rick Deckard was a replicant or not. I happen to fall on the side of Deckard being human, Bob falls into the replicant camp. It is a debate that has gone on for about twelve years now. It really boils down to a definite maybe. There is evidence on both sides but not enough to prove it.

You can find a few sites that talk about the big debate if you have some interest so I won't go into it here.

I could use some breakfast, kinda hungry and I know that I don't have anything breakfasty in the house.

Philips has invented these color changing LED lights called Living Colors, just search for Philips Living Colors to see them in action on their site or You Tube. They look amazing! You can only get them over seas right now but hopefully soon they will be for sale here soon! I'd love to have a couple of these even though they cost over two hundred dollars apiece. They have a remote control though where you manipulate the color and intensity! I'm all about the remote control!

Life is good!

Merry Christmas!!!!

May everyone have the merriest of Christmas gatherings today!

Excellent Coffee!

Yesterday I went to the store to get some groceries and got a small bag of Dunkin' Donuts Cinnamon coffee! This is very very good coffee! Not over powering but still has a lot of flavor! This easily competes if not surpasses the Starbuck's brand and I'm not joking about that.

I am tied for first place this week in the league with forty six points. It would be nice if that held up! The other team I drafted for a friend, Crimson, is in the Super Bowl next week! I feel pretty good about that despite my team failing to do as I expected. Oh well, there is always next year!

The Patriots Masterpiece of a season continues as they are now a regular season record 15-0 and have surpassed the 1984 Dolphins for season scoring. They have one game left this coming Saturday against the Giants. Look for the starters to play the whole game and go 16-0!

They are simply the best football team to ever take the field. I used to believe that the '85 Bears were the best team ever but this team would destroy the Bears. They have come from behind to win so they believe they will win every single game. They have been challenged this year and they have won games by half time this year.

Even if they don't win the Super Bowl they will go down as the greatest team ever as 16-0 will always be remembered. The playoffs go through Foxboro and the Colts are not a cold weather team. They have a very tough time playing at Foxboro. It really isn't a sure thing that the Colts will make it that far. If they get Marvin Harrison back they have a good shot at being competitive if not then they will likely lose a close game.

New England vs. Dallas is the odds on favorite for the Super Bowl and probably who I would pick right now. New England has beaten the toughest teams in the NFL so far, walking through the NFC East and beating every AFC team that could challenge them. The only team that the Pats have not faced is the Packers and that is possible in the Super Bowl but I think Dallas has the edge.

Blizzard

We had thirty mile per hour winds and a driving snow yesterday. I went to get groceries after I saw the radar and saw what was coming and got back inside. We have about five inches of snow. The roads were kind of slick but not bad. They should clear up today.

Bob and Wendy canceled hanging out last night while I went to pick up Weezy to hang out anyway and Sass showed up as we had planned the previous night! So we had a pretty good time sitting and talking at the pub.

No less than two people came up to Weezy and said they saw her in the TV show House getting onto an elevator. She talked about the WGA strike with them and how she is still getting work but not as much.

It was a really good evening overall and it was good to get back out after the storm after being inside all day.

Operation: Rescuefy Sass Is Canceled.

Yes she no longer needs rescuing. Turns out her sister had to make an emergency run to the border and brought her back Thursday.

She and I hung out last night to catch up and going out again tonight with Bob and Wendy. Sass will be the surprise guest.
We have snow moving in so that should be fun today! We might just have a White Christmas!

I'm off work now until the second of January! How cool is that?

The Ultimate DVD Set

I purchased the four DVD set Tuesday. I posted about it and my personal feelings for the movie as well as some history.

Yesterday after work I purchased the five standard definition DVD ultimate set. I was planning on putting this purchase off until I made the jump to HD DVD and Blu-Ray and then deciding which version of that to get.

I have decided that when I do eventually make the jump I'll stick to my original plan and just own two sets. I plan on giving my four DVD set away.

This is by far the ultimate DVD set ever thus far. It comes with five cuts of the movie:
The Final Cut
The Theatrical Cut
The International Cut
The Director's Cut
The Work Print Cut

I am partial to the original theatrical cut. That was the first version I was introduced to and the one I fell in love with even though many purists prefer the director's cut or the final cut.

There is a letter from Ridley Scott. A origami unicorn. A replica spinner vehicle. A lenticular film cell. Storyboards. Practically everything you could ask for in a movie package.

This is simply the ultimate DVD set constructed for any movie EVER! There are sets that are close, the Lord Of The Rings: Extended Edition Sets that had the miniatures with it. The Matrix Set would be close. The Alien Set would be close.

