Eagle's Roost

Short Story: 100 Feet

2011-04-21T05:04:00.002-04:00

Hello blogging world. Been almost two years since I posted anything here. Two years of creativity dulling BS, but that's life. This isn't a return to blogging either, but the other night I finally wrote a new short story and this is the only place I've got to put it. First thing I've written in a long time, but it felt good to write again. It's a sequel to my previous short story 50 Feet that's been in my head for awhile. I was amused with the different responses on how people took 50 Feet, so this should be interesting. And oddly enough after writing this one, I've got another sequel idea.

Anyway, if anyone still drops by here to read it, thanks for that. See y'all again in two years...haha

100 Feet by Eaglewing

God giveth, and God taketh away.

Thats what they taught him in Sunday school many moons ago, but they never confirmed if the giveth was good, or the taketh was bad. It was assumed, he reckoned now, and he knew well what happened on an assume. On such a blanket statement, details were onerously missing, and as usual, the Devil was in the details.

It’d been three years now since that rotten night. A night that was full of take. He’d been pushing hard in a close to hundred foot Rocky Mountain double tractor trailer with the hammer down coming up a grade and when he crested that hill it didn’t matter how good the brakes were. A man, stone drunk, out in the middle of the road with his eyes to the sky instead of the inbound coffin filler went to meet his Maker in a hurry amidst screaming tires, hot brakes, and crunching bones and metal. Even now, with a few years distance, he could still see the man standing there right before impact. What was worse, he could still feel it. It was just another given moment of time, but one that would take from both men’s lives.

He’d been a wreck afterward. Nightmares brought the fear that no therapy could help, and the fear kept him out of his home - his rig. And not being able to face driving anymore triggered a hell of a chain reaction. The bills piled up, the self esteem dove down, and the bottle was in easy reach. His wife tried to help, but eventually got fed up and took the kids and left. He didn’t blame her. Bouncing off rock bottom, he even tried a church. He asked God to give him a break. The next day they repossessed the house. On the one hand, he didn’t have to worry about the mortgage anymore, but it wasn’t the break he was looking for. Either God had a twisted sense of humour or he should have been more specific.

So with nothing left to lose, he sought out a job from a friend of a friend for a company that needed long haul drivers and weren’t worried about details like vehicular manslaughter or logbooks, to put it mildly. It was off the books, but he didn’t care anymore. He drank just enough to dull the shaky nerves but still had a hard time climbing in. Sitting there staring out the windshield, he actually said another prayer. He’d had enough, and muttered to God to just give him some damn peace once and for all. He figured it probably bounced off the roof, but was worth a shot. He fired up the engine and promptly stalled it in first gear. Then he took his mind out of it and his muscle memory kicked in and he was off down the road and catching that next shift felt so damn good.

He didn’t even want to know what he was hauling, and kept to the back roads. It meant a twisty and hilly and long route, but that was the price of contraband. He didn’t mind, it gave him time to think. Of all that he had given just to have it all taken away. He wondered if the drunk he had killed had thought the same. Was there a God in charge of it all, or were we just colliding with each other in a fit of chaos? Why were some given the world while others had it taken away? And if it all was the slip shod enterprise it appeared, then what was the point? It was a joke he couldn’t get. Maybe some day he would. He guessed it was all in the way you looked at it, but that was hardly comforting.

To ease his mind, he took another pull of whiskey from his hip flask, and toasted God for giving him a second chance at the wheel. Swallowing, he was taken aback at the sight out the windshield of a lone deer in the middle of the road. Not an uncommon occurrence this high up in the hills, but one he wasn’t prepared for. Sluggish reflexes trumped thought, and the brakes locked on black ice. As fate would have it, the curve lay ahead. The deer bolted on to the shoulder, and the rig bolted off the ledge and sailed through the air, gravity welcoming it with open arms.

As he sat in the cab, eyes wide watching the rocky valley below rushing up, he suddenly knew what he’d say in the coming face to Face. The damn prayer had made it farther than the roof, because here came peace once and for all. He figured he had about another hundred feet before he met his Maker, and he started to laugh.

A hundred feet.

Give or take.

The End.

Short Story: Getting Somewhere

2009-06-22T06:03:00.002-04:00

Well, been a while off the old blogging train here, but thought I'd try this. I'm probably not getting back to any regular posting, but wanted to try to write something - anything - good, bad, or unreadable. Been down with a flu bug here and have a day or two off work. Read the Ed Brubaker graphic novel "Coward" (Vol 1 of the Criminal series) and wanted to write something again. So here it is. Don't know if it's any good, but had to prove to myself I still could :) Enjoy if you can...

GETTING SOMEWHERE by Eaglewing

The engine of that Peterbilt moaned as the driver worked his way down through the gears. Then the unmistakable whoosh of the air brakes brought the shiny chromed workhorse of a machine to a stop by the side of the road. With every running light on and the reflections in the metal, it was like a ghost ship of hope coming through the dark night to the hitchhiker on the side of the road. She put her thumb down, grabbed her bag from the dirt, and climbed up into the waiting cab.

“Thanks for stopping! You’re a lifesaver.” She tossed her bag at her feet and turned to take in the driver. He was built thick and muscled, on the scruffy side of good looking. A beard and John Deere ball cap bookended what were sadly kind eyes however, and the young girl felt at ease even with a stranger.

“No problem, darlin’. Where you headed now?” he replied as he let her get situated in her seat, and gave her a once over. A little young for hitching rides he thought.

“Home to Thunder Bay. How far are you going?”

“Further than that, but I can get you there.” He checked his mirror, released the brakes, and started back onto the highway, going back up through the gears to get up to speed.

“Thanks. My name is Lorrie, by the way.”

“Jack. Nice to meet you. Been on the road long?”

“Not really. Just trying to get home. Nowhere else to go when you’re broke and bottomed out, right?” She sighed and looked back out the window.

“Makes sense I guess. Though I’d think a Greyhound would be safer than hitching for someone as young as yourself. Never know who’s out here. They ain’t all as nice as me.” he laughed as he shifted gears again.

“Well, I’m old enough. But broke means broke. I just want to get home, mend some fences maybe. Where I went didn’t work. Had it better where I was. Too bad you never know that at the time.”

He nodded and they carried on in easy quiet for a stretch, rolling through the miles under the moonlight. He thought she had nodded off, but she spoke again, eyeing a picture on the dash.

“Who’s that? Someone special?” she asked pointing to the faded picture of a woman he had taped up long ago.

“Yeah, someone special. She was my wife. Took that last ride to the other side a few years ago now.” He looked at the photo for a few seconds before gazing back out the windshield at the road ahead.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. What happened?” She asked without thinking, a fault of the young.

He didn’t answer right away, and she thought he might not say a thing. Eventually though, he did. “A couple drunks, behind the wheel with too much power and not enough brains. Crossed the median when she was driving home and wrecked it. The docs did what they could, but couldn’t do enough. I got the call from my dispatcher. Never pushed this old girl so hard. Drove all night through a whiteout blizzard to get back, almost lost it myself a couple times. Just made it in time to say goodbye.”

She was quiet for some time after that, as she just didn’t know what to say. He didn’t blame her and welcomed the quiet. He wasn’t sure why he’d said so much, but sometimes it was easier talking to strangers. Still, he figured he should break the silence.
“You know, it’s good you’re going back home. Family is important. I don’t know what fences you got to mend, but it’s worth the work.”

She nodded soberly, then asked “Do you get back home much now?”

“No, been out here ever since. Her and the road were the only places I ever found any peace. Down to one now. But I like it out on the highway. What about you? Been gone long?”

“Yeah. I went looking for things that were bigger than me. Was going to be a model, have fame and fortune. It didn’t work very well. Wound up doing some things I’m not proud of. And now I’m broke and going home. Can’t say they didn’t warn me. I was just too stubborn and had to do it my way. I’m pretty sure I broke my Momma’s heart too, and disappointed my Daddy. I just hope they’ll open the door for me when I get back.”

“Well, good families are thicker than blood. They had the good sense to warn you, so I’m pretty sure they’ll just be happy you made it back. Parents never really let go of their kids.”

“I hope so. I left a good boy back there too. He wanted to get married and I wanted to see the world.” She turned back to the starlit night outside the glass of the truck cab and said quietly. “Now look at me.”

He did, and he saw a fallen angel, just one of many. But she was at least moving in the right direction.

“Well,” he finally said. “I’ll bet it’ll work out. Might not be all roses and smiles for a bit, but you’re doing the right thing now. That counts for a lot.”

She turned to look at him. “Did it work out for you? I mean, what happened was awful. How does that work out?”

He hadn’t thought of that, and it took him a minute to respond. “I don’t really know. I miss her a lot, I do. But somewhere out here I’ll find it. Like I said, it ain’t all roses and smiles, but you take what you can get. I keep rollin’ and it’ll work out somewhere.”

She smiled at him and nodded before they lapsed into easy silence again. As the miles passed and they drove through the night, she finally did put her head back and fell asleep, at ease with a stranger beside her at the wheel. He glanced at her from time to time, and wondered if her dreams were the good kind.

They rolled into Thunder Bay as the first hint of sunup pushed through the night sky. He tapped her on the shoulder to wake her. “We’re here. Where can I drop you off?”

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “The bus station is close enough. I can walk home from there.”

He brought the Peterbilt to a stop again outside the bus depot and applied the brakes. Turning to his rider he knew he should say something.

“Well, you hang in there Lorrie, I hope you find what you’re looking for. Hang on to that family of yours and mend those fences any way you can. Life’s too short for stubborn pride anyway.”

“Thanks.” She paused, then smiled again. “For the ride and the talk. I hope you find that somewhere that’ll work out too.”

He nodded. “Good luck, darlin’ ”, he said as she climbed down out of the cab and shut the door. A wave goodbye sent him on his way as he pulled back onto the blacktop, opening the throttle and shifting gears. As the sun kept coming up, his thoughts lingered awhile on Lorrie and he hoped she’d find her way down the right road, and maybe even marry that good boy she once knew.

As for him, he was married to the road now, and he wouldn’t have it any other way either. She could be a cruel mistress too, and a rough ride was to be expected. But if you knew how to love her, and handle her curves just right, she could make you feel at home in the middle of nowhere or just somewhere in between. It was where he felt the best, and the most peace he could find anywhere now. Some thought it was a lonely, bleak life, but then they just didn’t understand her, the road. It’d be their loss.

So he drove on, living for those light beams in the dark, the white line, catching that next shift, and rolling by another mile marker. Glancing at the picture on the dashboard, it was all he really cared to know anymore, anyway.

As long as those wheels were turning, he could still tell himself he was getting somewhere.

The End.

Been Thinking About Leaving Long Enough To Change My Mind

2009-05-18T08:02:00.003-04:00

(blog title is a Rodney Crowell tune by the way)

Well, it is a long weekend here in Canada, and so I thought I'd blow the dust off my blog and see what's left. One week going blog quiet led to another and another as it was an unintentional break brought on by fatigues and lack of time as 2009 is turning out to be just as cruddy as 2008. I thought about hanging it up for good as I don't have much left to say, but I still enjoy writing and reviewing movies and don't truly want to abandon it altogether. So, it appears I'm at a bit of a quandary as I contemplate the direction of my blog, if there is one at all. Life fatigue vs minor enjoyments and all that. Something had to give, and it's usually the stuff I enjoy as history repeats itself. Needless to say, posts will probably be rather infrequent for a while as I deal with the BS that is life. A post a week should be doable, but even that seems daunting at times.

However, a discussion on an episode of Diggnation gave me an idea on how I want to reinvent my web presence. We'll see if anything comes of it though. I did buy a few domain names tonight for fun, so it might lead to something.

Either way, if nothing else comes out, big thanks to all those that have read and commented. It's been a fun four years, and I hope there's more. I've got a story rattling in my head, and other things I want to try, and I want to blog about them too. However, as the song says - "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need."

April Showers...Um, Snow

2009-04-09T09:47:00.005-04:00

It's the beginning of April, and with that comes the smell of spring in the air, the start of baseball season, BBQ's, no more winter coats, and...SNOW? Yes, the first two days of the week dumped some snow around here, but it's all gone away now. Still, gotta love Canada where the Toronto Blue Jays start their baseball season (and they won! May as well enjoy it, there won't be many this year) while it's snowing outside and I drive to work in this:

Sill, I loved it and wished it would stay snowy right through August. I guess I should move further north.

