The Check is in The Mail

They can have my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers

2008-06-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the SCOTUS handed down a spectacular decision on the second amendment. This is only the second time they supreme court has head a 2nd Amedment case. They have now officially called the second amendment an INDIVIDUAL right.

I'm very happy with this decision. I was worried, epescially after they totally hosed the property rights decision recently (eminent domain).

I found it interesting listening to the various pro/con gun control groups talk about this ruling. The more extreme 'con' groups were all declaring that we were going to turn into the Wild West. Guess what dumbshits. The Wild West wasn't that wild. Learn your history. Most of time people were too busy trying to stay fed. The 'Wild West' wasn't nearly as carzy as Hollywood would have you believe. The extreme 'pro' group were of course stating they could now challenge every gun control law on the books. Yeah, right. Nice try. That is NOT what SCOTUS said. You still can't yell 'FIRE' in a crowded room and claim 1st Amendment.

My feelings are this: Guns should be regulated but not banned. PERIOD. We should keep violent criminals from having guns, I have no problem with assault weapons being outlawed. Sorry guys, there is NO reason to hunt with or use for self defence an Fully auto-AK-47. I also think a waiting period and background check is ok.

That is the kind of gun control I have no problem with.

Anyway, the SCOTUS made the USA a much safer country yesterday. Thanks you justices.

No law abiding citizen sho

What's new in the bathroom

2008-06-25T10:47:00.001-07:00

Jen and I have been working on a bathroom remodel for most of the year. We decided to completely gut the downstairs bathroom and start from scratch. To call the existing bathroom 'nasty' is an affront to all truly nasty things.

We didn't change the layout of the room. We merly replaced everything and added a few touches.

A couple of the big changes included a new glass block window (I did that!) to replace the crappy casement window, the additional of an exhaust fan (there wasn't one before!) and an in-floor heating system. We also tiled the floor and shower walls.

The picture above is the current state of things. The bug bundle of wires is the floor warming system.

We did MAJORLY screw up one thing. We waited way to long to clean the xcess grout of the wall tile and now we are having to carefully scrub it off with vinegar and water and try not to destroy 1,500 bucks worth of imported italian clay tiles. :(

Jen is working on the tile cleanup and I'm putting the finishing joint compound on the regular wall seams, screw holes, etc. Once we get these thigns done we can paint, seal the good grout and then we can isntall the new toilet and vanity!

We replaced the regular door with a pocket door and have't decided on what kind of door slab we want to use. It's a tought choice because we want to replace all 14 of the crappy luan doors throughout the house with the same thing. We'll use the old door temorarily. Anyway, after the bathroom is painted I can isntall the trim and jambs for the door.

Thats about it...new bathroom soon! YAY!

"shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits"

2008-06-23T05:28:00.000-07:00

I am sorry for the rather adult theme of my title but I think it's the most fitting tribute to the man who created that quote of the seven dirty words. Mr. George Carlin. RIP sir. You were a funny S.O.B.

George Carlin was one of the filthiest comedians I ever saw. However, one thing that set him apart from other 'shock' comedians was that his used of curse words and derogatory slang were part of the comedy and not just thrown in to try and make jokes more funny. I've seen one too many comedians where if I took out the curse words their act wouldn't change.

I learned something cool about George today as I read his obit. He was the first host of Saturday Night Live. Dayum. That by itself if a great thing. That was back when SNL was funny.

I did get to see George Carlin live once. It was about four or five years ago at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, GA. Unfortunately I came away a little saddened. Somewhere down the line George's cynicism turned into deep bitterness and his normally witty and insightful banter became what I can only describe as angry. His show had it's moments. He was practicing a new opening monologue for an upcoming HBO special which sent Jen and I in a fit of hysterics and throughout the show there were moments where his old self shone through. I try to remember those bits and forget the other crap.

Regardless of his own personal demons, he was generally a funny guy who had a profound impact on American culture. I'm glad I got to see him live. You finally swallowed you limit of saliva.

RIP.

What's on TV this week

2008-05-21T09:43:00.001-07:00

Well, NOTHING. All my favorite shows are waiting an extra week for their spring sweeps so there ain't squat on.

What did I get this week:
Bones season finale: HOLY CRAP!!! Gormegon's appretice was Zach? Didn't see the coming. I di like the idea of it being sweets. BTW, that actors character in Waiting was great. "Like being the smartest kid with downs.." lol

House season finale: So Amber died. Bummer, she was smokin hot and a fun character who got under House' skin. Wilson is a sad puppy. Of course. He finally met a woman he wasn't going to self destruct on. Damn. A pretty good season ender for a show that was pretty stupid most of the season. I only watched it because it follows Bones.

Battlestar Galactica: Ok, how did everyone on the Galactica brain fart and let President Roslyn anywhere NEAR that base star? And WHO seriously thought it would be a good idea to reconnect the hybrid? I mean COME ON.

Lost episode before the season finale: Getting better and better. Keamy's gotta die. Die UGLY. I hope Ben gets to do it.

Favorite Lost characters in order:
1. Ben - Duh.
2. Hurley - Hurley RULES. He is only number 2 to Ben because Ben rules more
3. Sayid - badass but cool
4. Jin/Sun - They get the nod as the best couple. Both are badass in their own way.

Lease favorite:
1. Jack - complete, whiny pussy - nuf said

Anyway, Lost = win

Recent movies I watched:

Cloverfield. I liked it. It's a different take on the monster mash. Usually you get the military against a big monster. If it's an Asian film there will be an annoying little kid thrown in for good measure. In Cloverfield you get the perspective of a group of ordinary people who are trying to help friends and get out New York who peridically run into and out of contact with said military and monster. Nify but I really hate the shaky cam Blair Witch crap. It's worth a rental.