The thing though is that all of those were for a series of movies, this is simply one movie. For single movies it would be tough to approach this kind of detail.

Ben Hur would be a decent comparison. Perhaps The Searchers or The Ten Commandments. Those movies though are considered epics. This set is more comprehensive though than any of those.
Don't tell me Titanic, if I have to argue why that isn't a good movie then you just wouldn't understand anyway and you deserve to wallow in ignorance.

Blade Runner stands as the undisputed king of all DVD sets, without question.

Man Hall Of Fame Part 11

Today's inductee into my Man Hall Of Fame is someone who is familiar to nearly every generation of movie fan. He is the main character of the longest series of movies in modern history. He always gets the girl, saves the world, and does it in style.

James Bond 007 is the man! Whip and debonair, he knows fine wine and fine women. No matter who Bond is played by the character comes through.

Sean Connery - To many the real James Bond.
George Lazenby - A one shot bond but probably one of the best Bond movies plus it had Diana Rigg in it!
Roger Moore - To me this man is Bond. I grew up in this era. He could be a bit campy but he was all out suave.
Timothy Dalton - The weakest of the Bonds but he still had a good run. He had a bit of an edge to him.
Pierce Brosnan - The modern resurgence began with Brosnan's Bond. Bigger budgets, bigger story lines, bigger effects.
Daniel Craig - With only the modern Casino Royale to his credit so far Bond is in good hands. He is very edgy and has a bit of a mean streak. This is the Bond for a future generation.

James Bond will be around for many years to come as well. This franchise is simply one of the best!

Blade Runner And Filmmaking

Roy Batty - I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.

This is one of my all time favorite films. Here is a little history about me. We used to live in Missouri and we had a small video rental place. This was around the explosion point of the VCR, about 1980. So I was into movies at the ripe old age of ten since I had more of them to watch than anyone else in school and one of the only kids to have a VCR at home.

Ok fast forward to moving to close to where I currently live. The first town we lived in when we moved to this state. I had a class of about fifteen people from a class of around a hundred. Simply put I did not fit in. They had been together their entire lives. Nope, I didn't fit in at all and they let me know about it every day. The next town we lived in I went through high school and loved it. There was a bigger class, friendlier people, I still keep in contact with a few of my classmates and wish I could locate a few more!

Anyway that is beside the point and just a nuance to the story. Suffice it to say it was about 1983 -1984 now. My mom worked in the big town around here at Southwestern Bell and had a lot of friends in town who copied movies for each other. Well that Summer we got Blade Runner. I had never seen anything like it. I was of course happy that Han Solo was in it.

It was a lot different than Star Wars, it was dark, rainy, gritty. There was a sense of doom and a future that was as far away from Roddenberry's future as you could get. You could describe this movie as claustrophobic, not like Alien but close. There was no hope in this future where even the animals are machines and the Sun rarely shines but shadows are everywhere. Neon, night, and violence.

This is a future you want no part of. I was pretty unhappy there and this appealed to me.

You have Han Solo doing his best Bogart imitation as Rick Deckard in a world that is a cross between a Raymond Chandler novel and scifi novel. A Blade Runner who caps rogue replicants. A story about humanity and what it means to be really human. About mortality and finding inner peace.

I watched the US theatrical version of Blade Runner at least thirty times that Summer. To me that was the only version there was until much later when I learned about Ridley Scott not being happy with that version and that was the one that the studio forced him to put out. It had the Harrison Ford narration and the happy ending. There was no unicorn dream sequence. That was the version I fell in love with.

So last night I watched the four disc set that came out. I wanted to purchase the five disc set but I'm waiting until I get a HD DVD player, a Blu Ray player, and a HDTV to get it.

This movie is a major reason I love film, why I enjoy making them and that is the history of me and this film.

As The Trip Looms

Ahead in the not too distant future I am going over everything I need to take to rescue Sass. We can't drive into Mexico since the vehicle we are taking isn't mine therefore I am not on the title. Sass says that you have to have the title with you to get across. Not only that but you have to be on the title.

So she is going to meet us in Brownsville with her stuff and we will load her up from there, relax a bit and return. I was considering taking a cooler to cut down on driving time but thought better of it, for one it is space that will probably be used by Sass and her stuff and the second is that I know I'd just like to get out of the vehicle some and eat, stretch, and walk around a bit.

So I'm taking a GPS unit, never played with one and it looks like it will be fun, my Sirius radio, GOT to have that! Money, birth certificate, license, and more money just in case.

This is going to be a lot of fun and I can't wait to get going!