And in an unrelated picture, I managed to snap this shop driving along the highway in town. My '89 Dodge Ram about to pass an old '89 city bus. They have mostly newer ones now, but this has to be one of the older ones in the fleet. Still, they don't make them like they used to when two 20 year old vehicles can still be Kings of the Road.

Extract Trailer

2009-04-09T09:42:00.001-04:00

Courtesy of Cinematical, a new trailer is out for Mike Judge's new comedy Extract. This has the workplace comedy/misery feel of his Office Space cult classic, and has some genuinely funny moments in the trailer, at least for me. Compared with some of the...let's say unique individuals I work with (and who doesn't?), this really hits the nail on the head of workplace dysfunction. I love the bit where one woman's flip out over who's doing what leads to a brutal chain reaction of events. I could just see that happening too. Anyway, enjoy the trailer and look forward to this come Labour Day.

Wolverine Movie Leaked, FOX Earns It

2009-04-04T06:18:00.001-04:00

The internet is awash in buzz (at least the sites I frequent) about the leaked and pirated Wolverine movie. Somebody dropped this thing on the world - a month AHEAD of it’s theatrical release date. Movies winding up on the ‘net is nothing new, but something of this kind of blockbuster status being leaked early certainly is. Reportedly it’s DVD quality too, not some shaky cam job either. This isn’t great for the Wolverine movie, and it’s really bad for Fox Studios who are really worried about Box Office dollars now, but I gotta say it looks good on ‘em.

Now, while I’ll admit I was tempted to download it, that temptation was quickly doused when I learned it was an early workprint copy. This means incomplete special effects, visible wire work, green screen, and none of the reshoots added in. No thanks. I’ve been waiting for a Wolverine movie for a while, and when I do see it I want the complete version on the big screen. I just hope it doesn’t suck, and unfortunately it might. There’s been many reports of this being a train wreck, largely in part to interference from Fox chief Tom Rothman, but I keep hoping that Hugh Jackman’s solid grip on the character pulls it through. We’ll find out soon enough.

Still, having this leaked and possibly ruining Fox’s tentpole release of the year must be some kind of karmic backlash. Consider all the ways Fox has screwed it’s product’s fan base and gone out of its way to damage good shows/movies over the years, I can’t help but feel like Nelson on the Simpsons and point at Fox and go “Ha-Ha!” Gotta say Fox, you earned this one.

But it doesn’t stop there. Oh no, Fox has to up the ante. After swearing legal vengeance on whoever leaked it (or downloads it) and even troubling the FBI over it and asking movie web sites and the fan community not to download and review the film early, I read this over on CinemaBlend.com:

...today when Fox News reporter Roger Friedman posted a review, on FoxNews's website, of the recently pirated, illegal copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

As CinemaBlend’s Josh Tyler goes on to write: “let the implications of that sink in.” Really, it’s a doozy. Now, while Fox comes out to indicate News and the Movie studio are different entities and Friedman is a freelance writer, it still boggles the mind they’d let this happen. Go ahead and read the entire article by Josh Tyler and you have to shake your head at the incompetence shown by FOX. After complaining non stop about movie piracy for eons, and getting a lot of facts wrong along the way, and trying to make their product as difficult as possible to get to the fans, and now begging the online community to ignore the leak, they wind up with an early review of a downloaded, illegal, pirated version of Their Own Movie on Their Own Website! Kudos to you FOX - you have attained an EPIC FAIL. If you ever open your mouth about pirated content again after this, I hope you’re laughed out of town.

It’s just really too bad it had to happen to the Wolverine movie. The first X-Men movie is one of my all time faves, and I’m a huge Wolverine comic fan as well. I’ve been waiting for a solo Wolverine movie for a long time, and now all this drama has to surround it. After the first awesome trailer, I’ve been avoiding any further clips/trailers/spoilers like the plague. I’ll be going to the theatre to see this, no doubt, but I’ll be regretting the fact my money is contributing to Fox - the worst movie studio of all time.

In the end, the Wolverine movie and those that worked on it don’t deserve this. However, Fox Studios, the corporation and CEO, certainly does. Way to go karma.

Burn Baby Burn

2009-04-02T09:02:00.003-04:00

Here we are in April, which means a quarter of the year burned up. Yay. The quicker the better I say.

I appear to be back online here in a solid way for a change. Starting last week, my (probably 7 year old) Linksys router started to cough, then choke, then die on me. After messing around with it and limping along for a couple days, I finally gave up on it. Looked like I'd need a new router. Luckily, I've been using an Apple Airport Express as a wireless access point for my network, and I'd forgotten it can be used as a router as well. It took me a little to get it online and then setup right, but that was more me and my dearth of networking skills. Apparently it's got a firewall as does Mac OS, so I'm back up and running. The downside is I have no wired access to my network at the moment, so I may consider an upgrade to get the old XP machine online again. The upside to the switch though was a massive burst in internet speed. I guess my old Linksys router was really slowing me down, but I think I'm getting true wireless N speed now on my iMac. On top of that, this seems to have fixed what I thought was a bug in Mac Mail, but that left along with the router. So the router going up in smoke was a very good thing apparently.

Otherwise, it's same old on the western front here: tired. Watching CMT here and listening to Dierks Bentley's song Feel that Fire. I wouldn't mind feeling a bit of fire either. Speaking of CMT, what's with the jamming the screen full of every bit of graphics and moving text possible to keep you from seeing the actual video thats playing? Rather annoying, but it did tell me that it's EmmyLou Harris birthday, turning 62. So happy birthday to one of the best ever.

Oh well, on with the show. Enjoy your Thursday.

A Hog On Ice

2009-03-24T07:32:00.001-04:00

Good grief. Just had to post about this. We've already had word recently there are movies in the pipe that are remakes of MacGyver, The A-Team, and Missing In Action. Really, how are they going to fill the boots of Richard Dean Anderson, Mr. T, and Chuck Norris?! I don't think we really need remakes of these shows/movies, but whatever, we already know they'll probably suck the high wind (see Dukes of Hazzard movie, Starsky and Hutch movie, Bewitched, etc).

But now they've gone TOO far! They've announced the Coen brothers are remaking True Grit. What?! For starters, John Wayne movies don't need to be remade. (I'm ignoring the fact Rio Bravo was remade three times, twice starring Wayne, and one of the remakes has been remade. Don't ask.) But come on, this is unnecessary.

Granted, if anyone could pull this off, it'd be the Coens, but I just can't really see any current actor being able to successfully utter the famous line:

"Fill your hand, you sonuvabitch!"

Checkin' In

2009-03-23T13:22:00.004-04:00

Just a quick placeholder post. Still here - almost recovered from the flu bout, but still sleeping a lot. Guess the body knows when it has to repair. Had the building mangers on plumbing detail lately with a day without water and today having to wait for them to come by and do a look under the sinks in my unit. Guess they'll sleep better having checked, but it didn't help my sleep pattern any. Especially when they say it starts at 9 am and show up at noon. Wear a watch, people. Ok, rant over.

Got a good opening line for a story from Pappy in the comments of the last post, and I do like a writing challenge so I'll be coming up with something. I know what the last line will be, I just have to write the middle now.

Back for more sleep and then work again. Hope to get back into blogging again with some new posts later in the week...

Into The Sun

2009-03-16T09:55:00.001-04:00

I'm just testing Flickr and Firefox's ScribeFire blogging plugin. But here's a picture for you to enjoy anyway. Managed to grab a pic of the sun and cloud while I was driving...

Driving into the sun

Me Mini Movie Reviews: Babylon A.D.

2009-03-12T06:22:00.003-04:00

This is a frustrating movie to review. On my first watch through the uncut version I rented, I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, knowing what I do about the troubled production, it sure leaves me wondering just how much better that three hour cut by the director is and wish yet again that Fox studios would leave movies alone.

The sci-fi story is set in the not too distant future that is probably a ‘pre’ post-apocalyptic. It definitely has a Blade Runner feel crossed with Children of Men and the look of this future is very cool. We join the story following a mercenary Toorop (Vin Diesel in an excellent performance) getting an offer he can’t refuse to transport and deliver a girl, Aurora (Melanie Thierry) from war ravaged Serbia to New York City. He picks her up at a monastery and reluctantly has to take her guardian Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh) along too. From there it’s a tension fraught fight or flight run to the border and Toorop begins to find out there’s more to this mission than just delivering a package. Choices will have to be made, and they won’t be easy.

The movie is very well paced and the action scenes well done. There’s a bit too much quick editing in the fight scenes, but it’s certainly watchable. Some of the best parts are the futuristic cinematography as we travel through war torn Russia, the snow covered Arctic, and into the glitzy New York cityscape. It’s not so far into the future that you have flying cars and such, it’s just a well done, believable version of the not too distant future. The actors all give excellent performances that change as the movie progresses, from Vin Diesel as the hopeless cynic to having a reason to fight, and Thierry as the naive young girl seeing the world for the first time and adjusting to it’s horrors.

But this is where that frustration kicks in. As much as I really liked this movie, there are deeper themes being presented here that don’t get the chance to play out. Human manipulation of mankind, religion, God, Artificial Intelligence, power, love, etc, all get touched on but not explored. Apparently the book it’s based on, Babylon Babies, is a 500 page thinker and I believe the director had a lot more he wished to address here than just a futuristic action movie. The director, Mathieu Kassovitz, has already stated in interviews he won’t work with Fox again as they consistently meddled in the entire production resulting in what he called “a bad episode of 24.” (Quote of the year?) I don’t think the end result is that bad. However, from what I gather the theatrical release was a complete mess, but the 15 minutes added back in to the “uncut” version makes for at least a comprehensible story, if short on depth.

This is a case of where all my internet movie reading is a double edged sword. I was sold on the movie from the trailer (which gives away a pivotal moment, so don’t watch that if you intend on watching the movie), but reading about the production troubles saved me spending 10 bucks at the theatre for a cut to bits version. Having watched the “uncut” version though, I really wonder what’s on the cutting room floor and hope someday we get a true Director’s Cut. If not, well there’s just one more reason among many for me to hate Fox Studios.

Verdict: Worth a rental - get the Raw & Uncut version only though, NOT the theatrical version. Good action, impressive visuals, and interesting but underdeveloped sci-fi themes.

Could Use A Healing Factor...

2009-03-11T05:34:00.001-04:00

Hey all, still here. Bit of a rough week. Inexplicably wound up with my left shoulder feeling tore up and couldn't sleep more than a couple hours without waking up from the pain. Don't know how it happened, but after about a week of it, it's getting better. Wound up sleeping for 12 hours on Sunday to catch up. 'Course, as soon as that clears up I catch a flu bug and got the sore throat head cold thing going here just to keep March's good luck streak intact. Can't wait for this month to fall off the calendar.

On the upside, I'm watching movies and reading and watching podcasts as any distraction is good. Watched Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider today and over a couple nights at work I watched True Romance on the PSP on lunch breaks. Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott, it's a wild ride of a movie with an excellent cast. Typical Tarantino writing, but directed by Scott it's not as overdone as some of Quentin's other stuff. Fun movie.

I also finished the Preacher series and loved it, but still thinking about writing something up on it. Started in on the Watchmen graphic novel now, with it all the rage in the theatre, figured I better read the book first.

And here's something cool - I've resisted any next gen game console to this point, but this game might be worth a PS3. Can't wait for the Wolverine movie, and this game looks like a lot of fun to play, hitting stores the same day. If I had Wolverines healing factor, I wouldn't have to worry about sore shoulders and throats...

Everybody's Got A Trailer...

2009-03-06T04:37:00.001-05:00

We got trailers hitting the net all over the place for the summer movies. I guess now that we're into March, they don't have all that long to go after your hard earned bucks, so they gotta get those hype machines rolling.

There's a new and final Wolverine trailer out there. I watched a low res version somewhere, and since the HD version is in the bowels of MTV's website I'm not going to bother to link to it here. Just wait till it comes to Apple. (seriously, MTV?! What are you thinking Fox?) What I did see of the trailer convinced me not to watch it - the trailer, not the movie. It's Fox doing the usual "give away all the good stuff" and so I stopped watching and will wait for the movie. No need to have it spoiled by overzealous marketing. However, the bits I did see look great and I can't wait for this one.

Then there's a new Star Trek trailer out and it looks pretty cool, even for a non Trek fan like me, which I assume is the point of rebooting the franchise and going after new viewers. Lots of explosions in space, not much else in the trailer. Looks like it could be ok, but it won't be any Serenity.

