Saturday morning I woke up to some sad news, my computer "Frankenputer" had ceased working. I had to replace it.

Of course, now the story starts. I drove to Fry's to buy some new components. I bought a Motherboard, a processor, a case, a hard drive and a new video card. So I drove back to my apartment, and put it all together. It didn't work. I was frustrated, so I drove it back to Fry's, and wanted to return it, but they said they would test it. The told me everything I bought was in good working order. So I drove back home and tried again. It didn't work again. No power, no fans turning on, no nothing. I was upset. So the next day I ended up returning the stuff I bought, and I bought a new computer, that was already put together. So I put some stuff from my old computer in my new one. So its specs are AMD Athlon 3500+ with 1.5 Gb of RAM, Two DVD writers, 5.1 surround sound, a 512 Mb ATI Xpress video card, with 230 Gbs of HD space. Its pretty friggin sweet.

So my weekend was stressful, and most of it was a waste of time, so I was mad at myself.

In other news girls in my Sunday School independantly described me to their mom as being like Napolean Dynamite. I don't know if I should be proud or not.

We left Indiana one day last week and went to Chicago with my grandparents, sister and cousins. We also met Sara's friend Julie. We saw the Field Museum, Art Institute, Cloud Gate (The Bean), Sears Tower and Navy Pier. It was a very full day and we all had a great time. You can check out the pictures in the Chicago Trip photo album.

Okay, everyone knows I've always hated Tom Cruise, so it's not part of being on the bandwagon that makes me say that his acting was quite amusingly terrible in this movie. So there you have it: comedy at its best is Tom Cruise getting flung by an explosion against a car, hopping back up like nothing happened, then taking a running jump over a gaping hole in a freeway ramp and shooting (with terrible aim for a secret agent) at bad guy Philip Seymour Hoffman (who was great)..

I have never been able to completely suspend disbelief in these movies because they are so unrealistic, even for action movies. The movies usually have slow-mo sequences at the dumbest moments, and the whole face mask thing got really old after number two.

All that being said, this movie was much better than the second in this series. The action keeps it moving, it's nice to have Rhys-Meyers as sidekick eye candy, and the whole thing is adventurous despite its ridiculousness. I'm glad I didn't spend any money on this one (coupons at the dollar theater took care of that), but it was entertaining.

On Saturday Erika and I went out on a date together for the first time since Daniel was born. We have not been to the movie theater in a very long time, so we decided to go see Lady in the Water.

I did not like this movie.

I feel I should start by saying that I like the films of M. Night Shyamalan. Even The Village, which was reviled by many critics, I thought was decent (though not as good as his other films). Because of this, I wanted to give Lady in the Water a chance as well. Unfortunately, it's as bad as people have been saying.

What ruins this movie is its ridiculous and complicated mythology. The story goes that there is a race of water-dwelling people that used to give guidance to humans on land. Long ago they parted ways, but the water-dwellers are trying to re-establish contact (all of this is revealed in the opening two minutes, so don't worry about me ruining the story for you). As the movie goes on, though, this premise is gradually expanded with details about other mystical creatures, magical healing balls, and humans with special gifts. A silly vocabulary is introduced to discuss these things, with words like "skrunt" and "narf".

It's all just too much. Part of the illusion of this film is that it's supposed to take place in the real world (or at least a realistic world identical to ours), but the more the silly mythology is revealed, the more unrealistic and one-dimensional every other aspect of the story becomes.

The best thing about the film is Paul Giamatti's performance. He brings some subtlety and complexity to his character that is lacking in the rest of the film. The worst character by far is a nerdy, pretentious and arrogant film critic, who seems to exist only to get back at the critics who panned The Village (and would probably hate Lady in the Water just as much). I'm sorry, Mr. Shyamalan, but I'm siding with the critics on this one.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

100 Selected Poems by E. E. Cummings by E. E. Cummings

I just read this announcement that Ed Helms from The Daily Show will be joining the cast of The Office. Sweet! I really love this show. I can't wait until it starts again. If you're like me, you can get your fix by watching the exclusive webisodes here. Good stuff.