Football With Friends

Yesterday was a pretty good day! I went to Beersnob's house and watched football with Chianti, and Nick the boy intern.

We watched the Dallas game which wasn't very exciting at all but the company was good. I finalized plans to rescue Sass so that looks like it will be an adventure! I think it will be a lot of fun!

Looks like I'll finish about fourth place in my fantasy league this week. Not bad.

Week 15

I was put out of the playoffs in the first round, my team really tanked as I mentioned last week. I have nothing to play for now and due to that devastating loss I am no longer a contender to win any money at the end of the season.

In a season plagued by injuries and under achieving picks I did pretty decent. I got my season paid for by the wins I did have so it didn't cost me anything this year. That makes it a good year! At ten dollars per week over seventeen weeks plus franchise fees it is a good amount.

It is cold out and the streets should melt off today. I got some groceries yesterday when I got out. I decided to fuel up as well so I'm at the station getting fuel so while that is going on I decide to clean the windshield wipers. They had frozen up and weren't really cleaning the windshield anymore. So I thump it against the windshield to get the ice off and what happens? The blade breaks off in my hand.

Now the driver's side blade is no longer attached and I can't turn them on because it would really scratch up the windshield. Not to mention there was no longer a blade so it really wouldn't do anything.

I finish up the fueling, pay, and decide to go get it serviced and have the wipers replaced. I get that all done, finally get to the grocery store since I really didn't have anything in the house to fix to eat. I ALMOST get home when I get stuck on a decline around some railroad tracks.

Thankfully a guy who was out just towing people out of being stuck was behind me and offered me a tug up the hill! So within a few minutes I was back home and cooking!

SNOW!

Well sort of. There is less than an inch on the ground out of the nine inches they were predicting.
The radar doesn't really look like it is going snow for much longer. Maybe the day and that is probably it. It won't last long:(

I had supper at IHOP last night with Wendy to make our plans to rescue Sass. My brother is going to loan us his Suburban and GPS, I'm putting in my Sirius radio in for the ride.

We are driving straight through, swapping drivers and sleeping. Three of us will handle the driving on the way back.

We are set! This is going to be exciting!

Operation: Rescuefy Sass Part 2

So last night I secured a vehicle in which to rescue Sass. I'm going to use my brother's Suburban, the one I borrow occasionally when my Suburban decides not to run in the Winter time.

This will allow for two drivers one passenger on the way back and all of her belongings which she says are numerous.

Wendy is looking forward to the trip and I have to say I am as well. Not only is it for a good reason but again, I've never been to Mexico and this sounds like a lot of fun! I will be able to get free drinks out of her for months! LOL!

Operation: Rescuefy Sass

Sass, from previous blog posts, has been in Mexico for nearly a year now helping her missionary family members put together a coffee shop/cafe to help fund other missionary projects. Well she is ready to return and is stuck with no way back.

So Wendy and I have devised a plan to help deMexico her over the coming Christmas break!

It appears that on the 27th we will embarkify South towards Brownsville, cross the border, drive three more hours to her location, rest a few minutes, load up her and her belongings, and return to the States with Sass intact.

This should be fun! I've never seen Mexico and it has been a while since I've had a road trip this long! With company it should be a blast! Of course I'll keep you posted my friends!

Well Here

Is what happened last night. I'm almost done, well done now with Hemingway's short stories collection so I decided I would run a couple of errands I've been putting off since the storm hit.

So I need to get a stack of dual layer blank DVDs and I need to ship my bad monitor off to get it replaced. Well I thought I could also pick up another book while I was at it. So I went to Staples and took care of the DVDs and the monitor.

Drove to Hastings and went down the classic book aisle and chose Robinson Crusoe. I've always wanted to read it, it is a very classic novel, it fit my adventurous mood at the time, yeah my selection is done!

I go to pay when I see the rather annoyed look on the woman's face in front of me. I look at the kinda cute cashier and think....ah ha....another case of cute envy has just happened and I missed it. I give the cashier chick a quizzical look and she replies that the systems have just went down, apparently in mid purchase for annoyed woman.

So I go find a chair and start to read the book I was going to purchase, there is a pair of big green comfy chairs towards the back of the store and that really fit the bill. So for about ten minutes I read about Daniel DeFoe's extraordinary life of being a cheat, convict, insurer of ships, very fast writer, and journalist.

By that time I see cute chick in the aisle telling people that the systems aren't coming back up and they have to close the store now. So two out of three missions accomplished last night.

The Weather

Well it really appears as if we are in a very serious winter storm.
The radar shows that it will rain, yeah rain most of today and the temperature seems to be around 30 degrees!