Also out is a trailer for 500 Days of Summer. This is a little outside my wheelhouse movie wise, but sign me up. Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel? Ok, I'm in.

But the best is saved for last here. The first trailer is out for what is one of my Top 3 anticipated movies this year - Public Enemies. It's the story of bank robber John Dillenger and the FBI agent, Melvin Purvis, hot on his trail. Dillenger is played by Johnny Depp and Purvis is played by Christian Bale. That's enough right there to be interested, but the guarantee this will be awesome is that the director is crime action/drama master, Michael Mann. His movies Heat, Collateral, and Miami Vice are three of my all time favorites. Now I watched this trailer in low res flash and it was ok, but if your computer is at all capable, go over to Apple and watch it in 1080P HD glory. This one should be great. (by the way, the cool blues music in the second half of the trailer is Ten Million Slaves by Otis Tayler in case you were wondering like I was)

Shiny Apples

2009-03-03T16:14:00.001-05:00

So much for that March 24 date. Apple quietly updated their desktop line and a few other things today. The iMacs got some good speed bumps, Airport Extreme and Time Capsule got updated, but the Mac Mini update is what I've been waiting for.

The Mini now has the new Nvidia graphics, same as the laptops and a huge improvement over the old Intel GMA950. It's got DDR3 Ram in it too, although the low end version comes with only 1GB (really?!). On the back, it's got 5 (yep, 5!) USB ports, firewire 800, and this is where it gets interesting - both a mini-DVI and mini-Display ports so that you can now power two displays off it. There's been a lot of people wanting that for a long time. And all this in about the smallest desktop package you can get.

The downside is, I think they actually raised the price. The low end version starts at $729 Canadian which I think is about $80 more than what they were selling the old one for. Guess I'll be looking at some older refurbs, see what they come in at.

So, back to the Apple website I go...

Terminator Salvation

2009-03-03T05:14:00.001-05:00

Of the blockbuster summer movies coming this summer, I'd have to say Wolverine and Terminator Salvation would be two at the top of the list. And now, the first full trailer (Not a teaser) has hit the web for Terminator and it's awesome. We get a look at more of the story, the interaction between Conner and Terminators and the apocalyptic look of the future. With Christian Bale as John Conner (leader of the human resistance) and Sam Worthington as a Terminator who think he's human, it looks like the battle is all set.

I'm a huge fan of the first two Terminator movies. From a sci-fi angle and CGI and action viewpoint, they were ahead of their time, but it's the story in both that holds up no matter what. The third Terminator kind of took a helluva dive on that front, but I'm hoping Terminator Salvation gets it back to quality storytelling and not just "blow it up good." The downside is that the continuation of these movies rather stomps all over the point of the second movie, in that "fate is what you make it" and that you can change the future, but apparently the war happened anyway. Of course, the war between humans and Terminators would have had to happen for one to get sent back to protect John and Sarah Conner in the first place so that they could change the future and - oh dear, I've gone cross eyed...

Anyway, this trailer looks great and hopefully they can get Linda Hamilton back to do a voice over to book end the movie and maybe even an Arnold cameo. That would be classic.

HD trailer at Yahoo Movies here.

Carryin' On

2009-03-02T14:47:00.001-05:00

Hey, look at that, I have internet access again. Came home last night and had nothing in the way of a series of tubes to connect me to the outside world. My equipment was working right, but with the lights dimming on and off, I figured there was probably something else wrong further up the line. Must've been, cause now it's working. Would hate to have to go through internet withdrawal.

Elsewhere, I make it a point not to talk in details about work on here, but I will say I got good news last night in that the contract has settled and we'll keep working. That's a huge load off the mind and yet another chip falling in place. I may still hate my job, but in this economy you've gotta be grateful to just be working - anywhere. And if I can last another year, odds are good I'll get transferred to a better location. So it's just a wait and endure thing now, but at least the bills will still get paid. Now it's on to a laundry list of to-do's that have been on hold for the last six months...

And in other news, reading around the web there are some strong rumors that there will be an Apple event on March 24, likely to introduce updated Mac desktop models. Waiting for the new Mac Mini here, which is more in the affordable bracket than a laptop. Or even better would be a nice drop on a refurbed older model price. We'll soon see.

And the quote of the day goes to The Outlaw Josey Wales - classic western I watched:

"Now remember, things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is."

Oscar The Grouch

2009-02-23T02:09:00.001-05:00

The Oscars were tonight...anybody notice? Yeah, that's what I thought. I didn't watch the show (who could?), though I guess I should have considering I do need to get caught up on some sleep.

I caught the Hugh Jackman opening number, which was pretty good, on YouTube, but other than that, who besides die hards are going to watch? I might have tuned in had any movies I was interested in been nominated, but movies like Dark Knight, The Wrestler, and Gran Torino among others are ignored in favor of the usual selection of biopics and period pieces the Academy seem to like a lot.

For my money, The Wrestler was movie of the year and Mickey Rourke didn't even win Best Actor which was the only race I was interested in. That's highway robbery right there. Most of the other movies nominated I really have no interest in seeing. They scream boredom to me. I'm not saying they're not good movies, just that they don't interest me.

And that's the thing. They want more people to be interested in the Oscars, but then they show how out of touch they are. No one's saying they need to nominate Norbit or equal drivel, just widen the scope a bit.

How Slumdog Millionaire is best picture of 2008 is beyond me. But then the Oscars are always consistent...if not correct.

Random Bits

2009-02-22T05:56:00.001-05:00

Favorite song lyric of the night: "She ain't ashamed to be a woman, or afraid to be a friend..." Any guesses? No Google allowed...

Tonight one of the chips fell...the right way, for a change. Onward.

Came home from work and sat down and read for three straight hours. I'm now into book 7 of 9 in the Garth Ennis "Preacher" series of graphic novels. It's action packed, heart breaking, thought provoking, downright profane, and laugh out loud funny and I'm loving every minute of it. Wouldn't let a kid within ten feet of the books, but it sure does work to put your mind in a different spot...

Now if only I could managed some non sleep deprived time to continue writing Allison and the truck driver's epic tale...

So, done made it through another week. Only 45 left to go before it's adios '09. Can't wait for that - still tired and wired here. Nobody said it would be easy, but it don't have to be this hard (another lyric. guesses?) But then, to quote the Preacher, Jesse Custer, "Aw, f$ck this self pityin' bullshit. I dunno. Could be all I need's to shift down a gear." Could be...

Man Working - Semi Hiatus Ahead

2009-02-16T06:35:00.001-05:00

Well, thought I'd better do a check in post here.

Took an little unplanned hiatus from blogging there, which may continue. The walls are still pushing in, and I've been crunching numbers and burning brain cell cpu cycles to come up with a plan to change a thing or two of the life misery going here. Might even be a move in order, who knows. I have come up with a suitable plan, so now I just have to wait for a chip or two to drop first and then see what's what. (Thank you, oh screwed up economy). Oh the joys of working a job you hate and living in a noisy building. Sooner or later, the bad mood becomes permanent at that rate, and trying to put words down in a cohesive order just lacks appeal compared to laying in bed watching a cooking show trying to "zen" yourself to sleep. If I can put myself into a quiet home environment, the rest of it would probably be more doable. We'll see. Hmm, I wonder if a 32 year old could move into a retirement community? That'd be quiet, wouldn't it?

However, I have been watching movies and reading graphic novels and generally looking for any distraction I can in my half asleep downtime, and have caught a few good ones. I saw Casino, Donnie Darko, Out of Sight, and some others on TV, and read Batman: Year One, Preacher Vol 3 & 4, Punisher Presents Barracuda, The Killer Vol 1, and Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears. Nothing like coming home from work and reading some Garth Ennis at 4 in the morning. Oddly relaxing...

And now, for the first time in years, I'm hooked into a TV show. Two, no less. First is Patrick Swayze in The Beast which I've mentioned before, and now is Joss Whedon's new show Dollhouse. I'm just glad Whedon is back writing a TV show - let's hope Fox gives it more than 3 episodes before canceling it. This is Fox afterall - the enemy of anything creative or original. Thank goodness for the internet too, or I wouldn't be able to see these shows on night shift.

So I'm still around, but my blogging may be even slighter than usual for the next bit yet again as I try to change a thing or two, and it'll take some work. It all comes down to money, as usual, and I can say I have really come to hate the green stuff and the problems it generates. When I was working part time, I was broke but happy. Now I'm fulltime and earning more to throw at the mortgage than any job I've ever had and I'm miserable. Sounds kinda like a Zen riddle, don't it?

But the man has a plan...

Short Story - Sign of Life (Part 3/3)

2009-02-01T05:02:00.001-05:00

(Reader discretion advised - some coarse language / violence.)

Part 3

They were here.

Three people and their moments in time converged to this singular spot. Each there for a different reason, but joined now nonetheless. Then, as always, time moved forward and the next moment came.

The gunman whirled around at the sound of the door and without hesitation fired a wild shot. The truck driver instinctively ducked and seemed to stumble as he came through the door but continued to move fast as the clerk screamed at the sound of the gunshot and ducked behind the counter. Another shot rang out and then the two men met head on and grappled in a desperate fight for the weapon.

Then the heads by the cooler wall started to move too. The truck driver registered movement and in desperation managed to turn the gunman towards it, saving himself from another attack, but it would only be momentary. He was still fighting for the gun and didn’t need the man’s two friends in the struggle too.

With seconds to spare, his over charged brain caught more movement and the girl came out from behind the counter, no longer scared but embracing the anger generated from the fear. She held a baseball bat in her hands, an afterthought of a weapon the owner of the store kept there for peace of mind, if not practicality. Still, it was all she had so with a manic yell, she swung the bat and connected a home run shot on the surprised gunman’s friend, who hit the ground, knocked cold. The other girl took one look and bailed out running, so the fight was down to these three.

The truck driver finally got his hands on the gun and wrenched it out of the robber’s hands just as the clerk connected another shot to the now overmatched gunman. He staggered away a few steps and then turned back around to look at the other two and wondered how this guy and girl team had bested him at his own game. Enraged at being beaten, he pulled a knife and moved towards the closer bat wielding Babe Ruth impersonator.

Another gunshot rang out then, stopping everyone cold. Seconds ticked off the clock before the knife fell to the ground. With a confused look on his face, the robber looked down at the bright red on his shirt. Then he looked back at the truck driver and the smoking gun in his hand. He really hadn’t expected the man would actually pull the trigger. Coughing suddenly, he sank to his knees, then looked back up and ground out in a hate filled voice, “Go to hell...”

The driver held the gun steady, looked back at the dying man and spoke softly, “Been there. Your turn.”

With that, the dying man fell to the floor and breathed his last breath. The clerk lowered the bat and took a step backward to lean heavily on the counter. She was still alive and couldn’t believe it. She took a deep breath before realizing that the driver was talking again.

“You ok? Are you hurt?”

“I’m ok,” she whispered, then looked up in shock as he took a step backward before collapsing awkwardly to the floor. Rushing to him, she saw the red stain on the left side beneath his jacket. She pulled him to her and tried to put her hands on the wound. It was hopeless. The bullet he had caught coming through the door had done it’s damage. She was amazed he had lasted this long.

Police sirens wailed in the distance as she looked down at his face, life draining out of him as more moments moved past.

“Why’d you do it?” she whispered. “You had to know this could happen. You could have driven away. Saved yourself...”

“Couldn’t let him get away with it.” He coughed again, “too many assholes. Somebody’s gotta put a stop to it.” He blinked a couple times, then refocused on her face and half smiled. “Worth it though...”

She gave him a smile that gave him a glimpse of what heaven might be like, if he made it there. She held his face softly in her hands and quietly spoke, “Thank you. Is there anybody I can call? Something to say to somebody?”

He shook his head no, but whispered “What’s your name?”

“Allison.”

“Nice to meet you Allison. You swing a mean bat.” They both tried to laugh before he coughed harder and then his gaze went unfocused and with his last breath he whispered, “It’s finally quiet.” Then life slipped out of him and he counted his last moment in time.

She continued to hold him, even as the police hit the store and secured the scene. She ignored all their words, until an older officer knelt down and put his hand on her shoulder. “He’s gone, dear. You have to let go.”

She turned then, with tears rolling down her face and anger in her voice, “Must the good always pay the price for the bad? He was a good one, I just know it. I finally get a sign, and it’s wrapped in death. Is that fair? Is that right?”