I spent all of last week in Indiana for my brother's wedding. Here's a short video I made with wedding day highlights.

This comes as quite a shock. I don't think anything official has been announced so we'll see what happens. I found this story thanks to Reddit, referred to me by David.

There's an excellent article in the New York Times about a conservative evangelical preacher who denounces the church's ties to Republican politics. The man has some great things to say:

"When the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses," Mr. Boyd preached. "When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross."

"America wasn’t founded as a theocracy," he said. "America was founded by people trying to escape theocracies. Never in history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn’t bloody and barbaric. That’s why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state.

"I am sorry to tell you," he continued, "that America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ."

A guy named Mattt Potter made this montage of great movie clips after he watched Clerks 2 because it really touched him. Regardless of how you feel about Clerks 2, Kevin Smith, or anything else for that matter, this is probably one of the best montages of great movie clips I've ever seen. It's set to Sia's "Breathe Me," which is one of my favorite songs pretty much ever. It would put those montages they put together for the Oscars to shame. It's 50 megs of pure goodness. This pretty much sums up why I love movies and why you should too.

World of Warcraft Atlas Gift Pack by BradyGames

Clerks II Screenplay by Kevin Smith

Did anyone else have trouble accessing the site earlier today? I couldn't even get to the Dreamhost page. Not sure if it was my connection or not. Let me know if it was just me.

Daniel, five hours old,
lays face-down on mom's chest,
head turned slightly to the left,
resting on tiny, porcelain arms
crossed in an embrace around
the soft breast.

After the tornado of doctors,
friends, family and nurses,
the storm's eye
sleeps soundly,
listening to that familiar heartbeat,
peaceful and perfect.

'Kazaa' makers settle piracy lawsuits - Yahoo! News

Ah, Kazaa. You filled that gap between Napster and Bittorrent pretty well. You will be missed.

My Boring Ass Life » None of you deserve any credit

Haven't any of these people learned yet? I guess not. Kevin gives us a little math lesson when a columist insists Clerks 2 isn't going to make any money. And the fact that she thinks it's an insult to the industry to put the fan names at the end of the credits is just stupid. Not to mention an insult to the fans. Do these folks think their salaries just fall from trees or something?

The Ann Lynn EP "Cowards All The Rage" is now available for download on iTunes. Check it out here. You can download the full album or individual songs. You can still purchase some exclusive downloads here as well. If you haven't had a chance to listen to this yet, I highly recommend it. Not only are you helping Phil and I out, you're also supporting a great band and this website as well.

Two weeks from today I am going under the knife to have ACL reconstruction surgery. Our reader(s) might remember I tore my right ACL playing basketball last month. I feel I must mention that it was torn while playing basketball and at the same time be thankful that it didn't happen stepping off the curb at Krispy Kreme, which would just be embarrassing. Before Kelly and I left for New Mexico two weeks ago, there was more damage done to the knee, and this time from packing clothes. I turned about 20º to my right, heard a loud pop, felt my knee fall apart, and I fell to the floor. Kelly heard the pop from the bowels of our walk-in closet and ran to my aid. The therapist wasn't sure what happened, but when the surgeon sticks his arthroscopic camera in he will do some "knee spelunking" to check things out. After the surgery, I was told I'll get a black envelope with images from the arthroscopy. I'm not sure why a black envelope, but the therapist was sure to let me know the color.

There are actually several methods to reconstruct a torn ACL. In my case, the surgeon will remove part of my hamstring and an abductor tendon from the back of my thigh, drill two holes in my bones, and wrap the tendons around two screws to make a new six-stranded fake ACL (SFACL). I found an animation of the procedure here if you are really interested and haven't stopped reading this entry by now. Just click that you agree, then "knee", and the "ACL Reconstruction with Hamstring." I just wonder how exactly that huge drill in the cartoon will fit in a small hole in my leg. At least I hope it's small.

And on second thought, a knee injury from packing clothes doesn't sound very tough. Tell everyone you know it happened while I was fending off a grizzly from eating a small child and her puppy.