I was just outside to warm up my suburban and there is lightning going on!!!! An inch of ice covers everything but our power is still up and going strong! After the last storm most of our infrastructure was replaced with new and it is very sturdy!

The city though isn't so lucky. I know there are thousands with no power this morning. It is crazy outside!

I'm going to work as normal but today is worse than yesterday!

I Lost

Out of the first round of the playoffs.
Yep I'm done. A season that has been busted up pretty badly by under performing picks. Mainly the first rounder.

The rest of the draft and my lineup I'm pretty happy with. They did what was expected. If I had the season Maroney had last year out of this year's Maroney I would have contended for the league title.

Well it is very icy outside, my suburban is warming up now and I'm ready to brave the cold and ice to get to work. I am taking off those few days between Christmas and New Year so I need to save leave, I've got enough but I'd like to have more when I get back from those days off.

ICK!!!!

I purchased a bag of Millstone Foglifter coffee the other day, pre ground. It sounded very good right?

So I get it home and last night was really cold and thought it would be a perfect evening for a cup of coffee. So I brew a pot drink a cup, go for a second cup, and go to remove the grounds in the filter and I see three half inch long worms in the grounds!!!!

I'm horrified to see this so I empty the contents into a clear ziplock container and look through the rest of the coffee and see nothing so I brew another pot and find another worm! They look like larva of some sort but I don't know what kind. This is pretty sickening and I've contacted the Millstone company via email. I tried to call them but the customer service line was closed.

So DON'T BUY MILLSTONE COFFEE!!!!

Friday After Work

I stopped off at the pub and got some supper, came home, and had a quiet evening.
Went grocery shopping this morning, we are expecting a big Winter storm either tonight, tomorrow, or Monday. It is unclear exactly when it is going to get here but usually it fizzles out before it does.

I'm supposed to drive to Alva tomorrow to go to Catina's graduation. It might be postponed though, we'll see.

Going to be a slow weekend.

Bad Monitor Blues

Yet again one of my dual monitors has gone bad. This time it just greeted me with a green blinking power light. I hooked it up to my laptop to see if perhaps my video card might be bad but nope, it was the monitor itself.

So I called Viewsonic told them that this was a replacement monitor that they sent me the very first time one of my monitors went bad back last July. They gave me a case number and said as soon as they receive the bad monitor they will ship another one to me instead of seeing if they can fix it as they did the last time a couple of months ago.

So here I am, one monitor and I feel so lost....sigh....

Man Hall Of Fame Part 10

My Man Hall Of Fame induction today is the Internet! I love the internet! This innovation has done more to revolutionize the way we live today since electricity was harnessed.

The internet has made the world a very small place to live now. I literally have friends in different countries that I talk to on a regular basis. I have friends in many different states in this country that I stay in contact with. I use this blog as a way to let others keep track of me in fact. Yes it is also my meager creative outlet.

The internet has matured quite a bit and people are now able to see the true possibilities for which it is really capable of. I bet someone somewhere is thinking up a good idea right now that no one else has to use the internet in another revolutionary way.

Yes my friends the internet belongs in my Man Hall of Fame!

Finished!

I have finished the Sword of Truth series. I only had about fifty pages to go in the final book last night, Confessor, and did that in no time at all.

It was a wild ride. Lots of twists, turns, ups, downs, sideways, you name it. I love the characters. Love how they progressed through the years and love their destination.

Goodkind does appear to be in love with the idea of individual freedoms, while good for most people in America I can see where it would gall a socialist who really doesn't have the desire to better themselves. Someone who would like a nanny state to take care of them instead of taking the responsibility upon themselves to live their own life.

Well that is just a theme among the series and part of a greater whole. If you enjoy epic fantasy then you would enjoy this series. Its got it all and then some!

I Lost

Yep, Laurence Maroney didn't score again leaving the final score set at 44-37. My team would be probably in first place overall after I saw the recent standings if he would have scored what an average RB would score this year.

Well anyway that is why fantasy football is so fun and an excellent challenge.

Last night was pretty quiet. I didn't really watch any of the game, I figured that the Pats would have won a bit easier than they did but the masterpiece season is still intact. They have been winning close games and blowing people out. My friends you are watching history with this team.
Love them or hate them, you have to respect them and marvel at what they are doing.

It was pretty slow at work yesterday, today will be about as slow. This time of year everything grinds to a halt before the holidays.

Losing

Yep this week I'm losing 37-44 right now. I have Laurence Maroney going tonight but since he has two TDs in twelve games I don't think I can count on him. I would have picked up another RB by now but the waiver wire is bare.