The older cop had seen a lot of bad things in his time and could think of only one thing to say.

“No, that’s life.”

The End....?

---------------------

And there it is, nothing major just a dark little story I had on the mind. I still haven't decided if I should leave it alone or use it as a prologue for a bigger story that's kicking around the brain. If I can make the time, I just might. Having read three Garth Ennis graphic novels in the last two days, the urge to write something is proving itself not quite dead yet...

Thanks for the comments and taking the time to read it!

Short Story - Sign of Life (Part 2/3)

2009-01-30T17:21:00.001-05:00

(Reader discretion advised - some coarse language / violence.)

Part 2.

They were nowhere.

Good guys, that was, or so she thought. She was a register jockey at the local gas ‘n go on the edge of town and spent her nights watching the few late customers come in for expensive gas and cheap coffee. In between counting change and swiping charge cards, she’d read a book or make notes in her journal. Tonight though, she was content to stare out the window and listen to the late night radio. Through several hours of interrupted contemplation, she had come to the conclusion that guys were jerks. That morning a friend had sent a picture to her cellphone. A picture of her boyfriend getting way too comfortable with someone who wasn’t her. Despite the picture, he even tried to deny it, then excuse it, then apologize for it with an ill placed and insincere “I love you”. That made for a short conversation. It may have gone on longer, but after a baseball found it’s way from his shelf to her hand to his TV, nothing more needed to be said.

Now she was putting in time on her all night Short Stop shift and stewing about the state of her world. She was now pretty much homeless as she had been living with the jerk. Smashing his TV probably put an end to their more than roommates status. And this job of human interaction misery wouldn’t pay the freight either. She wanted to go back to school, and had put her hopes on a man, but he had come up short as usual. Now she needed a place to stay, a better job, and if she was honest with herself, a fix it up glue for another broken heart.

As a customer bought a coke and she handed him some change, she thought to herself that was the worst of it. She had really thought this guy was different. Honest, true, and honorable. It turned out he just put on a good show. It wasn’t the first time, and she was beginning to wonder if there was anything good left in the human race? Was there anyone who wasn’t just looking out for themselves and determined to be an asshole 24/7? She was so tired of being lied to and used and was getting angrier by the day; but the more she thought about it, the more she didn’t want to become jaded and hard. But it was pressing the point of half past too late, and she just hoped for a sign that all was not lost on this dying planet.

A truck pulled into the gas pumps and she watched as a tall guy got out and started up the fueling. The truck had seen better days, but it was an old school warrior and as she watched him wait on the pump and stare into the darkness of the night she idly thought he might be too. She was about to jot something down in her journal when the door chime rang again and two guys and a girl walked in, talking a little too loud while heading to the coolers at the back.

Then one of the guys turned back around and yelled to his friends “Get whatever you want.” He approached the counter and she bent down to put her journal on the lower shelf. She stood up to see what he wanted and her heart flatlined. He had a gun in his hand and he brought his arm straight up and pointed it at her. “Give me the money and the smokes, bitch! Now!” Instinctively she jumped back but hit the cigarette shelves of the wall behind her. She couldn’t think for a second as her mind and body refused to co-operate. The guy with the gun said something else she missed entirely as her now alive heartbeat in her ears drowned it out. She tried to reach to open the register, hoping the little cash in there would be enough to make him leave.

Then she looked up and she saw his eyes and she knew this was happening and it was no joke. Where there should have been something - hate, anger, or even evil - there was nothing. He didn’t care about her or even pulling the trigger, and she knew it. All hope left out of her in a hurry, and she closed her eyes. The word help went through her mind, out to someone - anyone - on this plane of existence or the next, but her hopeless broken heart didn’t expect to hear anything back. She figured this was it. A bad end to a worse day.

Then the door chime rang again...

To Be Continued...

Short Story - Sign of Life (Part 1/3)

2009-01-29T14:55:00.001-05:00

Just a little three part story coming here. Enjoy if you can, comments welcome...

(Reader discretion advised - some coarse language / violence.)

Part 1

They were everywhere.

It was getting really, really tiring too. It didn’t matter where he went, he’d bump into one. Assholes at work, idiots in the checkout line, arrogant brain-deads on the other end of the phone line, and plain old stupid-meets-dangerous in the car next to him on the freeway. The list could go on forever and he wouldn’t run out of examples for a millennia or two.

So, what happened? Where did it all go wrong? When did humanity decide that brains and civility were no longer requirements of a proper existence? Did the sea of unwashed two legged pollutants not realize that this mess wasn’t necessary? That a little honor and common sense could make life a lot better for more than a few? These were the questions that wouldn’t quit going round his head every day, and with each passing cycle of the sun he got a little further removed from finding any answers. His faith in humanity was long since gone, and his faith in something better was on a slippery foothold.

It was in this mental fog that he rolled into the Short Stop on the edge of town to get some fuel for both himself and his truck. He got out and started pumping gas into the four wheel wallet drainer. One more thing to swear at as he watched the tally roll higher on the pump. Somebody somewhere was getting rich off him at this very moment, and if there was any justice in the world the bastard wouldn’t get a chance to spend it. But there was none of that left in the world either.

Some other voices broke into his thoughts and out of habit he registered other people walking into the store. Years ago a bad luck streak had taught him the knack of keeping track of his surroundings mentally; a habit that was hard to break even now. Sometimes he wondered if it was a blessing or a curse.

He finished filling up and was putting the gas cap back on when, out of habit, he glanced into the store to see where the clerk was. He stopped short at what he saw - the clerk was behind the register, backed up to the cigarette wall and was staring at the business end of a pistol in the hand of yet another asshole. Just what I need, he thought, taking a step back behind the cab of his truck. He pulled out his cellphone and quickly dialed 911, switching to speaker mode so he could keep the phone out of any possible line of sight. The operator answered and he spoke tersely, “Listen close - the Short Stop gas station at the Lincoln street highway ramp, send cops fast. The store is being held up. One assailant, gun sighted. At least four people in the store by my count. Got that?” He got a yes response, then hung up as the operator continued talking and glanced back into the store. The robber appeared animated and agitated. The clerk was trying to melt into the wall while reaching to open the register. She was clearly scared. And he could see the tops of two heads back by the coolers as well. Eyes back to the gunman, and something in his gut told him this wasn’t going to last long enough for the cops to get there. He had to make a decision.

Honor was telling him to do something. Common sense was telling him he already had and to drive away before a bullet wound up with his name on it. But then if he did that, he’d be just another one of the assholes he’d grown to hate so much, and he’d be damned if he’d allow that to happen. So be it, he thought, damned it is. He pulled his ball cap a little lower as he walked towards the store pretending he was oblivious to what was going on inside. He took a deep breath and reached for the door handle, wondering if his number had finally come up and might he be headed for that last ride...

To be continued...

It's A Rant

2009-01-21T06:49:00.002-05:00

Ok, what the hell, time for a rant.

Here’s a comment from the last post: dont talk trash about carrie said...
Carrie always does an amazing job no matter what she is singing and she sings I told you so just as good as Randy Travis or better. Find someone else to talk bad about.

For the record, I wasn’t talking trash about Carrie, I was making an observation about feeling old when stuff I grew up on is now a classic to be covered by the current radio darling. Still, let’s explore this a little for kicks and giggles anyway. Carrie covering a Randy Travis classic is ok, but to release it as a single is a little odd. It’d be like Keith Urban trying for a number one hit by doing a cover of He Stopped Loving Her Today. I like Urban, but that’d be weird. I have no problem with covers, but sometimes a cover of a classic should just be an album track, not a radio single. A nod to a favorite without trying to score popularity points.

Now I have no idea whether Carrie is a die hard Randy Travis fan or not, but from this cynics viewpoint, it just seems like savvy marketing, much like most of country music today (not just Carrie). An American Idol pop music winner, shrewdly moves into the much less fickle country market with a studio pushed custom made Faith Hill in waiting look and sound, wins big at awards shows on only one album’s strength to keep the Idol fandom/market happy and buying, and then after a couple radio friendly pop-ish hits releases a radio single of a classic “doesn’t get more country than that” song to bridge the gap to true country fans and works in an Opry appearance with the original singer himself. Either this is the luckiest girl on the face of the earth living a dream, or there’s a brilliantly savvy marketing team behind the curtain. I’m a cynic to the bone, so guess what I think?

I realize I’m no longer in anyone's sales demographic, but it just seems country music today is marketed straight to the 13 year old girl with expendable cash market. Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Taylor Swift (which one’s which?), Rascal Flatts, Sugarland, and too many other newbies to count have made my ears bleed with uninspired, tepid lyrics and pop blended beats. Can I not flip on my radio and find someone singing something that doesn’t sound like it just made it through a five step focus group and marketing session and blandified (Trademark!) for your protection? Sure, there’s still good singers and songwriters making their mark with solid art from the heart, but I have to go to the internet to find it. Forget CMT or KIX FM.

Or maybe, in the end, this is the way it is with every generation. What appeals to the age appropriate masses is turned away from by those who have lived a little longer and seen something with more quality than quantity. I’m sure when I was listening to Garth Brooks, my parents wondered what happened to their country. Now I have to hear Sugarland and wonder what the hell happened to mine.

Perhaps Vince Gill said it best...

You wake up one morning and it's passed you by.
Don't know when and you don't know why.
You feel like an old memory hangin' round.
And man, you've got to face it, it's a young man's town.
You knew this day was comin' all along.
So why bitch n' moan and say they done you wrong.
Just teach 'em what you know and pass it on down,
'Cause man you gotta face it, it's a young man's town.

It's a young man's town,
Full of young man's dreams.
And all God's children gotta learn to spread their wings.
Sometimes you gotta stand back,
And watch 'em burn it to the ground,
Even though you built it, it's a young man's town.

You always seem to be the last to know.
Man, that's just the way that the story goes.
There's nothing you can do when the fields have turned brown.
And man, you gotta face it, it's a young man's town.

It's a young man's town,
Full of young man's dreams.
And all God's children gotta learn to spread their wings.
Sometimes you gotta stand back,
And watch 'em burn it to the ground.
Even though you built it, it's a young man's town.
-Young Man's Town, by Vince Gill

Quick Picks

2009-01-19T04:23:00.001-05:00

I think if I'm going to continue blogging, it'll need to be short and sweet with the posting. At least till my life eases up on the pressure a bit later this year. Till then, here's a few things grazing the surface...

- Not many TV shows can grab my interest anymore, as the major networks don't usually offer much and anything interesting gets canceled too soon to bother with (I'm looking at you FOX). However, when HBO or A&E launches a series, I take note. This time it's A&E, and the show is The Beast (A&E synopsis: The Beast, starring Patrick Swayze and Travis Fimmel, centers on an unorthodox but effective FBI veteran, Charles Barker (Swayze), who takes on a rookie partner, Ellis Dove (Fimmel). Barker trains Dove in a hard-edged, psychologically driven approach towards undercover work, where a moment's hesitation can lead to death). I just caught the pilot, and its a show that delivers. Here's hoping Swayze's health allows him to keep doing the show.

- With iTunes now going DRM free, I'll actually buy some music there now. I recently bought albums by Bryan Adams, Kanye West, and Miranda Lambert (how's that for eclectic tast?) I normally hate rap, but Kanye West's 808 & Heartbreaks album isn't all bad, with a couple good tracks. However, the surprise was country singer Miranda Lambert who delivers a really good album and writes her own songs. She's more Gretchen Wilson than Taylor Swift, so that's a plus right there, and she can rock or do a EmmyLou Harris cover with equal talent. One of the very few country singers today worth a listen.

- Speaking of country, I recently heard on the radio a classic song - "I Told You So", only thing was it certainly wasn't Randy Travis singing it. It was Carrie Underwood doing a cover of it. Suddenly I felt old. What I grew up listening to was now being remade for the bubblegum country/pop generation. At least she picked a good song for a change, but I'd have rather heard Randy back on the radio singing it.

- If you're a Firefox 3 user, available plug-ins can really add to it. The #1 essential is AdBlock Plus. With that enabled, you never have to see an advertisement on a webpage again. I don't like surfing without it anymore. And if you're a blogger, ScribeFire is a must that makes for easy blogging right while you surf. How'd I not know about this sooner? I just found it, and it works great. It's in your browser so you don't have to launch another program, and better yet, it's free.