It was fun to have a visit today from the Aharonian family! I haven't seen them since the Lucus wedding, which was almost 4 years ago. We had fun hanging out with Jonathan and Kevin in the little time we had, and just a couple of photos (Max was a charmer!):

There's a great editorial from Jim Wallis in the latest Sojourners newsletter:

The Body of Christ in Lebanon

"Let me first say that I affirm Israel's existence and its right to live in peace and security. Let me also say that I believe Hezbollah has provoked this current crisis. Since the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah has built a stockpile of thousands of rockets, continued attacks on Israel, and then, recently, kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. So we start by condemning kidnapping and Hezbollah's attacks on Israeli civilians."
...
"Hezbollah's rocket attacks into northern Israel have killed 19 civilians and injured hundreds more. But the disproportionate Israeli air strikes in Lebanon, with their horrible death toll among civilians with nothing to do with Hezbollah must also be condemned. The latest estimate is more than 400 Lebanese civilians killed, with the needless destruction of the country's infrastructure, which took 15 years to rebuild after the devastating civil war. Israel has gone after Hezbollah, but is destroying Lebanon and, don't forget, its fledgling democracy. And let there be no double standards when it comes to how we label "terrorist" acts. When a nation state, such as Israel, carries out military policies which it knows will kill many civilians, including the use of cluster bombs, and deliberately targets civilian infrastructures and areas, does not the label also apply?"

[emphasis mine]

I've had enough of people who are quick to condemn Muslim terrorists, but turn a blind eye when our allies do the same thing. Murder is murder, and no amount of talk about "strategic strikes" and "collateral damage" can change reality.

So, what is the answer and the context of my equation title?

Sorry I haven't blogged so much recently, I have been kind of preoccupied with a few things. First off, NCAA '07 is amazing, buy it, love it. Secondly, stuff to do. Lots of work, lots of overtime, lots of fast cars.

I also feel in a creativity low. My job right now just kind of sucks it out of me. I am not required to think too horribly creative, so I have a hard time doing it. So I try to keep my blog lively by being creative and not just being political and stupid, plus I feel into that trap in the last week. So today, I am posting.

I feel rested. I only worked 8 hours today, I want to dance, I drank Dew, and I ordered a $.22 pizza. Can life get any better?

I finally started a photobucket account. I put up picture that I personally have taken there, you should go take a look at them
sometime. Check out the ALMS one.

The answer to my question of the title is 2.479 and it is how much gas I put in my tank and how much it cost.

Also I know the picture is huge.

Erika and I got the chance to see a preview of this last night at a drive-in. It was kind of cool, since they were having a promotion with VW buses and filled the first several rows with them! KROQ was there for the promotion, but who cares?

Anyway, the movie is cute, though filled with a lot of obscene humorous moments.

Alan Arkin steals the show as the grandfather to Olive, an unlikely beauty pageant contestant, whose family sets out to drive over 600 miles in a pretty pathetic VW bus to get her to a competition in California. Arkin is Olive's pageant coach, and is an even more unlikely person to be involved in that type of business, since he's recently been kicked out of his retirement community for living life a bit too large with his drug use and sexual promiscuity. He is hilarious, though. Really.

Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette are perfect as Olive's parents. I love Kinnear's character, who is obsessed with not being a loser and dedicates himself to promoting his 9-step success program.

The rest of the family is just as messed up. It's all a bit contrived, what with the uncle played by Steve Carrell who failed a suicide who has to go on the trip because he needs supervision and the big brother who has taken a vow of silence (inspired by Nietzsche) until he becomes a pilot. But if you don't think about it too hard, I think the movie actually works.

I wouldn't call it hilarious, but there were plenty of laughs, as well as a few unexpected true-to-life moments. One thing I would fault the marketing of this movie for is giving away almost the entire plot and most of the funniest moments, all of which would have gotten a bigger audience response if they hadn't already seen everything in the trailer. The plot goes a bit bizarre toward the end after having felt relatively realistic for the first half, but I still thought it was a fun experience.