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have your first round pick be your most consistent scorer for you. Yes it is always cool to find your third or fourth round pick doing a bulk of the scoring but if your number one isn't doing anything your team is in trouble.

Pretty quiet weekend. Went to the hanger and took measurements for the set, the build team is supposed to start getting a meeting together to talk over the build plans. Funding is in place for the set so materials will be purchased very soon.

I have less than one hundred pages to go on The Sword Of Truth series which is in its eleventh and final story if you count Debt of Bones. I'll be sad to see this series end. They are some wonderful characters that Terry Goodkind has brought to life.

So now I'm off to start another week! I'll have the time off between Christmas and New Year so that is a wonderful thing to look forward to!

BCS= Bowl Chaos System

The BCS has officially melted down and BCS officials have probably spent a very sleepless night trying to figure out what to do now.

What happened? The unthinkable has yet happened again. There is one team who has NO LOSSES although they have played in a weak conference and had a weak schedule and they have NO CHANCE to play for the national championship. They probably played tougher teams than Ohio State played this year who has one loss and will likely play for the national title.

Number one ranked Missouri was knocked off last night by number nine Oklahoma.
Number two ranked West Virginia was knocked off by Pitt.
Number three Ohio State hasn't played in a couple of weeks now.
Number four Georgia should then be the next team in line to play right? Well not necessarily, they play in the SEC and their title game was yesterday and guess what? They weren't in the title game!

Number seven LSU and Tennessee were who are both ranked lower than Georgia is!

So what is a convoluted, stupid system to do? Well having a playoff isn't an option because that is just too easy to figure out who the best team is.

Could a seven and nine ranked team jump ahead of everyone else and play for the national title?

Who knows but there is no doubt that somewhere someone is trying to make perfect sense of it and the rest of the football watching nation will be unhappy with whatever decision will be made since there is 100% certainty it'll be a bad decision!

I really don't even have a good guess at who will play the game but the logical choices are the number three and four teams which are Ohio State and Georgia but I wouldn't be surprised at any two teams they put in there and then try to sell the game to the public as the best game.

They have their work cut out for them in trying to defend this stupid system.

Do These People Have Nothing Productive To Do?!?!?!

Good grief! Who would have ever thought that one teddy bear would cause so much outrage!

Alright you can already guess what has happened. Yeah a Muslim group has been offended by something that is just meaningless and by golly someone is going to die! I'm usually shy away from politics, religion, well anything that doesn't relate to every day life and me however this is becoming insane with its frequency. You know how hard it is to get me angry?

Yes yes I'm sure that Islam is a peaceful religion, the most peaceful of all religions, no doubt blah blah blah. Sorry we've heard it. People bend over backwards to say how peaceful Islam is but who is it that always riots, kills people, commits atrocities in the name of this peaceful religion?

My friends these are not rational people. Apparently the war we need to be fighting is the war to find something useful for these idiots to do during the day instead of rioting and sitting around waiting to be offended so they can satisfy some kind of brutal thirst for blood.

Yeah I'm a infidel, love it, proud of it, sick of these people hating me for being me. You know something, you wouldn't be so offended if you had a job to be at during the day! Remember the Danish Muhammad cartoons? OH MY! Someone showed Muhammad in an unflattering light, gasp. Jesus is portrayed by idiots everyday in an unflattering light and you know something? You don't see Christians rioting in the streets, blowing people up, and burning down newspapers!

HHHmmmm......religion of peace.....riots vs. no riots.....jihad vs. no jihad....I'm starting to connect the dots here.
Yeah while there are some Christians who scare even me, some give Christians a bad name, and some are out and out frauds you don't see them telling believers to riot in the streets, kill infidels, sponsor barbaric punishments, and blow people up!!!!

Where is the condemnation from the leaders of this supposed religion of peace?!?!?! There is a microphone and camera in every corner of the world, even in the backwards, tyrant controlled countries these people call home and NO ONE is publicly condemning the treatment of this British teacher by a bunch of Islamic thugs....I'm sorry, ambassadors of this religion of peace.

For crying out loud people, knock it off with your fatwas, your jihads, your radical thugs, your keeping your women uneducated, and keeping yourselves uneducated. Step out of the middle ages, they ended like a thousand years ago. Come on it's OK to step into the modern world.

I have no doubt that there are very good Sudanese Muslims, salt of the Earth people just like you and I who would help you in anyway you asked. However this isn't just one country that experiences these kinds of violent demonstrations. Not an isolated event as it seems to happen all the time. Once again connect the dots here. Religion of peace.....hhhmmmmmm, you gotta wonder.