- I've been impressed with the online video service Vimeo.com. It's a step up from YouTube, as they will give you 720P HD video. It's pretty strict in that they only want originally created content, so you won't see music videos or news clips there, but some of it's quite interesting. Here's a well put together vid of snow in Seattle shot with a Canon 5D MK II (sweet camera if you got an extra 3 grand)...[click through to Vimeo's site for the HD]

A Walk Around Seattle in the Snow from Luke Humphrey on Vimeo.

Checkin' In...

2009-01-15T05:55:00.001-05:00

I'm still around, just a little swamped. So here's a pic of me in Sin City style, just for fun. Marv Rules!

(Speaking of which, if you get a chance to see Mickey Rourke's The Wrestler, do so. It's as good as they say, and he just won a Golden Globe for it and so did Springsteen for the amazing song. I'll try to put up a short review for it soon...)

Drive For Five!

2009-01-06T07:37:00.001-05:00

Oh Canada! The young guns won the 5th straight World Junior Hockey Championship for Canada with a win over Sweden in the gold medal game.

They got there with a heart stopping shootout win over Russia in the semi-final. Canada was trailing 5-4, but scored with the goalie pulled and 5 seconds left to tie it and then won in a shootout to go to the gold medal game.

And then they clinched it tonight. Way to go boys!

Top 8 of ‘08

2009-01-01T06:01:00.008-05:00

Ok, so I didn’t see enough ‘08 movies to do a list, didn’t buy enough CD’s to do a list, or books, or go places or whatever. Basically, the year pretty much passed me by. However, there were a few things off the top of my head that captured my interest, and so I thought I’d just lump it all together and do a best “stuff” of 2008 instead. Hey, that’s what people do on blogs at the end of the year, right?

8. Unibody Macbook with touchpad

I’ve only been able to play around on one for a bit, but that was a cool bit. This is a sweet device, and that touch pad is the way I think computers should have been 10 years ago. How did something so simple take so long? I want one, but they are priced out of my league...

7. Big & Rich - Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace music video

Big & Rich made an excellent song with “Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace”, but the music video was even better. An entire western movie done in about 4 minutes. In the “country” music age of Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift, this was refreshing.

6. Wolverine movie trailer

This comes out May 1st, 2009, but the trailer came out in December and rocked. There’s lots to be worried about with this movie after X-Men 3 and the fact it’s being made by Fox (which ruins everything), but Hugh Jackman IS Wolverine and the trailer brought it with great lead-in music, action, claws, cameos, and classic Wolverine attitude. Can’t wait to see this next year.

5. Allison Moorer - Mockingbird album

Moorer is by far my favorite female country singer, and the irony is I can’t remember the last time I heard her on the radio. That’s a shame, but in ‘08 she released the album Mockingbird - a tribute to other female singers and writers that inspired her. Her voice is second to none and the material is first rate as she cuts through country, blues, & a little jazz putting her stamp on these classic songs.

4. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long-Blog

Joss Whedon came up with this during the writer’s strike and on a low budget with help from friends and family, put together a 3 part movie / story that took the internet by storm. Released for free for a week back in the summer, this told a tale from a would be super villain’s view through his blog - oh, and it’s a musical. Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, & Felicia Day were uniformly awesome in their roles that brought hilarity, sarcasm, and emotion right to the final Whedon trademark ending. If you haven’t seen it, go find it on the internet or get the DVD from Amazon. It’s that good.

3. Criminal by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

Anyone who loves noir or crime genre or plain good storytelling should be reading this. A mature comic that shows just how good a grasp Ed Brubaker has on this genre. 2008 brought the 3 individual stories collected in “The Dead and the Dying” and the just completed arc “Bad Night.” Once you start a story arc, you don’t want to quit until you’ve read to the end and you find yourself pulling for the low life characters that populate Ed’s Criminal world. Then add the stunning art by Sean Phillips that can convey so much from a character or even the surroundings and you have one of the best written books out there today.

2. Punisher Max - Garth Ennis finale - “Valley Forge, Valley Forge”

It was a sad day in August I read the last Garth Ennis written issue of Punisher Max, but what a way to finish it. I think I literally sat back and said “wow” when I was done. Ennis managed to pull together and wrap up his entire run on the series (over five years work) in one astounding finale, all while setting it up for another writer to take over. Ennis’ run was a like a clinic on storytelling and character development. Everyone seems to point to the over the top violence in these stories (and this is where the movies get it wrong), and yes there is that. But what drove the stories, and what enabled the emotional wallop some of them could bring was Ennis’ ability to stay focused on the characters in spite of the mayhem. Then in “Valley Forge, Valley Forge” he brought it to a riveting close by using the device of writing a novel within a comic book and raising it to something more. What was a gritty crime comic with moments of violence, utter crudeness, insane humor, heart, & emotion finished with a poignant statement on a soldier’s life that cemented Ennis’ run as truly epic.

1. And the best thing of 2008? IT’S OVER!

With a lot of bad news going around all over, and a very long year for me, 2008 was less than stellar. So let’s move on and see what 2009 has got. I’m sure it’ll be interesting.

Me Mini Movie Reviews: Valkyrie

2008-12-29T06:43:00.004-05:00

2008 has been a long year for me and due to several factors, I entered the second last week of the year without having even stepped into a theatre, despite a long list of movies I would have liked to see. Thanks to a friend, that changed and we went out to a theatre on Boxing Day to see the latest Tom Cruise movie, Valkyrie. We're both very interested in history, WWII, and war movies, so this seemed like it would be right up our alley. And we were right - this was an excellent movie and I hope more people go out to see it over it's theatrical run.

Based on true events, this is the story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and his role and leadership in a revolt within the Nazi regime in an attempt to assassinate Hitler. The movie is directed by Brian Singer, with Cruise in the role of Stauffenberg, and veteran actors Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkenson, and Terrance Stamp all providing excellent performances. Singer and Cruise have talked about how they set out to make a thriller based in this genre / time period vs a standard historical epic and it shows. They and the script writers were meticulous in going through available records, letters, and films to bring the historical accuracy, but the pacing is sharp and constantly moving forward. There's no lagging moments in the film as you're engaged right to the end to see what happens to these characters. Also, it must be pointed out that the set pieces, costumes, airplanes, and such are all vivid and real with no CGI in sight. That is always appreciated.

Regardless of what one might think of Tom Cruise and his public antics in recent years, it can't be denied that he is a talented actor and can still bring it with intensity when the camera rolls. He (and the character) is the central point to which the movie will either win or fail, and it's a total win. We follow Stauffenberg through the movie as he takes charge of the plan and relentlessly keeps driving it forward as one obstacle after another comes up. We realize the terrible consequences that await for him and his family and everyone involved should the plan fail and yet believe in his strength of conviction when he says they must show the world not everyone in Germany held Hitler's beliefs. However, anyone who has opened a history book will know Hitler's fate, but that never takes away from the riveting drama played out in this story.

I was surprised to see the theatre packed full when we went, and as we discussed it after, there were probably teenagers there looking for a Tom Cruise adventure movie not realizing the important slice of history they were about to see up on the screen. I often think that today's instant gratification generation could not begin to come up with the inner fortitude to fight the battles faced by our ancestors in the past and any chance to show and possibly even learn from what's come before is a welcome opportunity, even if it's packaged in a Hollywood thriller.

This is one of the better movies I've seen in a while and one that stays with you as you mentally play out character decisions and "what if" moments of history. I hope more people go to see it as it's an actual rare movie that's worth the trip to the local cineplex.

Verdict: Highly Recommended.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T07:44:00.003-05:00

Hope you all had a wonderfully classic Christmas!

I spent time with family and ate too much and had fun. Good times. Will report more later...

Still busy with the season of busyness this week, but got sucked into monkeying around with the HTML of my blog here and now must sleep before I look at anymore hexidecimal html...

"I'm Still Kicking, I Must Be On Broadway"

2008-12-22T04:12:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts again, but I'm trying to stay focused on taking an axe to my to do list. Had a day off work today, but so much for a day of rest. (That's coming with a couple days off this week).

Got the leaky taps fixed, replaced the fill valve in the toilet that wouldn't shut off anymore, cleaned and did the laundry, made myself my one meal of the day of ham/cheese/green pepper/tomato omelette and homemade hashbrowns,
then did a tricky open heart surgery on one of my computers. Now that was fun - I haven't had a challenge like that in a while. Just like old times.

So I got two more work days, then I'm off for 5 out of the next 6. I could use the break. Oh, and as an afterthought, I guess Christmas is this week too. I should proably finish my shopping before then...

(bonus points if you know what movie the title quote came from)

Me Mini Movie Reviews: South of Heaven West of Hell

2008-12-15T04:54:00.004-05:00

Sometimes you have to revisit a movie to really appreciate it. Back in ‘01 or so, I read about Dwight Yoakam writing, directing, and starring in a western called South of Heaven West of Hell. I picked it up on DVD along with the soundtrack CD and remember thinking it was alright for what it was, but a little weird and slow paced and didn’t really get it. I did however enjoy the soundtrack. Then the DVD sat on on my shelf in my collection for years and didn’t really watch it much until recently, being on a bit of a Yoakam music kick, I pulled it off the shelf and ripped it to my PSP and watched it over a week at work on my breaks. This time around, I totally got it and thoroughly enjoyed it and think it a great little overlooked movie.

It’s pretty much laid out in the title what it’s going for, and uses the harsh reality and desolation of the western genre to get there. Dwight Yoakam stars as US Marshal Valentine Casey who winds up in a confrontation with the ruthless Henry Gang when they rob a bank. Time passes, but their trails will intersect yet again at the most inopportune moment for Val, but he knows he must bring them to justice. Along the way, a colorful cast of characters cross paths including Adalyne (Bridget Fonda) whom Val falls for, her traveling companion Brig. Smalls (played by Billy Bob Thornton in an odd stately cameo), Shoshonne Bill (Peter Fonda) who introduces Val and Adalyne to a hot air balloon ride, the vile Henry Gang led by Leland (Luke Askew) who was like a father to Val, the evil Taylor (Vince Vaughn) who has it in for Val, other members of the gang played by Paul Reubens (no kidding) and Michael Jeter, and the Dunfries clan who run the mercantile / hotel where most of the paths cross. If you watch movies / TV with any kind of regularity, there are a lot of faces you’ll recognize here as plenty of well known character actors are involved. Where else will you find two Sling Blade characters, a Wedding Crasher, Pee Wee Herman, an Easy Rider, the Point of No Return assassin, Rockford’s buddy Coop, Walker’s friend CD Parker, Boss Jack from Traveller, and Tim “You wanna buy a rope” from Pure Country all in one movie? It was a whole movie of “where do I know him from?”

Now granted, my first impression of it being slow paced and bizarre was on the mark, but it works for the movie. ***Possible Spoilers*** This isn’t a John Wayne western. It’s a bleak, dirty, crude, desolate, and violent place these characters find themselves in and are trying to move on from. One’s salvation is a recurring theme, which makes sense since the title refers to the movie being an allegory for purgatory. These characters aren’t dead, but they certainly aren’t living. They’re stuck in between with unfinished business and souls that can’t rest. Only Adalyne is there by choice to rescue the deaf child being raised by Doc Dunfries. Everyone else is stuck in their own personal desolation, some worse than others. The past has to be confronted and peace made with what got them there before any hope of moving on to a future can happen. Val begins to realize this even as he senses a new hope in Adalyne. Even though he wants to go with her, he has to put the past to rest. ***End Spoilers***

This movie probably isn’t for everyone (Amazon’s reviews seem to be either one or five stars, nothing in between), but in a sea of remakes, blatant Oscar grabs, and tired retreads, it is somethings thats original. It is a crude and violent movie with some slow points and bizarre moments, but it’s also genuinely funny in spots, brings some good action in the final shootout, and has some excellent lines. There was one scene that had me laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes - at work, no less. And if you’re paying attention, it’s got more to it story wise than your standard shoot ‘em up western. Think Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter and you know what level you’re on here.

Verdict: I’d definitely recommend it for those looking for something way off the beaten trail and the patience for a slow moving character story. And if not, the soundtrack is worth a listen anyway.

Much Too Young...