The more I think about this movie, the more I appreciate it. I haven't read the novel it was inspired by, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary. The premise is enough for it to stand on its own. The story is basically about actors who are making a film adaptation of Tristram Shandy. So we go back and forth between the movie they are making and the actors themselves--not to be confused with a documentary--the actors play themselves as actors who are making a movie, so there is a lot of fun play on the personality of the actors, Steve Coogan's sense of self-importance in particular.

Speaking of Steve Coogan, after watching this movie, I'm beginning to think he is sort of the George Sanders of our generation, although I'm not sure how many of you know who George Sanders is. Haha. Anyway, he's just got the perfect balance of amiability and smugness.

Basically the movie they are making tells the story of Tristram's conception, womb experience, birth (and related breaking of his nose), and naming, all of which are told out of order when interspersed with the behind the scenes scenes. By the way, if you ever want to see the downside of being a successful actor, just watching Coogan's interruption-filled busy day should suffice.

I really enjoyed the playful nature of the film, and the constant back and forth between "reality" and the movie make it move along very quickly. There are also two hilarious sequences in which Coogan is inserted into a fake womb to play Tristram Shandy before he is born, one being the test run and the other being a surreal moment in the movie.

At any rate, now that I'm sitting here typing, I find it very difficult to describe any aspect of this one, but I think it would be enjoyable to most audiences, although I can't remember if there was anything obscene in it. Oh wait, there's a really funny nude part about the pathetic conception of Tristram. Watch out for that. :)

We did it. Honzo, Danny, Luis and I recorded a conference call on Gizmo. The show was fun, even though I ducked out early, but the quality of the audio su-ucked. So it looks like we're going to go back to Skype. If more people want to get involved we can just rotate the guests. So consider this a test run. We talk about Clerks 2, Comic-Con, Danny's Prius, the Israel-Lebanon conflict, and a few other things.

Get the file or subscribe to our new feed.

So Comic-Con almost ended up being a giant bust for me this year. I left super early but it was much more difficult to find parking. Last year there was no line to register for one day badges. This year the line was like 2 1/2 hours long! It was INSANE. But I stuck it out and I made it in. I knew things were looking up when I immediately found my friend Adam from the VA Board and he took me to the Cartoon Voice Actors panel. It turned out to be a great day. Here are some highlights:

• The voice actors panel with the guys who voiced several of the transformers (including Grimlock), Duke from G.I. Joe, and The Brain from Pinky and the Brain
• Since I didn't even try to get into Hall H (where all the big panels are), I got to catch the Veronica Mars panel. It was totally sweet. Kristen Bell is just as beautiful in person. Everyone was cool.
• I met Richard Taylor at the Weta booth.
• I met the Chiodo Brothers. Not only are they responsible for Large Marge and Killer Klowns from Outer Space, they also did the puppets for Team America: World Police. They were super cool.
• I got to talk to Richard Kelly again at the Graffiti Designs/View Askew Booth. He's a really cool guy. I'm really looking forward to the next Southland Tales graphic novels and the movie.
• Kevin Smith was late for his original panel so I got to finish my day by going to his make-up panel. It was hilarious, as always.

I've decided I'm definitely coming down for the whole con next year and getting a hotel room near the convention center. It will be my uber-Geek vacation and it will kick large amounts of ass. If anyone else wants to come, let me know. Check out all my pics from the con in the Gallery.

Last Friday we went to Copper Mountain ski resort to volunteer at a 3 day bicycle tour called the Courage Classic. Each day, Saturday through Monday, around 2000 cyclists ride 50ish road miles through scenic mountain terrain. Individuals and teams in the tour make a required donation and raise money which supports the Children's Hospital. Our job as volunteers was to man an aid station, where cyclists stopped and filled up on Gatorade, water, fruit, and other sundry snacks. It required early rising on our part, which has not been a part of our summer routine: Saturday - 4:30 am, Sunday - 6:00 am, Monday - 5:15 am. Despite being awake for twice as long per day as I'm used to, the weekend was a lot of fun. We met some fun people and got an all expense paid 3 day weekend in the mountains. I also learned that if you are hanging around me, I 100% prefer you to not be wearing bicycle shorts. Those things flatter no one. NO ONE!