Aliens vs Predator 2. Gack. As bad as the first one. Lame. A perfect example of how to take two really great 'creature mythologies' and combine them to form a steaming pile of shit. The only good thing to say about it was there were a couple of good Predator head-shots in the uncut version.

I've got the new National Treasure coming is today. I'm not a big Nicholas Cage fan but at least his movies are usually entertaining enough to watch.

Happy Anniversary to Us

2008-05-21T05:30:00.000-07:00

Today is Jen and my third wedding anniversay.
Happy Anniversay to Us
Happy Anniversay to Us
Happy Anniversay to Us and you look like one too.

:)

Movie time

2008-05-12T05:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm lame. I still haven't seen Iron Man. I will.

What I am watching beside Battelstar Galactica and Lost is some stuff from Netflix.

I was The Golden Compass. 'meh' is about all I can say. The movie is based the first in a trilogy of books by Philip Pullman. The trilogy is called 'His Dark Materials' and the first book is 'Northern Lights'

Anyway, the story basically centers around a young girl who goes in search of some of her friends who have been snatched by 'Gobblers'. Basically, the Gobblers work for the church and are snatching the kids to perform experiments on them. See, in this world our 'souls' are external in the form of daemons. The daemons take the form of various animals and talk. Anyway, the church wants to separate people from their daemons because the source of the daemons, something called 'dust', is apparently a threat to their power.

Anyway, the movie centers mainly around her quest to find and rescue her buddies.

The Good:
The Armoured Bears. Picture a polar bear that talks and wears armor and kicks ass. Pretty well rendered CGI and jsut all around cool. I want one.
Chritopher Lee and Sam Elliot. Christopher Lee is always underused.
Sam Elliot was WAY underused considering the importance his character plays in the trilogy. He plays a citizen of the Republic of Texas. 'Duh'

The Bad:
Acting: It blew. The writers did a horrible job of scripting the books.
The movie ended early.

*SPOILER*

The girl rescues her friends and the other captured kids but the move ended there. There was a SIGNIFICANT bit of story afterwards that is kind of integral to the whole trilogy. It basically ties the entire story together. Way to go.

Overall impression: The movie was Daniel Craig's revenge (He's in it too). Sitting though this movie felt like I was sitting naked in a seatless chair getting my...well if you've seen Casino Royal you know what I mean...

I also watched King of Kong. No, it's not about a giant ape. This is a documentary about the world of virgins, er, competitive classic video games. Specifically, Donkey Kong.

Way back in the 80's Billy Mitchell, a jackass (and he is a COMPLETE JACKASS) not the WWII pilot who bombed Tokyo after Pearl Harbor, scored the world record in Donkey Kong. Basically, that moment defines this tool. Anyway, we get some back story on the whole things then we get introduced to a dude names Steve Wiebe (sp). This guy is a completely different sort of person from the rest of the crowd. He's an engineer working for Boeing who gets laid off the day he closed on his house. OUCH. He's married and has a couple of kids.

He's a normal guy who got dealt a shitty blow. Anyway, during his downtime he starts playing Donkey Kong in his garage and really really getting into it. He's a bit OCD and VERY competitive. You get this from interviews with his family and friends. Anyway, he eventually crushes the other guys high score. He video taped the whole thing so there would be a record of the feat. He then sends this tape into the 'Twin Galaxies' company which is a volunteer group of mega-virgins who basically took it upon themselves to referee these competitions and validate records, etc.
They are also quite clearly Billy Mitchell sycophants.

They basically find lame excuses to deny Steve his right to the record. The rest of documentary is Steve working hard to play head to head against Billy and prove himself. Billy "I'm a Kenny Loggins wanna-be" Mitchel dodges him at ever turn.

They never get to play head to head but what does happen is the Twin Galaxies and rest of the video game community realize what jerks they are and that Steve is a stand-up guy. They all apologize to Steve and welcome him into their community (Where I'm sure he'll never fit in since he's actually had sex with someone other than their hand).

The Good: Steve Wiebes daughter. She does quite get her dad's desire to get into the Guinness Book of World records. ("What's the big deal")
Steve Weibe's son: During the taping of his first record he comes into the garage yelling at his dad to "Wipe My Butt Dad!!' Stop Playing Donkeey KOOOOONG!!:' Major lollage.

The Bad: Billy Mitchel. Tool. 100% tool.
Really there wasn't anything bad in this movie. It was a well put together documentary and kept me interested all the way through.

Overall: Loved it. Make sure you stay for credits. They added followup information about Steve and Billy that is important.

A Trip to the Doc at 40

2008-05-08T06:41:00.000-07:00

Last month I turned 40. Last year my sister and dad both were diagnosed with cancer. They had breast and colon cancer respectively. (Both are doing great now). Anyway, I call that a pattern so I decided I had better get over my dislike of doctors and go get a physical.

The physical was no big deal. Blood Pressure (118/85), pulse (68), reflexes, yadda-yadda-yadda. They also ask a ton of questions. It's all typical stuff used to establish a baseline medical history. I like to call myself very medically boring. I am happy this way.

