Now that we're running b2evolution 2.3.0, our blog authors have some more features available. Most of them are available from the toolbar. If you don't see it at the top of the page, then log in.

Most of the skins that were in use have been upgraded. But, if your blog has a different skin than it used to, or if you just want to try a new look, click on Customize > Blog skin. Select your blog if it's not already selected, then click on a skin. There's no need for a skin for every blog since you can change your sidebar using

Widgets. Click Customize > Blog widgets and you can change what's in your sidebar. Add widgets, delete widgets, re-order them. If you need any specific help, let me know.

You now have some more options for post urls. Go to Customize > Blog urls. You can change the category urls and the single post urls. The old way was "extra-path: year, month & day" and I set most of you to that. I switched to "extra-path: post title". Choose whatever you like.

Go to Customize > Blog properties and you can set, among other things, how many posts show on each page.

Explore, have fun and please report any problems you find or changes that you want made to your skin or settings.

Danny is hard at work on the b2e upgrade and things are going pretty well. I am almost finished widgetizing the sidebars. If any authors need help doing that, please let us know. I couldn't fix the last podcast but it's listenable for the bulk of it. The delay really comes in the last 5 minutes or so of part 3. We'll do better next time. Smiles joins in on these, making his live debut on the podcast. We discuss a certain chicken patty eating Jim Cunningham type and football. Prepare to be amazed.

December 16th Podcast - Part 2

December 16th Podcast - Part 3

I caught this at the dollar theater the week before Christmas. I always enjoy Clive Owen, so I thought I'd check it out, despite the mixed reviews. As it turns out, this movie was right up my alley. It almost reminded me of a Jackie Chan movie like Rumble in the Bronx with its cheesiness, but its action sequences are so creative, so over-the-top, and so ridiculous that I found myself laughing quite a bit at its grotesque charm.

Owen's character is named Smith. He sees a pregnant lady being hunted down by a man with a gun and decides to save her. A gunfight ensues while she is in labor. The second I saw mass amounts of shells falling onto her giant belly while she's giving birth, I knew the movie was going to be like nothing I'd ever seen. Smith is able to rescue the baby, but not the mom, so he has to find a source of milk for the child. Who better than a recently pregnant hooker, played by Monica Bellucci? The mysterious Smith and his friend take the baby, who Smith names Oliver (yes, Dickens-inspired), into hiding while being hunted down by Paul Giamatti, who is a sadistic villain who happens to get interrupted a lot by phone calls from his nagging wife. His transitions from gunman to loving husband are pretty funny.

The dialog is as over-the-top as the action, so it's no surprise that Monica Bellucci's accent has a hard time keeping up. She may be pretty, but the line, "I almost got snuffed back there," comes out of her mouth in the most awkward pronunciation possible.

I really think it was the creativity of the action sequences that entertained me the most. I almost hate to share what some of them are, but really, you can't fully imagine them unless you see them. Off the top of my head, I specifically remember a scene where the baby is left on a merry-go-round, and Giamatti has a sniper rifle pointed at him, and Clive Owen rescues the baby by shooting at the merry-go-round to make it spin while running towards the baby to pick it up. Oh, and there's a parachuting gun battle as well, which left me laughing in both surprise and enjoyment.

A lot of comparisons have been made with this movie and a cartoon, and that really isn't far off. It's got the funny-bone of a cartoon, and most of the sequences are too ridiculous to feel like a legit action scene, so I like the comparison. Obviously, the fact that our hero eats carrots on as regular a basis as Bugs Bunny himself lends to that idea as well. But what he can do with a carrot far surpasses what you might ever imagine.

I had tons of fun seeing this movie. It was a good $1.50, but I think I want to Netflix it as well so Ric can watch it too. Just as a warning to anyone interested, it's not just a funny action movie - there's a lot of graphic stuff from nudity to extreme violence. It may not be everyone's kind of movie, but I thought it was a cheesy yet clever blast.

Apparently I wrote this back in September but forgot to publish it!

Ric and I signed up with Charter cable for more than two services, and as a reward we were able to pick from a short list of DVDs to get a free movie, and we also got a certificate for a pizza and a 2-liter. Somehow I don't think the cost of installation makes this worthwhile, especially now that we'll have to move soon, but hey, it's better than getting nothing. The list was full of bad movies, but luckily, I saw that Stripes was one of our choices, and have always heard great things about it. Besides, I love me some Bill Murray.

Seeing Murray in his younger movies is always a treat. He's so cocky and yet so hilarious. Here, he stars as John Winger, a complete loser: he gets sick of his taxi driving job and quits on the middle of a bridge, walks home to see his car being stolen, finds out his girlfriend is leaving him, and realizes that he basically has no future. So what better to do than join the Army with his best friend Russell (played by Harold Ramis)?

Ramis and Murray are perfectly paired. While Murray is loud and the obvious jokester, Ramis provides a dry sense of humor that totally suits this type of 80s comedy. Their fellow soldiers fill out the stereotypes: the stupid one, the psycho one, and the fat one (an awesome John Candy, whose name is Ox). John and Russell two seem to behave as if they have done the Army a favor by joining, and that they aren't subject to (or bothered by) the rule of Sgt. Hulka, played by a stiff and angry Warren Oates. They make it look like it's pretty easy to get away with things in the Army, but believability isn't what matters here - it's the vicarious experience of these two, who sneak out to mud-wrestling strip clubs and have fun nights with the military policewomen.

Of course, all the joking around must end with the poor excuse of a group of soldiers, who eventually prove themselves as disciplined men at their graduation ceremony.. sort of. The last portion of the movie is a bit ridiculous, but in a movie where two clowns join the Army, it's only reasonable to want to see some actual battle sequences. The vehicle and circumstances in which this happen are pretty crazy, but I actually enjoyed them.

With a vibe that only early 1980s comedies could provide, this movie hits pretty much all of the right notes. It's always funny, feels scripted yet somehow still spontaneous, and just makes me smile. I guess I'm glad I signed up with Charter!