In store for this coming weekend is something I've been looking forward to all summer: THE FLAMING LIPS at Red Rocks! Woo hoo! And we already have tickets, so we are definitely going to this one.

Related to concert news, voice your opinion in our new poll. I got tickets to see a screening of Little Miss Sunshine on August 2nd. I also won tickets to see The Futureheads and Tapes 'n Tapes in concert the same night. I've heard neither band before but read good things. There may be one problem though: I won the tickets through kingblind.com. I previously won a cd, so they said, but I never got it. Jerks! Anyway, I'm supposed to be on the guestlist for the show. Which should we attend? (No promises, as evidenced by the last poll).

There's something about white, middle-class male geeks that makes us want to make public the things that entertain us. Fortunately, there seems to be a growing number of websites designed to help us do just that.

If you want to know what music I've been listening to, go here.

If you want to know which of the IMDB's top 250 movies I've seen, go here.

If you want to know how I rate those movies and just about every other film I've ever seen, go here.

That's right, screw the spine center! I had the most unsympathetic doctor in the world who refused to actually validate that I felt significant pain. I think he gave me epidurals to pacify me but truly didn't think the pain was that bad. Yesterday I had my follow-up appointment with him, where he said there wasn't much else he could do for me besides recommend me for surgery, which both of us agreed was a step too far for now. I asked about going to a chiropractor, and he said to go ahead and try that or even acupuncture. I'm jumping at the opportunity because it means I don't have to deal with him anymore, for a while, at least.

There's a Christian chiropractor near the university that apparently almost everyone on staff here seems to go to, so I am going to call them up to see if my insurance does anything for me there. Even if it doesn't, I think Ric and I are ready for me to try something new anyway. I've had great encouragement from a girl here in my office who has similar back problems and has had vast improvement not just with her back but with other physical ailments that were related to her back troubles. So there's hope.

Besides that I'm just getting back into the swing of things at work after having seven work days off spread out through three weeks this month. Things are relatively busy, but good. I've been really into watching movies in the past few weeks, so sorry for the slew of posts for those of you who aren't too interested in the reviews!

Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man basically consists of footage from a Cohen tribute concert in which many famous artists play Cohen's music and the poet/musician himself talking about his history and writing process. There are also a few interviews with the musicians and their perspectives on Cohen's work.

The artists include Nick Cave, U2, Rufus & Martha Wainwright, Antony, Beth Orton, and Jarvis Cocker, off the top of my head.

Being sadly unfamiliar with pretty much anything but the song "Hallelujah" I think I'm ill-equipped to write much about Cohen's music.

The musical performances get better as the movie goes on, and there are some genuinely beautiful moments of music. The parts with Cohen are honest and interesting. I only wish there had been more footage of him--more commentary from him. While the performances are great, it almost feels like they are the main focus, and I almost wanted there to be two separate movies, or a longer movie. The movie ends with Cohen singing with U2 as his backup band. That truly was an awesome moment.

Jarvis Cocker and Nick Cave's names drew me in, but Cohen's songs won me over. Great stuff.

Yet another of my bed rest viewings, The Poseidon Adventure was actually a lot more tense and better than I had expected it to be, since all I ever heard about was Shelley Winters' performance. Gene Hackman is great as he leads a small group of people towards safety after a giant cruise ship is rolled upside-down by a giant earthquake-induced wave.

The cast is a diverse and enjoyable one. From an elderly couple to a small kid to women who scream a lot, the people we follow through the movie all have their faults but are likeable. Lots of great actors.

Hackman's character is a priest who doesn't seem all that priestly, but still relies on God to help him move the people throughout the ship. The irritating part for me was when the priest gives up on God and basically says (paraphrased), "What more do you want? We're doing this on our own without you." Maybe his fate is a result of that. Haha.

Anyway, the crash scene and the many tense action sequences (including the infamous underwater scenes) make it very worthwhile, and the characters make it even better. Good movie!