One part of the physical that wasn't to pleasant was the inevitable prostate check. The NP who did the exam was a slim girl with slender fingers but *DAMN* I swear she used a telephone pole to check things. As I'm bending over waiting for the "slight discomfort" I tried to think of something funny to say. I ended up saying "I have about 20 jokes I could say right now but none of them really seem all that funny". Well, the NP picked up my slack and replied "You ought to see things from my perspective." Nice, thanks for making me laugh.

Other than that the rest of the physical was pretty normal. Since I hadn't fasted I had to come back for a full blood work-up. Jennifer and I both needed to do them so we did them last weekend. I got the results back yesterday and once again my medically boring status was reinforced. The only thing that needs addressing is my "good" cholesterol level. It's a bit low; however, my "bad" cholesterol level is in extremely good shape so it's nothing to worry about. The letter from the doc gave me some pointer on how to increase the good stuff with diet and exercise.

Because of the recent family history of cancer I will be getting an early colonoscopy at the end of the month. From what my dad tells me the procedure itself is no big deal "because the drugs you get are way better than the street stuff". lawl, thanks Pops. The worst part of the procedure is the stuff I have to do prior. From what's been described to me, it sounds like I have to basically flush myself out. Again, according to Dad, I'll have diarrhea like I've never imagined. Great. SOOO looking forward to that. Meh, I guess it's worth it considering the alternative.

pizza

NOTE: YIKES! I put my blood pressure as 168/85.. That would completly suck. Anyway, I edited that and put the correct numbers in...

44 Hours and We're Calling a Mulligan

2008-04-28T05:11:00.000-07:00

For the one or two people who read my blog, I'm finally going to talk about the 'vacation'. You hear people sometimes mention a vacation and how bad it was but in the back of your head you probably think to yourself, "yeah, the warm sun, the beautiful beaches; how bad could it have been?". Well, let me tell you. It can get bad, real bad.

Jen and I had been waiting for this vacation since August when our close friends Rick and Liz came up with the idea. It basically evolved from a birthday getaway for me (I turned 40 only days prior to the trip) and an early honeymoon for the just engaged Rick and Liz. (Yay!).

The trip was to St. Lucia in the British West Indies. I spent my first nine years of life in Puerto Rico and I had never heard of St. Lucia but what they heck, everything I saw online said this was a great place to go.

Jen and I flew American from Boston to San Juan then took and American Eagle turbo prop to St Lucia. We had a little stress leading up to our departure since it was right at the same time American was cancelling so many flight so they could do maintenance checks on their planes but it all went pretty smoothly. We got to St. Lucia right on time. So far, so good.

Rick and Liz were flying Delta from Atlanta direct into St. Lucia's larger southern airport. (We flew into the small northern field). Rick and Liz had to take a 1 hour + ride to the resort while we only had a 5 min cab ride. No biggie.

Jen and I got settled in and headed to a nearby resort cabana to start our festivities(drinking).

Rick and Liz arrived about 2-3 hours after we did and we all got to some serious 'having fun time'. These first couple of hours were the best part of the vacation because at sunset is when it all went completely to shit.

We migrated a bit towards the beach to check out the sunset. Rick and Liz went down to the beach and Jen and I sat high on a small seawall. As the sun was setting, We stood up and *BAM*. Jen lost her balance and took a header down a flight of stairs. Yes, it was bad, VERY bad. I already a good drink on so it took a second for everything to register but there was my bride laying at the bottom of the stairs and she wasn't moving!!!!

I got down to her quickly (other folks had seen it happen and were starting to get in gear as well. I definitely remember hearing people shouting to get help, call and ambulance, etc. I was focused completely on Jen and generally freaking out.

A great couple we hadn't met yet, who ended up becoming friends during the trip were instrumental in getting my head back on straight and helping out. Jim and Deb asked the important questions, 'Is she breathing? Can you feel her pulse?' which finally snapped me back into reality. Thank goodness, she was breathing and had a strong pulse! (small victory!)

We tried to revive her but really could do much because we didn't want to move her. I did feel around her spine as best I could and nothing 'seemed' out of place, also none of her limbs were sitting at unnatural angles. From my only somewhat untrained, drunk, eyes, her body appeared intact but we weren't taking chances. She was unconscious which meant she had a concussion at best. There was a knot on the side of her head I swear was the size of a golf ball.

The Sandals (that's the resort we were at) medic showed up quickly and we got her on to a backboard and began carrying her to an awaiting ambulance.

I'm going to take a short aside here and really thank the Sandals staff. They were great. I wish I could remember the man who stayed with us all the way to the Hospital and until the doctors there were able to confirm Jen was not in any immediate danger. It was greatly appreciated.

OK, back to the tale. We get Jen into the ambulance and the guy asks me if I want to go to a public or private hospital. My brain is still pretty mushy and I think he picked up on that. He put it much more simply for me "Do you have medical insurance?. If you do then I recommend a private hospital." Done.

We ended up after a 10 or 15 minute ride at small private clinic in Castries (capital of St. Lucia). Jen had finally started to come around and was loudly complaining about neck brace she had on. We were in the ER for only a short while before a doctor came in and started to look her over.
Most of the rest of the night was a blur mostly due to me being scared and not having a clue what all the medical folks were saying. Jen did get a CAT scan and the doc said there was no internal damage to her head. She basically conked herself a 'mighty good one'. *Phew*.

They did want to admit her for the night so I settled in on a cot next to her bed for the night.
All this time Jen and was in and out of unconsciousness but was mostly incoherent. She did have one nasty moment were she barfed all over the ER. Yeah, that was pleasant.

