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.