I have a quota for giant rolling item sequences. It's one per movie. Either have the prisoners in a giant rolling ball, or have the sword scene on the wheel. But both was a bit overkill. :)

Overall I thought the movie was amusing and fun, but it didn't have the charm of the first and the characters were a bit less endearing the second time around. I'm not sure how they managed to make Keira quite so useless and unattractive for a full 2+ hours, but they did it. Still, Jack Sparrow made me laugh many times, and the two sidekicks (you know, the one with the fake eye) cracked me up. Davy Jones was a great villain too. I did feel that the movie smacked of sequel, but it was still entertaining enough for me to enjoy it.

I finally got the pictures from the signing off of Chris' camera. I also took pics at Comic-Con which I will post later. I would also like to say that I really enjoyed the first Southland Tales book and I'm looking forward to the next two. More pics after the jump.

Read more »

This movie opens up with scenes from a funeral for the electric car (obviously Ed Begley Jr. was present), and then moves to a scary looking shot of Phyllis Diller sitting next to a portrait of Bob Hope, reminiscing about the earliest electric cars. It was fun to see such eccentric shots in a movie I thought could potentially be very dull.

Instead of being dull, this movie, while definitely leaning toward some political bias that wasn't necessarily needed to fuel its cause, does a good job at looking at the history of electric cars in the 1990s and figuring out what the reasons were behind their disappearance from the roads. The focus is on Southern California in particular, and GM's EV1 model, and the story that is told really does cause one to be confused and somewhat outraged as well.

Interviews span from celebrities who liked driving electric cars to people who work for C.A.R.B. to the creator of a revolutionary electric car battery (who happens to be one of the most charming old men alive). I found this movie quite interesting and informative. It does have a few arguments that could use a little more behind them here and there, but overall I think Who Killed The Electric Car covers its bases thoroughly and enjoyably.

I don't think one necessarily needs to see it in the theater (in fact, some grainy old television footage actually looks pretty bad when blown up on the big screen), but it's worth a watch eventually.

By the way, if you're interested, the answer to the movie's title question:
- Big Oil Companies
- Motor Vehicle Companies
- California Air Resources Board
- Federal Government
- The ideal of hydrogen fuel cells

Not guilty: Electric car batteries or any other features of electric cars.

Crazy telemarketer call

OMG this is awesome. Thanks Gringo.

Just got back from the Clerks 2 screening at the Arclight. Kevin Smith did a Q&A afterwards. It was great. The movie was hilarious. As Kevin himself said, if he didn't make any more View Askewniverse movies(not that he won't, he still might down the road) this and Clerks make great bookends for the series. I think Elias, played by Trevor Fehrman surprised me the most. He did an amazing job. Kevin also did a great job casting Rosario Dawson. I am now in love with her. Dante & Randal's dynamic was great as always. It's good to see Jeff Anderson in a starring role again. I love that guy. So that's pretty much how I feel about Clerks 2. I definitely want to watch it again. I will warn you that, like the rest of Kevin's flicks (except Jersey Girl, it's a very hard R. So if you have a problem with that, don't see the movie or wait for the watered down TV version, which will probably be hilarious.

I came across this awesome spoof of the new Mac adds while moderating some new b2e posts. ht:The Life of Kyle.

Enjoy!

A nicely atmospheric Belgian cat and mouse game between a vigilante professional killer and a cop with a cause, The Memory of a Killer was part of my bed rest entertainment and was worth the rental. An older man who has been a professional killer for many years takes a job against his better judgment, knowing that he's starting to have symptoms of Alzheimer's. Obviously, there are a few kinks in the job, and our hero realizes his limitations, ending up working on eliminating everyone in his contracted employer's evil scheme.

This movie is great to look at. Tons of beautiful shots, and great dark atmospheres. The lead role is very entertaining. The cop who pursues/respects him is a bit more formulaic, but the overall movie is quite good. I enjoyed this one.

Gizmo now calls landlines and mobile phones for free - Gizmo is the open source competitor for Skype and now you can call regular phones for free. It also has recording built in. It also doesn't have the 5-person conference call limit that Skype has. I suggest we use this for a podcast. Last time I tried it I had some problems with it crashing, but it's been a while, so maybe they've fixed it. And we can get people in the conversation even if they don't have a headset. I think the quality from landlines may not be as good, but it will be easier.