About 3am Saturday morning, I woke up when I head Jen stirring and then she the best thing "What the hell? Where am I? Ed?" Yay, she was awake! I explained what happened and she promptly fell back asleep. I finally got some decent sleep too since I was now alot more sure Jen was going to be OK.

The next morning was pretty routine for a hospital. We waited around for a while to see the doc, then went to get some x-rays. It turns out Jen had hurt her shoulder and they wanted to make sure it wasn't dislocated or anything was broken. The X-Rays showed a possible partial separation so the doc schedules Jen to come see an orthopedic doc on Tuesday.

Jen was released from the hospital Saturday afternoon.

The rest of the vacation was pretty 'bleh' Jen could do much for the first few days at all because she was on pain meds that made her completely wonky. I did do some scuba diving with Rick. THANK YOU LIZ FOR TAKING CARE OF JEN!

There were some highlights to the trip. As I mentioned before we met Jim and Deb. We also met a British couple Simon and Jane. The 8 of us spent a lot time hanging out and having a good time. By Tuesday Jen stopped taking the pain meds so she could function again so she was able to get involved too. However, with the concussion came a side affect of getting worn out a lot faster. So, most of our nights were called early so she could go to bed.

The best day was Thursday. Jen, Rick, Liz and I hired a driver to give us a tour to some of the islands best places. We took some very scenic roads through the maintains and got to see a lot of really gorgeous fishing villages, rain forest, etc.

We stopped and got some fresh tree ripened bananas. I do not recommend you ever eat them. You will forever be disappointed by the ones you buy from the stores since they are harvested green. The ones we bought were simply 'hella-yummie'

St. Lucia has an active volcano. It's not spewing lava currently so they actually let you into the caldera. I would describe it as walking into a large fart cloud. *pew*. The smell is from the sulfur being belched by the volcano. The sulfur is one of the reasons the French and British fought over St. Lucia. They wanted the sulfur to make gunpowder.

Our next stop was a local botanical garden. That was fantastic. We took tons of pictures and just enjoyed walking around and seeing it all.

We returned the resort and prepared for our departure the next day. Up to this point the vacation hadn't been truly awful. It was not good for Jen and I but not entirely crap. That was all about to change over the next 48 hours or so.

Our return trip was basically the reverse of our arrival. We were to take an ATR-72 twin turboprop to San Juan and catch a 767 to Boston form there.

Our flight to San Juan departed right on time. About ten minutes into the flight I 'thought' I sensed something odd. What I felt was a slight dipping of the right wing. Now, this by itself isn't unusual. Slight turbulence would easily cause that but something way in the back of my head was registering something a little different. Now, something I DO know about is airplanes. I'm a private pilot and have a degree in aerospace engineering. Some of that edumucashun was bound to rub off.

Very shortly after that nagging little buzzer in my head went off the plane turned VERY sharply and did a 180 turn. NOW I KNEW something was wrong. I chuckled and leaned over to Jen and said "We're going back". At that moment the pilot gets on the intercom and announces we are having some trouble with an engine and would be returned to St. Lucia. *Fuck*. About a minute later the pilot SHUT-OFF the right engine! *DOUBLE FUCK*. At this point I was a bit nervous. I planes like this are designed to fly loaded with one engine but that is only a small comfort when you look out the window and see the propeller windmilling.

I now consciously registered what was nagging me about the right wing dipping. As that engine was losing power the airplane would yaw to the right. This causes the trailing wing to have less lift than the extended (left side) wing which induces a rolling motion.

Well, needless to say we made it back to St Lucia in one piece. It was a very long 20 minutes or so. Now begins the epic FAIL on American Airlines part.

Our flight was the last flight to San Juan that day and there was no way to get a replacement airplane to us. We would be spending another night on the Island. it probably took A/A 3 hours to finally get a new flight itinerary for Jen and I. They were going one at a time through the passengers to get them all. It just happened that we were towards the end. I'm sure A/A wanted to help their frequent flyers first, etc. Whatever. Jen and I were 2 of the last 8 people to get out.

We were now scheduled to take a jet from the big airport Saturday at 2:30pm. A/A was paying for our hotel and gave us a few bucks for some dinner. During this time Jen and I befriended another stranded passenger named Janine. She was travelling alone and had managed to get a staph infection on her ankle so she hobbling around a bit. She was going our hotel and was going to be on the flight the next day.

The hotel was ok. It wasn't a rat trap and was clean so we had no complaints there. We grabbed an early cab to Vieux Fort the next day and headed to the airport for our second go at getting home. Janine was also in our cab. A/A covered the cab fare.

We arrived at the airport and checked in only to discover our new flight was delayed and was still in Miami! Oh well. At least it wasn't cancelled and this airport was much larger and would be more comfortable to wait in.

We did cheat a bit and grabbed a wheelchair for Janine which allowed us to scoot to the head of the immigration line. Yah, I know cheesy but Janine really DID need the wheelchair. Her ankle looked like a tree trunk.

This is the point where A/A starts to fail. The flight ended up delayed for 7 hours. This, of course, made us miss our connections out of Miami. A/A did have the foresight to book us seats on flights for Sunday morning in case the delay caused us to miss the connection so that was OK.

The problems occurred in that American basically only vouchered us for 5 bucks towards food. They had us stuck in the terminal for nearly 8 hours and gave us five bucks! Gee, thanks for nothing. Janine, Jen and I did some window shopping at the duty-free and sat around waiting and waiting and waiting.

