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:)