Update: The fine print:

The All Calls Free plan applies when both call participants are registered and active Gizmo Project users. A person is considered active when they are making phone calls with Gizmo Project on a regular basis. We reserve the right to limit call length.

So, both users have to have Gizmo accounts.

(via Digg)

This cartoon was published in April 2003.

These comments were made by Bill Kristol yesterday:

...the Iranian people dislike their regime. I think they would be – the right use of targeted military force — but especially if political pressure before we use military force – could cause them to reconsider whether they really want to have this regime in power.

Eerie, huh?

hawesome.mov (video/quicktime Object)

I always wondered where Wil Wheaton got the phrase "hawesome." I guess I should have clicked the link. I finally did and it revealed this vlog post. It's rather funny, especially when the guy talks about the contents of the average blog.

Shoganai - Gaming Goodness for the geek in all of us!

Holy crap, the pictures speak for themselves. I want to live in Japan now.

Last Thursday Kelly and I went to New Mexico to visit and show Kelly where I spent 8-12 grades.

We arrived in Santa Fe on Thursday afternoon after I gave Kelly a tour of Glorieta, where I worked during the summers of 1999 and 2000. My good friend Erin, with whom we were staying in Santa Fe, took us for bowling and karaoke in the evening. With my bum knee, I got last place out of 7 people. I tried to summon the mystic bowling prowess of Kirksville legend Berl Scrivens by taking the name for myself, but to no avail - I rolled a 64. But, Kelly rocked with a 119 and was even in the running to win. Her name was Fern Gully. We were also roped into serenading an inebriated group of middle aged adults with Summer Lovin' from Grease.

On Friday Kelly and I walked around the plaza in Santa Fe. We toured the Loretto Chapel, the "oldest house in America," the Palace of the Governors, and the capitol building. That night we went to dinner at a sort of pricey restaurant, but Kelly and I spent much less than everyone else because we don't drink much. We're not familiar much with the booze, and we don't care to spend $8 on a glass of wine when the chances are that we won't like it. That didn't stop others. Individually, the rest of our party spent more than Kelly and I combined. Eventually we returned to Erin's and slept, but about 2 a.m. Kelly and I were dragged into an episode of COPS when the neighbors began having a screamfest. We heard "Put down the knife and get out!" wafting in from an open window. One of the neighbors called the police before us, and they questioned the male and made him sleep somewhere else. After about an hour, the rest of the night was quiet.

Saturday, Erin was going orienteering. We didn't go because rough terrain = my knee crying for mercy. Anyway, it was a good opportunity to take Kelly to Albuquerque, where I went to high school. We toured my old neighborhood, school, and a couple restaurants. We also got tired and went to see Pirates of the Carribean II. By the way, the theater was cash only, which totally blows. We rarely have more the 4 singles on us at any time, and rely heavily on the plastic. So, we had to get money from the ATM, which popped us with a $2 fee. Even more, I think the theater owns the ATM and gets that money. I was mad. Mad enough to write a letter.

Sunday we came back to Denver. We had a good time in New Mexico, but you know what? No matter where you've been, there's nothing that beats sleeping in your own bed again.

Here in Denver, we are still under the Netflix spell. I saw Top Gun for the first time on Monday. It was ok, but I hate when movies add a love story as an afterthought to the plot. It is obvious and boring to watch. Scrubs and Curb Your Enthusiasm are still not boring.

A few weeks ago I was a little careless with my iPod and I cracked the LCD screen. Because Apple’s warranty doesn’t cover acts of negligent stupidity, I basically had to choose between buying a new iPod or finding an unofficial service to fix it.

The company I settled on was iPodResQ. I chose them because 1) they offered the cheapest price of any I found, and 2) they have a great shipping system. I was a little nervous about sending my iPod in the mail, but iPodResQ takes are of all the shipping, including a box with padding specifically designed to fit the iPod. The best part is that all of this is included in the flat repair fee.

After placing my order on the company’s website, I received a box via DHL the very next day. I followed the directions included, placed my iPod inside, and arranged for pick-up from my house the same day. iPodResQ received it and fixed it the next day, then shipped it back to me overnight. The whole process took three business days, and I got my iPod back as good as new.