Surprisingly the entire wait wasn't really that bad other than A/A' refusal to pay for another meal. All of the folks stayed pretty cheery. Even the children remained in good spirits. We finally got a hold of the Dog Nanny where Blue and Dascha were staying to let them know we wouldn't be picking the dogs up today.

We all figured we could at least gt some drinks and stuff on the plane. yeah, nice one. Tell me another....

So, our place finally arrives and we board and depart about 10:30pm. Now A/A REALLY begins to fail. The flight to Miami is 4 hours. at the first opporttunity the "flight attendants" roll out the drink carts and do their rounds. WE NEVER SAW THEM AGAIN. Well, we did see them. They were all asleep in First Class. I am NOT exaggerating. Gee, thanks for the service.

We land in Miami and clear customs about 2:30am Sunday morning. An A/A rep is waiting right there with updated flight itineraries and information for us. Hey! Great!. Not....Our flight is scheduled for depart at 7am. 4.5 hours from know. The A/A rep hands us hotel vouchers!. WTF! Are you serious? I asked, nicely, if we could just go into the A/A lounge and wait there. This BITCH, and I'm begin kind, was VERY rude to us. She basically said "NO sir. Those rooms aren't open and there no TSA here. You MUCH leave the airport. You cannot wait here". I walked at that point. No need to go to jail for ripping someones head off.

That was the last straw. We had enough of their crap. I can forgive malfunction and some delays. Shit does happens that can't be controlled. It's how you deal with those issues and how you treat those affected by then that's important to me. American up and down failed their passengers.

Jen and I, nor anyone else that we saw, left the airport. We found a corner near the A/A check in counter and relaxed for about and hour before getting in line at 4am to start checking in. It's a real good thing we didn't wasted time going to the hotel, checking in, sleeping for 2 seconds, then checking out and returning to the airport. We got in line at 4am and STILL had to wait for 1.5 hours in that line. The counters opened at 4. It's just the line was THAT LONG!

We finally got through the check-in and through security. Jen and I both were feeling pretty rotten. We got some coffees at a nearby gate Starbucks and waited to board the flight.

I don't remember anything of that flight. I sat in my seat and woke up as we were preparing to land in Boston.

It took 44 hours to get home. A perfect ending to a perfectly crappy vacation (with exceptions).

Jen and I decided to call a mulligan, a do-over, etc. Whatever. I guess you have to have one of these vacations to really REALLY appreciate the great ones.

Vacation Sucked

2008-04-20T00:48:00.000-07:00

St. Lucia was beautiful
Vacation blew donkey ballz
Jen got a Concussion
Departure plane had to make an emergency Landing
Flight out next day was delayed
I'm still not &%*&#$ at home yet

More later

Those damn dirty apes!

2008-04-07T06:59:00.000-07:00

Rest in Peace Charlton Heston. You were one of the few remaining true Hollywood class acts. You didn't deserve to have your brain scrambled by Alzheimers. I am glad your suffering is finally over and you can find out what Moses thought of your performance in the Ten Commandments.

I read that you were married for 64 years...to the same woman. That is an amazing number and somethign to truly be admired especially when so many current Hollywood jerkoffs seems to treat marriage like leasing a car.

Anyway, you were great in everything you did in moves as well in your life. RIP, you will be missed.

I decided to plagiarize Sandy and talk about what I'm watching these days. Battelstar Galactica finally began it's last season. YAY! DId everyone else crap in their pants during that one scene? Yah, don't lie, you can admit it.

I think Baltar's new title shoudl be galactic whore. Jebus...

Anyway, this season looks very promising; HOWEVER, if this show ends with somethign lame I will go on a murderous rampage and exstinguish the sun. Just a fair warning...Handle with care.

I'm also watching Torchwood. It's a spinoff from Doctor Who and pretty entertaining. It follows a group of special agents defending the Earth from evil aliens and something helping the occasional alien from getting screwed over by us earthlings. Pretty good show. A little less campy than Dr Who and a lot more dark. He's also doing the Sarah Jane Chronicles which is another Dr Who spinoff based on a Tom Baker companion from way back. We'll she how that does.

That's about all I watch right now. I'm waiting for Stargate: Atlantis, Chuck, Terminator and Life to start up again.

OH. I did watch the direct to DVD Stargate: SG1 movie, 'Arc of Truth'. Basically it was an extended episode of the show with and occasional 'shit' and 'asshole' thrown in. I did like it though. It was cool to see the team back together. They basically wrap up the Ori storyline for us. There is another direct to DVD coming out as well. Yippie.

Movies, Movies, Movies

2008-03-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

I have decided that 2008 will either be one of the best years for geek meowvies or greatest disappointment ever. There are so many potentially awesome flicks coming that I am stoked.

Let me run down a list just off the top of my head:

Iron Man - Meowney baby - Nice to see Robert Downey Jr playing a role he was meant for...broken alcoholic..seriously, you go dude.
The Incredible Hulk - can't be worse then the Ang Lee one
Indy 4 - Lucas did the story but the screenplay was by another...but it's INDY!
Speed Racer - visually looks awesome...Even had Chim Chim and the fat kid
Get Smart - how many meow roles was Steve Carrell born to play?
Hell Boy II - first one was great. Guillermo DelToro = win

Those are the ones I can remember! If you don't like this kind of movie then YOU ARE AN EPIC FAILURE!