2008-12-10T07:05:00.002-05:00

So another year gone off the lifespan, and as I'm wont to do on this yearly mile marker day, I sit here looking back. Loads of memories, a healthy mix of good and bad mark the trail. And while I'll put this last year in the latter bucket, it's time to cowboy up and drive on. All anyone's got is the here and now anyway, so I reckon mulling on the back or forward of it makes no difference. Would've preferred a less rocky trail, but the footing's solid if unspectacular, and it'll take me where I need to get to, if not where I want to be. That's another trail, but for now I'll head into the wind and hope next year's mile marker is on higher ground...

This ol' highway's getting longer
Seems there ain't no end in sight
To sleep would be best, but I just can't afford to rest
I've got to ride in Denver tomorrow night

And the white line's getting longer and the saddle's getting cold
I'm much too young to feel this damn old
All my cards are on the table with no ace left in the hole
I'm much too young to feel this damn old

Lord, I'm much too young to feel this damn old

from Much Too Young
by Garth Brooks

Place Holder

2008-12-04T06:12:00.001-05:00

With the flu recovery coming along, and work, and trying to hack my way down my overdue to do list, my blogging time is microscopic this week. Got a few more things to do and then get back to normal just in time for Christmas.

Yay - Christmas! It's December, we've got snow, the radio is starting to play Carols, and Christmas is 3 weeks away. Best time of the year.

Could almost give a guy reason to smile...

Captain's Log...Reboot

2008-11-26T05:16:00.003-05:00

"Captain's Log, 11,26,2008: Crashed landed the space pod on a rock in the third vortex from the fire ball. It's an inhabitable planet with strange customs and stranger local citizens. They have more than they could want and yet through a confounding misuse of a fraction of available cranium voltage, they steadfastly march toward an impending doom of self produced proportions. On top of that, I have contracted a virus from these life forms that has caused my machinery to become corrupted and I will have to degauss the atom chips before I am operational again. Will send more reports once repairs complete. Captain Out."

Ahem. Well, that little bit of prose basically is to say I am down sick of the locals and sick with the flu and have been off work for the last couple days as well. Lucky I have sick days. As it is, I'm starting to feel better today and will get back around to normal in the next few days. For now, I'm just sleeping and chilling and watching episodes of Miami Vice and enjoying what I can of this brief respite from the normal grind even though I feel like 40 miles of bad road. Oh well, I'm on the way back up and I got to miss work for a couple days, so that's not bad.

So till I'm back around, I've got the orange juice handy and the music of the month, Dwight Yoakam on repeat...

The only time I feel the pain,
Is in the sunshine or the rain,
I don't feel no hurt at all,
Unless you count when teardrops fall,
I tell the truth 'cept when I lie,
It only hurts me when I cry

You couldn't tell it by this smile
But my recovery took a while
I worked for days and nights on end
Just to walk and talk again
You can't believe the time it takes
To heal a heart once it breaks

Oh maybe every now and then
I have a small heartache again
You wouldn't know to look at me
Those tiny scars that you can't see
It was a struggle to survive
I'm probably lucky I'm alive

The only time I feel the pain,
Is in the sunshine or the rain,
I don't feel no hurt at all,
Unless you count when teardrops fall,
I tell the truth 'cept when I lie,
It only hurts me when I cry

by Dwight Yoakam

Trailer For The Wrestler Is Online

2008-11-21T13:00:00.003-05:00

Not much time these next couple days for the 'net, but just had to post this up. The trailer for the upcoming movie The Wrestler has finally hit the web. Been waiting to see a trailer for this all year, and can't wait to see the movie. Much like when the movie Brick came out, I knew I just had to go to a theatre to see it right away, and I'll go see this if it comes to this area. It's been getting rave reviews - could be movie of the year for me.

And if Mickey Rourke's return to glory wasn't enough (actually that was Sin City as far as I'm concerned), catch that killer Bruce Springsteen song in the trailer he wrote specifically for the movie. Rourke, Springsteen, and Marisa Tomei all in one trailer = epic Win.

If your computer can handle it (and if not, get a Mac ;-) you can download the trailer in glorious 1080P HD here.

Synopsis:Back in the late ’80s, Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was a headlining professional wrestler. Now, twenty years later, he ekes out a living performing for handfuls of diehard wrestling fans in high school gyms and community centers around New Jersey. Estranged from his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and unable to sustain any real relationships, Randy lives for the thrill of the show and the adoration of his fans. However, a heart attack forces him into retirement. As his sense of identity starts to slip away, he begins to evaluate the state of his life — trying to reconnect with his daughter, and striking up a blossoming romance with an exotic dancer (Marisa Tomei) who is ready to start a new life. Yet all this cannot compare to the allure of the ring and passion for his art, which threatens to pull Randy “The Ram” back into his world of wrestling. Director Darren Aronofsky presents a powerful portrait of a battered dreamer, who despite himself and the odds stacked against him, lives to be a hero once again in the only place he considers home – inside the ring. THE WRESTLER had its North American premiere at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival and won the Golden Lion at the 2008 Venice Film Festival.

Short Story - 50 Feet

2008-11-17T05:39:00.001-05:00

Nothing major, just something I wrote in my notepad at work over a night or two...

50 Feet
by Eaglewing

It was fifty feet between heaven and hell. And he would know, because he had counted.

Many times.

And the ease of the trip one way was alarmingly acute when trying to do it the other.

An afterthought of a town with barely enough to warrant a stop sign was his home. It was that main street at the top of the hill that divided a church on one side and the bar on the other. Folks seemed to fall into one or the other on a steady basis with a thirst for something more. He had been around long enough to have noticed too that both had their regulars that always came back week after week, so he figured neither side was doing the job of quenching that thirst. On this night however, he wasn't concerned about future return trips to the well, he was only thinking of the here and now. Too much was too much and enough was enough.

So with a habit he couldn't seem to break, he staggered out of that bar at closing time, planning to cross the street like he had before and confess his sins to anyone who'd listen. But tonight the windows were dark and the lights were off and the doors were closed, so he wound up making it only halfway to somewhere in the middle. Straddling that asphalt's hard yellow line, he stopped and looked up and wondered if those on either side of the street had it right. Somewhere up there he thought there was something that was more than a church could market or a bar could drown. Something, or perhaps if a millennia old book was right, Someone, was up there and looking down. Maybe somewhere beyond the stars was the Answer. Taking a deep breath, he reconsidered. Maybe it wasn't that far away. His lips moved then and mouthed words he only hoped wouldn't go unheard.

Then the moment was shattered as that eighteen wheel tanker crested the hill with the hammer down and it wouldn't have mattered how good the brakes were for a man standing drunk in the middle of the road.

In a heartbeat he finally beat the habit and found out the distance between heaven and hell was a lot shorter than fifty feet.

The End.

I'm Down To Saltines and Jello

2008-11-12T06:35:00.001-05:00

Now it's lettuce. (link)

This just keeps getting worse. After a massive listeriosis outbreak and recall a couple months ago, it was just starting to calm down when E.Coli broke out around here, thanks to a Harvey's Restaurant and now further testing of other outbreaks have confirmed a separate strain of it linked to Romain lettuce. On top of that, the Harvey's outbreak is a unique strain that may never be traced back to where it came from.

Pretty much all cold cut and prepared meats are off my menu, and now when I'm thinking fruits and veggies are a good thing to eat, they're cropping up with E.Coli. What the?! Going out to eat at a restaurant is really becoming unappealing, I tell ya...

Now I'm wondering, should I boil bread before I eat too?

Lest We Forget...

2008-11-11T07:33:00.001-05:00

Edit: Not my photo, sorry. Wanted a photo of Flanders Fields, and forgot the link in my insomnia state, but the thought remains the same.

"Nothin's Wrong, 'cept Nothin's Wrong"

2008-11-10T05:35:00.001-05:00

Well, that was another week gone, sans blogging. Oh well, 'nuff said.

Laid around today mostly, just resting. Watched some football and a couple movies. Started with King Arthur on Bravo network, which is one I like but I don't think they showed the Director's Cut. There was some segment missing that I seem to remember, so if you're going to watch it, get the director's cut.

Then later tonight I tuned into Mel Gibson in We Were Soldiers. That is one very good movie. It shows a battle in the Vietnam War and focused on the men, their wives, and the battle on the ground and what it did to them instead of trying for any of the usual preaching or politics about the war. They simply showed it, very graphically in a long harrowing battle sequence. These were soldiers, surrounded and cut off and dying (thanks to the usual top brass incompetence) and yet they would Drive On. And yet those at home, the women, the children, and even confused cab drivers had to deal with the fallout. Never knowing when that doorbell would ring and what it would mean. Death is truly hardest on the living. The Captain at the end would say he would never forgive himself for not dying with his men. In the end, it's always about the man beside you - not politics, not race, not even religion. Just those human beings on both sides following orders and leaving those behind that are only left with the missing space.

I've always been fascinated by war stories and war history ever since I was a kid. It isn't right how those in positions of power, those suits at the top get to decide how and when wars are started and fought while those in uniform on the ground pay the price. I firmly believe there'd be a lot fewer wars if those who decided to start them had to be on the front line leading the charge at the time they gave the green light.

Snow, Pics, and Tests

2008-10-30T21:20:00.001-04:00

Been busy working and sleeping, but I was able to play with my camera for a bit. Discovered how reliable and easy using the "Best Shots" selection is. My camera has presets for almost any photo situation, and it does really improve the shots.

Also, Tuesday night we had the first Snow Fall of the year! Yay! I always like the snow, and even if it wasn't a lot it was still nice. Too bad it's going to warm up again and send it all away. There should be more though - this is Canada.

I've also been testing some media posting options. I would like to post more pictures and maybe (gasp!) video, but I want it to be easy in the posting and quality in what's posted. And we all know how "good" YouTube quality is. Anyway, here's what I hope is a Flickr slideshow. We'll see how this posts.

Back again later...

...and that worked great! Way to go Flickr. Of course, it does use flash, so if you're not into that, you can go here to see the pics.

Here is one pic that I really liked. I took a shot down my street and set it to Black & White and went with the night scene best shot setting. Had to hold the camera really still as the shutter stayed open way longer, but it came out nice. Then I tweaked it a bit in iPhoto to bring the clouds out more. Worked well. Who knows, I may just figure out how to take a decent picture yet.

Best Movie of '08 = Rambo?

2008-10-25T05:57:00.001-04:00

Holy cow, you know what I just realized? Its the end of October of 2008 and I have only seen one movie that came out this year. That movie was Rambo which came out in January, and I didn't see it at the theatre either. I read something on a website (Row Three) about voting for best movie of 2008 and I tried to think of what I would vote for and realized there could only be one, as thats all I've seen. I knew the job this year was going to obliterate a lot of the things I like to do, but this is just weird. And it isn't like more than a few of the ones I wanted to see aren't out on DVD cause they are. I just haven't gotten out to rent them. Hmm, I'm going to have quite a list to catch up on if I ever get around to it. Gotta get on that.

Btw, off the top of my head, here's a list of what I want to see that's still coming before the end of the year:

Passchendaele (in theatres)
Appaloosa (in theatres)
Max Payne (in theatres)
Australia (November)
The Wrestler (December)
Gran Torino (December)
Punisher: War Zone (December)
The Spirit (December)
The Brothers Bloom (December)

Place your bets whether I'll get out to a theatre to see any of these...

Gran Torino - Now That's A Poster

2008-10-23T11:32:00.001-04:00

UPDATE! Trailer is online! Check it out at Apple Trailers. Have to say - awesome trailer. This is Clint's first turn in front of the camera since Million Dollar Baby and he hasn't missed a beat. With a permanent hard eyed squint and a growly voice, he's just as Bad-Ass at 78 as he was as Dirty Harry or the Man With No Name. Can't wait to see this.

----------

I'll have to say that the synopsis for Clint Eastwood's next movie, Gran Torino, didn't really grab my attention. Then I saw this poster online today. Consider attention grabbed. Most movie posters these days are floating heads and big fonts with no style. This however, is a simple poster that pretty much says "don't mess with Clint's car. Ever."

Synopsis:
Disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) sets out to reform his neighbor, a young Hmong teenager, who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possesion: his 1972 Gran Torino.

Testing Marsedit & Watching TV

2008-10-23T01:10:00.001-04:00

I'm just testing out the Mac blogging software MarsEdit. Should be something that's easier and quicker than Blogger's web based interface. We'll see.