Saddam Hussein is a terrible person, he is a threat to his own people. I think his people would be better off with a different leader, but there is this sort of romantic notion that if Saddam Hussein got hit by a bus tomorrow, some Jeffersonian democrat is waiting in the wings to hold popular elections. You're going to get -- guess what -- probably another Saddam Hussein. It will take a little while for them to paint the pictures all over the walls again, but there should be no illusions about the nature of that country or its society. And the American people and all of the people who second-guess us now would have been outraged if we had gone on to Baghdad and we found ourselves in Baghdad with American soldiers patrolling the streets two years later still looking for Jefferson.

-- Colin Powell, 1992

Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in ‘mission creep,’ and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs,” Bush and Scowcroft wrote. “We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-cold war world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome.

-- George H.W. Bush, 1998

The emphasis above is mine.

"Mission creep" is exactly what happened in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The original rationale was that Saddam was an imminent threat because of his nuclear program and WMD. When those didn't turn up, the mission was changed to liberating Iraqis and establishing a democracy.

If only George Bush had paid more attention to what his father and his Secretary of State had said on this issue, then maybe the world and the US would be better prepared to handle the scary situations we're facing in the Middle East and North Korea right now.

Joel Siegel walked about of a screening for Clerks II and made a ruckus on the way out.

"Getting a bad review from Siegel is like a badge of honor. This is the guy who stole his mustachioed-critic shtick from Gene Shalit years ago, and still refuses to give it back. This is a guy who seemingly prides himself on his own nyuk-nyuk wordplay. For 'Pirates 2,' he made us all titter with 'Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Fun' . . . He made us squeal with delight when he wrote, 'Wheelie Good Time for "Cars." ' I mean, Fozzy [bleeping] Bear laughs at this guy."

I don't need Joel Siegel to [bleep] my [bleep] the way he apparently [bleeps] M. Night Shyamalan's, gushing over his flick ['The Lady in the Water'] before he's even seen it, but [bleep] man, man - how about a little common [bleeping] courtesy? You never, never disrupt a movie, simply because you don't like it. Cardinal rule of moviegoing: Shut your [bleeping] mouth while the movie's playing.

I don't come down to your job and slap the taste out of your mouth for coming up with a line like, ' "Shark Tale" Is a Halibut Good Time' - so don't [bleep] with my stuff while it's still screening . . . What are you, a 12-year-old boy cutting loose with your pals at a Friday night screening of 'Scary Movie' 4' while your parents are in a theater down the hall watching 'The Devil Wears Prada'? Leave the diva-like behavior and drama-queen antics to the movie stars, not the movie reviewer, ya' rude-ass [bleep]."

Kevin Smith

Tomorrow is World Jump Day, an event that aims to get 600 million people to jump on one side of the earth simultaneously in order to alter the planet's orbit and reduce global warming.

What can you do to help? Just jump. Go to the website and enter your location to find out when your time is.

Plain View #44 - 7/12/06

Superman Returns

Vertical Ray of the Sun

MPAA - thank you congress! we're so helpless without you (Movie Mom)

Visit from the city cousins (nature walk)

Poor George

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I've actually thought it would be cool if somebody in Congress pursued this line of argument. I'm kind of surprised that someone had the nerve to do it:

Marriage is for life, and this amendment [to ban gay marriage] needs to include that basic tenant. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I think we should expand the scope of the amendment to outlaw divorce in this country. Going further Mr. Speaker, I believe in fidelity. Adultery is an evil that threatens the marriage and the heart of every marriage, which is commitment.

How can we as a country allow adulterers to go unpunished and continue to make a mockery of marriage? Again by doing so, what lessons are we teaching our children about marriage? I certainly think that it shows we are not serious about protecting the institution and this is why I think the amendment should outlaw adultery and make it a felony.

This is satire of the highest order. Congressman Davis shows that the effort to ban gay marriage in Congress is less about protecting "the sanctity of marriage" and more about creating a meaningless issue to rally behind in an election year.