Seriously, Hollywood seems to have run out of good ideas for stories. I first noticed it happen to Disney after the Lion King. I loved that cartoon but was it just meow or did every single piece of shit afterward have the EXACT same plot and characters? Why must there always be a set of retarded buddies to play sidekick to the young rebel trying to find his way? Ugh FAIL

Zombie films and torture porn are pretty meow all trash nowadays too. I like a good kill shot as meow as the next person but damn....at least ATTEMPT to have meow give a shit about the victims. There are some exceptions. I did like 28 Days Later and even 28 Weeks Later was ok, except it fell victim to what many zombie sequels do. They make the zombies smarter than us. Wtf, they are zombies...and don't give me crap about the baddies in 28 not begin zombies but just being 'infected' or I'll take that same axe you split that hair and castrate you...

I just heard that J. Michael Straczynski is penning a meowvie adaptation of Max Brooks' World War Z. That has potential. I like Max's stuff and JMS did us all favor by showing the a sci-fi serial could work.

Ok, back to the used up writers. Maybe it's not the writers. Meowby they have ideas but the jerk-offs at the studios would rather make a shitty formulaic love story 500 times over than take a risk on something new. You know, I really don't have a problem with a remake or re-vision or reset...but if your going to do one at least meow it worthwhile. Change it up a bit. Add a new twist or two. I dont care...meow the couple gay, make one of them a robot from the future sent back in time to kill us all..I don't care but show some guts.

Sorry, I get a bit worked up about movies sometimes....

Seriously, movie studios want to meow money. I get it. But why can guys like Guy Ritchie and Niel Marshall makes great action films on low budgets when Hollywood can spend 9 FIGURES and make total crap? (btw, I'm talking about Guy Ritchie prior to Madonna cutting his nuts off).

Dog Soldiers is easily the best werewolf movie to come out ever. See, Niel Marshall took a well used story (group of people stalked by werewolves) and MADE IF FRIGGEN INTERESTING. Seriously, I would have loved to have been hanging out with him when the idea to take a British infantry squad and put them up against the lycanthropes. 100% PURE WIN. btw, I was sad to see Pvt Cooper's TV show 'Journeyman' get cancelled. I liked the show. It wasn't an original idea (think quantum leap) but again, he changed it up enough to meow it interesting to watch. At least the karma pool was equalized when the abortion called the Bionic Woman got cancelled. See, there David Eick took an old show and did add something...He made is hella-lame...Thank god Battlestar Galactica has the mojo. Another 100% WIN

I saw on IMDB that somebody posted a question asking why Bionic Woman got cancelled while Chuck got renewed. I'll tell you why. It's what I call the underwear factor. Enterprise got cancelled for the same reason. They stopped showing the hotties in their underwear. Chuck has Yvonne Strahovski in her undies almost once per show. Way to cater to the 30 and under demographic. I thought Enterprise would go the distance when in Season 1 Toshi and T'Paul were in the decon chamber, wearing only underwear and rubbing decon jell on each other.. COME ON!! PURE WIN.. Meow of that and you would've had MANY seasons....Bionic Woman...no undies...no renewal. FAIL.

All right. I'm done ranting and not making a point so I'll move on. meow

(BTW. 15)

Nothing to write about

2008-03-25T09:22:00.001-07:00

I'm tyring to write at least once every three or four days. I don't consider myself a very good writer and I need to practice. So, I'm sitting here trying to come up with a topic when I realized it's the lack of a topic I should write about. (My brain thinks like that...)

The past couple of days have been kind of 'meh'. A lot has been going on in the Boykin household.

Over the weekend we committed murder on the trees in our back yard. We had 35 of them removed. All you damn hippies just settle down! The majority of the trees we removed were either unhealthy, softwoods (pine, etc) or dangerously close to our house. We did NOT clear cut our back yard. We left the strongest and healthiest hardwoods in. Despite 35 trees being removed there are still at least a half dozen. These trees were all removed from an area of about 1/3 of an acre. I'm sorry, but you CAN have too many trees.

Besides the general lot improvement this will provide it will also give us the room to build a full fence around our back yard. Later this summer we want to put in a 5' high vinyl coated chain link fence so the mutts can troll around outside off leash and get exercise. We will not be letting them out there and forgetting about them. No, the play area is for playtime then they come back inside.

Jen and I finally reached the point in our DIY bathroom remodel where we are putting things back together. We had the plumber in yesterday to do the last of the rough in work. Over the weekend I put in a new exhaust fan and duct work for that. Bathroom v1.0 (circa 1960) didn't have an exhaust fan and was VERY prone to getting moldy. YUCK. This new fan should really help that alot. The duct work for it was a it challenging. I needed to route it by a DWV pipe without pinching the duct. I got that sorted finally. I was JUST able to find space on an exterior wall drill a 4" hole for the duct outlet without mangling anything. All in all that turned out pretty well.

This coming weekend Jen and I will set the new bathtub in place. We bought a really nice American Standard whirlpool tub. The catch is we didn't get the whirlpool part. We wanted a nice and DEEP soaking tub that would fit in the tiny bathroom space. (The total bathroom size is only 5' x 7'). Anyway, we got the tub and will put it into place soon.

It turns out you need to support the tub bottom with mortar because the tub rim isn't a weight supporting structure. Ugh. I have 5 - 60lb bags of mortar. I hope like hell that's enough. It should be.

Once the tub is in we can really start moving on the reassembly of the bathroom. Next is the walls and floor. We are putting in an electric radiant floor heater. It's fairly efficient given the size of the room. The existing hydronic radiator took up too much space so we had the plumbers come in and remove that piece from the boiler circuit.

For the walls we are putting up Hardibacker for the entire thing. We are only tiling the bathtub walls but there is so little other wall area that we just decided to continue all the way around rather than try to transition to blueboard.