There aren't too many TV shows on these days that I follow anymore. However, there are two that I will watch - House and Without A Trace. Both happen to be on in reruns on Bravo when I get home from work in the middle of the night. I'm now in the middle of a really good story arc on Without A Trace, and I've been sucked in. It follows an FBI team that concentrates on missing persons cases. I don't know what season I'm watching reruns of, but they've steadily built an ongoing story that started with a missing girl which turned into a human trafficking case which turned into a personal fight for Agent Malone. The stakes keep getting higher and I wonder where it's going to end up, and on top of that the individual episodes keep coming with the missing person cases as well, worked by the rest of the team. It's pretty good writing and quickly paced with excellent use of music as well. Been awhile since I've been sucked into a TV series - kinda fun.

Been touring around the web and reading about the Macbooks and seems like sentiment is pretty divided. Some love them, some hate the glossy screen and the lack of firewire. Some things in reviews that did catch my attention:
- Battery life is excellent. 4-5 hours with screen on full brightness and WI-FI on. That's pretty good.
- Battery, RAM, and the hard drive are now ridiculously easy to swap, no tools required.
- The trackpad takes a little getting used to, with only the bottom half actually clicking down like a mouse button.
And, of course, these things are expensive. Duh. Maybe the government can give me some bailout money to buy one of these to stimulate the economy. I'm sure it would help ;-)

That's it for now, time to post this up and see if MarsEdit works...

Kid, Say Hello To Karma

2008-10-21T05:27:00.002-04:00

Every now and then the universe gets one right. I've watched this like ten times and I can't stop laughing. I mean, you'd have to be an idiot not to realize something bad was going to happen here (brick wall jump, sidewalk drop, poles, cars, - um, not a good mix) but this is just such random perfection. Any number of things could have happened, but this is classic. Turn up the volume and enjoy.

Note: I will give him props for getting back up that quickly, but dude, next time take note of your surroundings.

New Macbooks

2008-10-15T07:10:00.001-04:00

The Apple Notebook event happened today, with all 3 laptop incarnations receiving some updates with the Macbook being the most significant. A switch to a machined aluminum unibody and glass over a backlit LCD display, a significant bump to a new NVIDIA GPU (gaming on a Macbook, finally!), and a multi touch trackpad without buttons (I dig that) - well, the trackpad IS the button. The Air got the new NVIDIA graphics as well - should help with that lag watching YouTube videos. The Pro finally got a new look with a new keyboard (same as the Macbook and Air - black chicklet keys), and the 15 incher is now only available in glossy glass screen - no more 15” matte. With the new GPU’s, they’ve switched to a Mini Display Port that will be standardized over all new products and can even power 30 Inch Dual Link displays. Apple also debuted a 24 inch Cinema Display monitor that basically looks like a new iMac display and comes with built in iSight, speakers, mike, 3 port USB hub, a magsafe power adapter to power you laptop when hooked up and the Mini Display Port. So basically, you won’t be using this monitor with anything other than a Mac product unless there’s a way to rig cables to it through the port.

Anyway, the Macbook is definitely the major change, with 3 different models. They are keeping the base level, white plastic Macbook everyone already knows and loves at $1149 ($999 US). The new beauties start at $1399CA for the 2.0 GHZ and $1749CA for the 2.4. Looking at it, it’s interesting that the high end Macbook is now almost the same as the low end Macbook Pro - only $400 cheaper and smaller screen and no Firewire.

I can’t wait to get my hands on these and play with them for a bit, but after reading around the web, here’s some of the thoughts that caught my eye:

- The glass, glossy displays. Reports are that they aren’t just reflective, they’re downright mirrors.
- The Macbook is thinner and a half pound lighter.
- The MacBook and the Air finally get a decent graphics chip. About time Apple.
- The new unibody case design (made from a single block of aluminum) is reported as feeling incredibly solid, and yet the unit is lighter.
- The buttonless trackpad. I really dig this, and I like the whole idea of multi touch. The pad itself will click down when you press it, but with the buttons gone you have more room for the multi touch gestures. I think it’ll be one of those things you love or hate, but if you love it you’ll really, really miss it when you move to another laptop.
- Price. Almost seems to me prices went up a bit, but I could be wrong. Even so, there’s no price break here. However, this day should mean lower refurbed prices, so if you want a matte screen, that’s where you’ll find it.
- A much overdo update to their Cinema Displays, but then only with a Mini Display Port and at $899? Seems a bit much. For that price, I could buy a Sharp 32” 1080P HD TV with multiple inputs and hook up (if I had them) a laptop, PS3, Apple TV, cable box, and more. And watch Blu-Ray.
- No Blu-ray drives. No real surprise, but still. Quote of the day goes to Steve Jobs who said “Blu-ray is a bag of hurt” in regards to licensing and passing the cost to consumers. They’re waiting for better, mass adoption apparently. Still, it’d be nice to backup 50 gigs to one disc.

Well, that’s it for now, but maybe I’ll have more once the local Best Buy brings in the new machines. That usually takes a week or two or three. Then I’ll see just how reflective these cool looking machines are. That’s about the only drawback I can see. Oh, that and the money I can’t afford...

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-10-14T05:26:00.005-04:00

Random Quote from Seinfeld:
Kramer: You buy enough meat, they’ll give you anything!

Had a good Thanksgiving, and any day away from work is a good day. Spent Sunday with family and had a good dinner too. Wound up in a game of the old board game Game of Life. Anyone remember that one? After careening around the board and collecting a wife, a kid, a house, and some dollars, I didn’t win the game and wound up in the poor house, destitute. A little on the nose for today’s economy, eh?

Elsewhere, tomorrow is an Apple event, with the laptops getting some updated love. Rumors seem to be pointing to a cheaper Macbook, and new designs for the Macbook and the Pro - including aluminum and glass and multi touch touchpads. Maybe even doing away with the touchpad buttons? Could be interesting, we’ll find out tomorrow.

And now I’m finishing up my holiday weekend by watching the movie The Shootist. It was John Wayne’s last movie, eerily drawing parallels to his real life as he played an aging gunman dying of cancer.
He holes up in a boarding house with a widow and her son, played by Lauren Bacall and Ron Howard. Their interaction make up most of the movie as the gunman, JB Books, faces his last days and decides how he wants to go out. The movie is littered with good lines and solid performances as The Duke makes his last stand. Catch it if you can.

Mrs. Rogers (Bacall): "Nonsense, the church doors are always open."
JB Books (Wayne): "My church has been mountains and solitude, no doors at all."

Poor Sales or Just Lazy?

2008-10-09T05:45:00.002-04:00

Spent some time with a friend tonight. We walked around Chapters and went for some pizza and desert. Managed to cheer her up a bit and I had some fun doing something other than work and sleep. I didn't wind up buying anything at Chapters, but I did snap this shot of the front sign:
I wonder if things are getting bad for the company money wise to the point where they can only afford six out of eight lit up letters. Will that be the sign of tough financial times? Big companies shutting off their lights one by one? It'd be good environmentally, but when McDonald's becomes McDoad's, will the Big Mac special sauce still be as special?

Coming Around

2008-10-06T06:46:00.003-04:00

Well, a couple months have passed and I'm thinking of getting back into this blogging thing. Hear it's quite popular with the folk on the internets and all...

Seriously though, while it's been kind of nice not thinking up new posts, I've also been missing it. True, my creative palette is still a blank these days, I think I need to get back in the game. I think I'll start back in slow - if I manage to get one or two posts up a week, I'll be doing good. I hope to get my hands on an iPod Touch, which will make composing posts on the go quite a bit easier. That way I could compose a post on my lunch break and just post it up when I get home instead of trying to type stuff up at 4 in the morning when I should be sleeping.

And yes, work is still dragging me down. However, I have put in the first six months and probably the worst of it. A slight shift change in September has helped a little bit, but I've come to realize it isn't really going to get any better anytime soon as I had hoped, so I have to make the best of a bad situation for the next year or so. Since this is as good as it gets for now, I have to try to find some enjoyment in life here somehow and roll with it.

However, a week or two ago, the work misery did give me an idea and I wrote a story for the first time in months. I've had an idea pop up and have it rolling around in my head these days. If I can crystallize the whole of it, I may be able to put together a new ongoing series. We'll see.

Anyway, thanks to those who have popped by from time to time to check the Roost out here in the last couple months, and hopefully I'll get back into a groove here and maybe even try a few new things out...

Goodnight & Good Luck - On Hiatus

2008-07-21T04:14:00.002-04:00

Well, not posting in a week hasn't happened in a while, but it doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon either. Another bad week and I've come to the realization that I'll have to temporarily go on hiatus here for a little while at the Roost. Between the night job beating the daylights out of me and turning into an uninspired insomniac the rest of the time, it's time to circle the wagons and sort some things out. There's a slight chance at a shift change at work which would help me out, but I'm not holding my breath. With a little luck though, I'll straighten the wheels out and maybe get back on the blogging highway in the fall, after taking a few weeks or a month away here to focus on life's realities that need attention. It's rather lousy timing with the new iMac and a bunch of ideas bouncing 'round my head (I might even post the odd thing up on a weekend if I feel inspired) but I just really don't have the wherewithal to write much at the moment.

So a big THANK YOU to one and all who have taken the time to come here to read and comment on my ramblings. It was much appreciated. I hope to get back to it down the line, but if I don't, it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed meeting all you fellow writers and ramblers out there in the blog 'verse and I hope to continue to drop in and read up on your worlds.

Take care out there.

Vaya con Dios
Eaglewing.

iLike iMac

2008-07-13T23:31:00.001-04:00

Well, after a day of setup and tweaking, the new iMac is almost all setup. There's still some software / data to switch over, but it's coming along. The heavy lifting is done though.

Here's some shots:

The unboxing. I was kind of surprised it wasn't packed in there better, but it survived the trip and got here fast. And the shipping from Apple was free :)

The Leopard install booting up on the kitchen table. The other monitor beside it is an old one I'll be using as a TV in the kitchen hooked to an old PC. Leopard has some issues, but there's plenty of help on the web to sort them out and it does seem to run a bit faster too. And once the tweaks are done, Quicklook is a really neat thing.

The move to the desk. Had to sort out the cables and move stuff around, but it's a nice setup for now. The one keyboard, mouse, and Mac Mini are only temporary until I've set them up for a family member. Then I'll have a bit more desk real estate.

Up and running, both systems. I'm ambidextrous, so using a mouse on the left side is no big deal, as long as I remember which mouse is for which system. Sometimes I even use both mice at the same time - get things done faster :-)

Some different wallpapers. The white 24" iMac is really something to see. It's the best computer monitor I think I've ever seen, and certainly a step up from my old 17" Benq. I thought that monitor was really good, until it was side by side with the Mac. Not even close.

And the weekend treat I bought myself - a big bag of Mike & Ike candy. Not cheap either - even the clerk asked if I was sure I wanted them, but you got to treat yourself now and then.

So there you have it. That was my weekend of fun. Phase one is now almost done - on to phase two and the Mac Mini overhaul. Should be fun...

Desk Clearance

2008-07-13T03:52:00.001-04:00

I'm realigning my computer desk to fit the new iMac on it. I have to rip it all apart to build it back up, and there are computer cables everywhere. My kingdom for some plastic ties! Not to mention I am counting electrical plugs and I'm running out of fingers and toes.

Now I must unplug the Mac Mini. See ya. News at eleven.

What For

2008-07-10T15:20:00.001-04:00

Another week almost gone - works for me. Nothing like waking up angry and tired. Not pleasant, but when you focus it on giving your to do list what for instead, it can work in your favor. Building management morons are at it again today, and I've fired off an appropriately nasty letter. I hadn't sent the letter from the last fiasco as I was going to let it go, but no more Mr. Nice Guy. I'm pretty easy going as a rule, but catch me in the right mix of tired and angry, and I can rattle the cage.

Unfortunately, this week appears a write off for blogging anything worthwhile as I try to just finish out the work week now. Oh well, I'll be back next week, hopefully with something interesting to say. Until then, here's a couple vids...

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill singing Angry All The Time at a concert:

And a trailer for the movie version of the PS2 game Max Payne has hit the web. I like it, which surprises me. I'm not generally a huge fan of Mark Wahlberg, but he seems ok here and they seem to have the revenge motif and dark growly voice over from the game intact. I'm hoping the winged creatures are just dream sequences like the game (he was under cover narcotics and had hallucinations) and not part of the main plot. If they try to turn this into a Constantine, it's not going to work. On the other hand, they certainly have the game's famous "bullet time" looking good...