What else is going on....I started watching Dexter on broadcast tv. It an interesting plot. A serial killer who only kills serial killers.. Strange. I went ahead and Netflixed the 1st showtime season so I can get caught up. I understand the Showtime episodes are a tad bit bloodier.

Ok, that's it. I've managed to write about nothing.

Damn You Trey and Matt!

2008-03-20T11:33:00.001-07:00

I am speaking to Trey Parker and Matt Stone the geniuses behind South Park and fun movies such as Orgazmo, Baseketball and Team America (Fuck Yeah!). I am speaking to you two. Damn you. Damn you for making me feel guilty last night after watching the newest episode of South Park.

Why, you ask, am I so mad at them? Well, I'll tell you why. Last nights episode centered around Britney Spears. I eagerly anticipated this episode thinking to myself that this girls recent behavior has to have given those guys some great new material.

The story starts out well. It's discovered by the media that some amateur photographer received 100,000 dollars for a photo of Britney peeing in the woods on a lady bug. It's then revealed that she is now hiding out in a South park motel. That's all the info the boys needed!

They hatch a scheme to get a shot of Britney doing something stupid and make some quick cash. They 'cleverly' get past Britney's manager and get into her motel room by saying they are her kids. Once Britney realizes it's not her kids but just another attempt to photograph her she eats the barrel of a shotgun. Cartman leaves immediately, Butters(disguised as a squirrel) leaves soon after. Stan and Kyle stand there utterly stunned.

Now it's starts getting dark..I'm talking about Pluto dark. Britney doesn't die. Even though her head from the lower jaw up is gone, she lives on(ewww).

I'm not going to detail the rest of the story because here is where Trey and Matt make what I think was the hardest hitting statement on society as a whole. I will summarize...

The rest of episode is about how the public and media basically don't care about the hurt they may be causing someone by hounding them 24/7 waiting for them to do the next boneheaded thing. In the show these people are so consumed with Britney they didn't realize she's blown the top of her head off.

Stan and Kyle realize this and try to help her by getting to a place where the crowds wont find her. They fail and she ends up dying at the end. Yeah, I skipped a lot of the typical South Park retardation in the show but that's the gist of it.

At the end of the show I sat there thinking to myself "Ok, I'm not trying to get my crops to grow but I certainly have been on a Britney watch too". Hell, she's currently number one on my dead pool. Not once did I stop to think about what she is actually going through. I guess it's hard to feel sympathy for someone who has basically everything and nothing at the something.

Sandy brought up a good point to me this morning. Being a mother she brought up post partum depression and how it can be very nasty. Not that either of us has any special insight into Britney's health but who does? Has anyone taken the time to actually investigate or are they too busy sucking up to her and feeding her booze and drugs to get her money?

She is a complete train wreck without a doubt. I still think a lot of her behavior was of her own doing and lack of brains. But now I also think, maybe, just maybe, there's more to it that what I see on Talk Soup.

So, here's to you Trey and Matt. Bite me for making me look in the mirror.

ps: Does Butters ever get released by animal control?

A Challenge

2008-03-19T06:36:00.000-07:00

Sandy called me out today in her blog about writing on movies. Ok, I'll do it but first I will babble about myself some more....

I am a storehouse of useless movie trivia. Both of my sisters are too. Actually, I consider myself unworthy of the title compare to either Andrea or Sandy. They can pull some really obscure bits out of god only know where. Whenever Jen and I get back down to Atlanta we hang out with our friends and sometimes play a games called 'Scene It'. It's kind of like Trivial Pursuit but for movies and television. It has a DVD that is sued to show various scenes from thing that you must then answer a question on. I'm not really sure why we play. I've never lost. Hell, I've never even come close to losing. My friends are all very smart. They just don't have a copy of IMDB stuck in their heads.

Truth be told, I would gladly get rid of the knowledge for something useful like understanding the stock market. Meh. At least its useful at parties.

Last night Jen was working late. I was surfing to tube for something to watch and found Big Trouble in Little China playing. It's a moral imperative to watch it whenever it's on, I had beer, and didn't feel like doing anything else.

BTILC is arguably John Carpenter's opus. He's done so many great movies and created so many great characters (most who were played by Kurt Russel). Anyway, BTILC has it all, retarded plot, retarded script, retarded characters and Jack Burton (aka Kurt Russel).

The movie basically centers around a big rig truck driver and his Chinese buddy getting caught up in Chinese magic and Chinese mafia. It's a classic good vs evil or badass vs bigger badass. None of that matters though. This movie is about entertainment. It is nothing but a montage of fun. Fun fights, fun situations and more one liners than you can shake a stick at. Just see the movie if you haven't but don't blame me if you don't like. It's not my fault you're an uncultured swine.

There are many lessons to be learned from this movie. The first one is that the Chinese have a lot of hells. I guess one isn't enough. They have (if I remember correctly), the "Hell of Boiling Oil", "Hell of beign Cut to Pieces", "Hell of Upside Down Sinners", etc. Sheesh, they all sound like they would suck.

The next lesson is when fighting supernatural forces you should have a wizard with you. In this movie they bring along Egg Shen. I think Egg could totally whup Gandlaf. Egg Shen is Chinese and he might be a little reluctant to help out if the problem isn't related to Chinese magic. So, I think the best bet for the non-Chinese would be to bring R. Lee Ermy along. He's the closest thing to a ass kicking wizard outisde of China.

and the final lesson: 'Just remember what ol' Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big old storm right in the eye and says, "Give me your best shot. I can take it." '

ALL GLORY TO HYPNOTOAD

R.I.P. Arthur

2008-03-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

I just read on msnbc that Arthur C. Clarke has died. Words cannot express how sad this makes me. So much science fiction written these days is crap that I am always going to back to re-read his books. I have bought, worn out and bought again so many copies of his books I can't even begin to say.

2001 and it's sequels, the Rama series, Childhood's End, Hammer of God.. good lord the list goes on and on and on and on. His books made me think about words instead simply digesting them.

The world is a less fun place today. :(

Music in every room

2008-03-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big music fan. I'm not saying I don't like music. I'm just not a fan of it with one or two exceptions. I either like a song or I don't.

I've only been to a handful of concerts in my life and I really don't get the point. My first concert was to go see E.L.O. at the old OMNI in Atlanta. Meh, I was too young to really get into it but my sisters seemed to enjoy themselves. My mom was also there. I have no idea what she thought. The only thing I even remember about the event was my mom getting ready to smack some drunk(or stones) dumbass who decided to sit in one of our seats while my sisters were getting drinks are going to the bathroom.

in the 90's I went to see Pink Floyd at Georgia Tech with some friends. That was fun only because I got a serious contact buzz from the guy smoking pot next to us. I've been to one or two other concerts but none really did anything more for me. Hell, I think I had more fun watching the laser light show at Stone Mountain Park.

Most people would peg me as some kind of mutant but truth is I REALLY do like music. I like listening to it. I like the emotions good songs can bring out in me weather it be happiness or sadness or whatever. I just prefer to use music to enhance what I'm experiencing not BE what I'm experiencing. I think I'd rather hit my toes with a maul than go to another concert.

Over Christmas Jen and I went to Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound to spend the holiday with her brother and family. Her sister, Robin, and her family came too. A great time was had by all. Boomer, Jen's bro., is a big a techno-geek and likes his gadgets. One of the gadgets he has is a Sonos sound system. This is a nifty little device that wirelessly streams music to your various Sonos devices. VERY COOL.

Well, Jen and I finally bought the SONOS starter system over the weekend. We subscribe to the Rhapsody music service and have a Sirius radio. All of these things can be accessed by the SONOS. It can also catalog the music I have on my PC and play that. For me this is the ultimate in music system because I don't have to buy albums or anything. I can listen to a large selection of 'channels' on Rhapsody (I wish I could delete the Briney Spears channel) or, if I think of a song I like I can search for and play that. Sirius is just a rebroadcast of their satellite channels but it's nice because we can turn on the news and listen to it as we move around the house in the morning while getting ready for work.

We have two 'Zone Players' right now. One is in my office so I can listen to tunes while working. It helps me alot to have the background noise while working. Sometimes working remote in my home office sucks because it's too quiet. We have the other player hooked up to our living room stereo system for our 'upstairs' listening pleasure. You can get either an amplified zone player which you plug in and attach speakers to or a non-amplified version which must be connected to a stereo to play.

The SONOS system we bought also comes with a wireless remote device. It's nice because I can carry it around and perform any function I need, (Search, etc.) I can also control it from my networked PCs. This device is able to control any zone player in the house.

There you have it. SONOS is cool. If you like playing music, don't want to buy a CD just for one song and want this kind of 'whole house' music capability with out having to run wire everywhere then this is something you should look at.

First post

2008-03-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

A new day, a new blog. I'm sitting in my office and thinking that I would rather be drinking beer and hanging out with my wife and instead I decide to start another blog. Not that a blog is better than my wife. It's just that her awesomeness is at her work.

As I created this blog the first thing you are asked after setting up your account is the name your blog. WTF! I was born with a common genetic disorder called 'Inability to Articulate My Imagination'. It's not that I ddon'thave an imagination (You should read my Penthouse forum letters); it's just I sometimes can't put it into words.

A good example of this is from my days playing Dungeons & Dragons. I could never come up with names for my characters that I didn't feel were beyond dorky or a blatant rip-off of some work of fiction. (I cant count how many phonetic iterations of Lord of the Rings characters I saw in World of Warcraft)

Speaking of World of Warcraft, a REALLY good example of where my 'dorky name filter' failed was in my primary WoW characters name...Blizzard has some serious name rules and I was trying to be funny and get around them. I wanted to come up with a name that would be phonetically similar to Butt-For...As in the stupid joke "Do you have a butt-for?', "What's a butt-for?", "It's for poopin' silly"...anyway...I digress. The name I came up with was Buttefer.. Pause and think on that one for a minute...If you didn't hit on it here's how most of my guild mates sounded it out.. BUTT -EFF - ER.. Yah, great..thanks imagination. You suck.

Later I came up with an undead rogue named Wroughten which I though was a rather inspired name but I quit WoW long before he got very high level.

Moving on. My sister, Sandy, is the opposite. She more clever and witty than I am. So, I shot her a quick IM about my blog naming conundrum. She rrecommendedI browse the IMDB quotable quotes of some movies for a title. So I did. On of the best movies of times next to Showgirls is Big Trouble in Little China. Jack Burton is the man. Anyway, this is the full quote where I gleaned my blog title from:

When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, looks you crooked in the eye and asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail."

Mr Carpenter, you rule too. Even though Escape from LA blew donkeys just about everything else was worth watching many times.

So, that's the gist of my naming experience.

I'm going to basically post miscellaneous ramblings about tthingsgoing on in and around my life. Maybe once or twice I'll say something profound but mostly it'll be crap.