Too Hot

2008-07-09T05:11:00.001-04:00

Wanted to blog up yesterday, but came home Monday night with a splitting headache, went to bed, slept for 11 hours, got up, and went back to work. Bravo, much accomplished there. What's worse is that the 24" iMac is sitting on the table just begging to be powered up yet remains in it's de-eclectrified state. I think the heat probably has something to do with headache and general malaise. They say it's 30C, but it's more like 35-40C with the humidex. Too hot for my blood - come on Christmas. I'll try to get back to this blog thing after some sleep here...

Duck Soup

2008-07-06T06:14:00.001-04:00

As I was roaring to work on Friday, I was driving down the highway, rounded a corner and there was a family of ducks or geese walking across the expressway. There they were - momma duck, and the kiddie ducklings in a row. I couldn't hit the brakes, and changing lanes was out, so I did a quick adjustment and put them between the wheel wells and went over top. Good thing I was driving a pickup truck - plenty of clearance and I didn't hit any of them. No idea if they survived the rest of the cars that were right behind me. What in the world they were doing out there in the middle of the highway with no ponds or water or grass around is beyond me.

It's getting a little woodsy around here as of late. Coyotes spotted near my work, I saw two deer when I took an off ramp a little while ago, and now ducks wandering around on a highway. I guess this really is turning into a concrete jungle.

iMac Is Up

2008-07-06T06:09:00.001-04:00

Got the iMac unboxed and on the kitchen table. Forgot just how big that screen is when you're sitting in front of it. Beaut of a screen though, and no dead pixels! Yay! Seems a little darker around the corners though. Still a great screen - looks great watching high def trailers on it.

A little disappointed that when I fired it up there was Tiger installed, not Leopard. It came with a Leopard disk in the box though, but no backups for the iLife '06 that was included. Oh well, I have other Tiger/iLife '08 disks from my Mac Mini. As it is, I'm currently wiping the hard drive and installing Leopard, which should have been done before they shipped it. At least if I do it here, I'll know it was done right. haha. More to come later as the Mac adventure continues.

Couldn't Put It Down

2008-07-04T07:35:00.001-04:00

I should know better by now not to pick up and start reading a Garth Ennis book when I should be doing something else. Great read though, and totally worth it...

Gotta sleep now, I tell myself.

Thank goodness it's a Friday.

Roll With It

2008-07-04T04:53:00.001-04:00

Yet another week rolling by me, which is good in a way. Knew this was going to be a tough year, but it's halfway done now. I keep singing that classic Merle Haggard song to myself: "If we make it through December, everything's gonna be alright I know..." Sure, it's a Christmas song, but it fits and I love Christmas and it's hot in the summer and I can't wait for winter. I'm not built for summer - give me a cold wind and snow any day, as long as I don't have to shovel it ;-)

Am getting a few things done this week, but my blog is suffering for the effort. Have to change some things, and its a work vs sleep thing at the moment. Oh well, I'll roll with it.

I do have a new computer project lined up, which gives something to think about at work other than the dreariness of where I am. I'm going to sell my Mac Mini to a family member and set it up for them to be an ultimate Mac Leopard / WinXP / Linux machine that will run all three At The Same Time! And XP natively via bootcamp, for when you need Windows power. Will have to upgrade the hard drive and memory myself to do it, but that will be fun. Any time you need to take a putty knife to a computer is a good day. And then I'll add an Elegato device to record TV to it and convert it to iTunes so it can be synced to an AppleTV. Oh it will be cool if I pull it off.

In order for this project to start though, I'll need a new Mac. And I took the plunge and ordered a 24" iMac from Apple. I don't like the new glass and aluminum ones (bad glare and so-so LCD's), so I found a refurbished previous generation white iMac on the Canada Apple website and ordered it. I always liked those white slab computers (cheaper now too). I ordered Monday night when I came home from work, and got an email on Tuesday that it had shipped. I figured a week, but I was surprised to get an email from my mailbox store that I had a parcel waiting for me Thursday aft. So I ran over and picked it up. Bigger than I thought it would be. I haven't even unboxed it yet - no time - but I'm psyched. I hope it's all in one piece and works. Should be a fun weekend ahead of new computer joy.

I'll try to keep you posted as the project progresses. Maybe post some pictures...

Happy Birthday Canada!

2008-07-01T23:54:00.001-04:00

Um yeah, I'm just under the wire with this one. Was planning a post with a quiz and stuff, but the day passed me by.

On the upside, it was a nice day and I didn't have to go to work. Statutory Holidays are great. There should be one every month :)

Of course, July 1 also marks the beginning of free agency in the NHL. Lots of money and players changing hands. Looks like Curtis Joseph is coming back to Toronto as the backup goalie. Maybe that hockey card I have of him in his Leafs gear will go back in value now. Time to sell it so I can put some more gas in the truck...

Sunny Side Up

2008-07-01T08:00:00.004-04:00

Nice Sunrise this morning...

Me Mini Movie Reviews: Payback (Director's Cut)

2008-06-29T02:54:00.002-04:00

The other night after getting home from work, I couldn't sleep so I threw in a DVD and watched a movie. I finally got around to seeing the Mel Gibson movie Payback: Straight Up, The Director's Cut. Whenever I have a choice, I always seek out the Director's Cut of a movie, even though I figured this would be like most director cut movies where there's a scene or two thrown in and a bit longer but basically the same movie, just with more. Well, this one was different. This is a true Director's Cut - it is an entirely different movie. And it's good.

The premise is based on the book Hunter by Donald E. Westlake, which was also the basis of the 70's Lee Marvin classic Point Blank (which I haven't seen yet, but is high on my list). One man, hard-boiled Porter (played by Mel Gibson) walks back into town and the lives of a few on an unrelenting quest to retrieve what was his - $70,000. He is not a hero, in fact he's as vicious as any of the assorted criminals and lowlifes that populate the movie, but the viewer is able to be drawn into his mission and to even cheer for him as he will not quit on the principle of the thing. Of course there's a woman and a past that complicates things, but he will not be deterred as he works his way up the food chain to the final throw-down. Will he make it? Will he succeed? It's a great ride to find out.

The movie plays like something out of the 70's with 90's surroundings, and it works. The cinematography is spot on, and no shaky cam exists. We get long shots and walking into frame shots that again hark back to older movies. All the actors do excellent work as they portray the unique characters that make up this criminal world, with Gibson showing a darker side to a character than he's played in a while, before or since.

However, the big thing about this DVD is how different it is from the theatrical cut. I watched it in the theatre years ago, and own the first DVD, and enjoyed that movie a lot. It had a constant blue filter over the screen and sarcasm and dark humor in the voice over and played for some laughs along the way. It came across as more of a caper film with a slight comedic bent to it, and was a fun watch. In the director's cut here, the blue is gone - everything is clear to the eye and it helps. The voice over is completely gone, which brings it more to a film instead of watching a graphic novel. Character's moves and facial expressions tell the tale where the voice was before. It is a much darker and grittier vision of this story and there is music instead of voice over to help portray mood. Extra scenes fill in gaps in the storyline that give you a different picture of characters and a better grasp of how things played out from the first version. And then, on top of it all, the last half takes a detour and is completely different from the ending of the theatrical release. One actor/character from the theatrical cut is completely gone and is a woman instead of a man and never seen. This director's cut ending isn't just some different verbal line or character moment - it is in a different location altogether with different characters. It's day instead of night. And you really don't know how it's going to play out, even if you've seen the theatrical cut.

There's a wealth of extras on the DVD as to the making of the movie and this Director's Cut that I haven't even got through yet, but I look forward to watching it to find out how two such different movies could be made, and I wonder if the studio messed with it before going to the theatre - perhaps they felt a lighter version with more wise cracks would play better than what is essentially a straight up 70's crime noir.

In the end, I have to say that as much as I enjoyed the theatrical cut, this Director's Cut is a much better movie. More character depth and a grittier story make for something with more to it than what was initially released. If you like crime world movies, it's certainly worth your time and is a DVD release that truly deserves the Director's Cut name.

Verdict: Recommended. (Note, this DVD edition is Unrated and not for kids)

Canadian iPhone - RIP

2008-06-28T05:58:00.001-04:00

Well, that's that. Yes, the iPhone is coming to Canada July 11. Of course we all wondered what Rogers would make their customers pay, but we held our breath and hoped for something decent. Instead, Rogers (called Robbers on the 'net) basically told their potential iPhone customers to 'bend over' with their rate plans and the online forums posters collectively lost their minds.

I'm not going through all the numbers - that's available on the web. However, the lowest entry plan is a 3 year contract at $60 a month. But wait - add $15 for caller display and some texts, plus $6.95 bogus System Access Fee, plus tax. So in reality, the base level is about 100 bucks a month for roughly 150 minutes and 400MB data. That's a horrendous data plan and even worse cell phone plan. You'd blow through that data in 3 days on an iPhone. And you'd get better cell phone mileage on a pay as you go plan. It's about twice as much cost as Stateside with about half the coverage. Nice.

So the bottom line is that Rogers has foisted the World's Worst iPhone plan on Canadians. Once again the government condoned monopoly rears its ugly head. On the upside, it'll save me some money as I kiss my hoped for iPhone plans goodbye and wait for next year's inevitable 3rd generation iPhone update and hopefully a new cell carrier player in Canada. Maybe I'll look at an ITouch.

Wouldn't it be great if on July 11 there was nothing but crickets to be heard in Rogers stores instead of a mad rush for the new phone? One can only hope...

Short Story: Tumbleweeds

2008-06-27T04:31:00.002-04:00

Tumbleweeds by Eaglewing

I'll be back, is what he'd said.

And so he was now. The weary and worn cowboy walked down the hill towards that old town he was sure he'd always come back to. Someday, he always thought. And now he had, on foot. Not even a horse for a companion. He was truly alone.

Covered in dirt from the miles that had come before, he approached the town thinking of pleasures he might enjoy there. As he got closer however, he noticed something amiss, and as he came to the entrance of the 'burg, he realized what he was looking at.

It was deserted, without a single vibrant Soul around. He continued his steps as he walked down the main dust covered street. He was sure it hadn't really been all that long ago when he had sought something better and left the noisy and happening village center with the laughter and voices and headaches of those that resided there. Now he stared at the Heart of the place, all boarded up and closed off. Tumbleweeds rolled down the street as the wind through the boards was the only sound left.

He paused and gave it some thought. It was all rather depressing but predictable in hindsight. Like everything else in his life, it was not what he had planned, but it was the way it turned out. Licking his chapped lips, he wanted to head to the saloon in hopes of finding unopened bottles left behind, but something else was beckoning at the back of his mind. May as well face the truth first, then drink it away.

He kicked in the door of what used to be the hardware store, and rummaged around till he found what he was looking for. Heading back out, he climbed the hill to the wooden boards at the top. A couple minutes later, he was done.

Looking up at the marker that proclaimed the place's name to those who could read the Signs, he read the word aloud along with what he had painted underneath:

SPIRIT
Population: 0

It fit. The he muttered something unintelligible before starting back down to the desolate town below and the homecoming he'd earned.

The End.

Random Bits...

2008-06-23T04:13:00.002-04:00

I guess the Olympics are on the way. Kind of forgot about that except for the news stories of the protests against China. There was some gymnastics stuff on TV, and these girls are all trying to make the Olympics team. Must be tough - it's not like hockey or baseball where the win/loss is defined by a score your team actually achieved. These athletes entire dream/life is decided by someone else sitting behind a podium judging their efforts. What makes one person get a point five extra and a gold medal and another person not? I couldn't see myself putting that much work and effort into something that winds up being decided on the whim of someone else. And as a side note - how come there's so many girls here with guy names? Shawn, Randy, Alex...just noticed that - not that it means anything.

Caught up on some comic book reading. As usual, Garth Ennis' Punisher is top drawer. He's got two issues left before his run on the title is over (sad, sad day) and he's going out with a bang. Interesting how he's found a way to be able to actually pull off two stories in one story arc. As we follow Frank on his latest mission against the Generals, there's also a storyline along side it of someone writing a book about the Punisher and Frank's defining moment at Valley Forge in Vietnam and we get to read excerpts from it in between Frank's current storyline. It's kind of a cool writing device that allows a lot more character depth and Garth is able to pull together all his previous stories all the way back to the Born title as he wraps up his run here. Can't wait to see how it finishes.

Also comic related - at what point does a homage become a ripoff? The current Wolverine story arc has kicked off, called Old Man Logan. The basis of the story is pretty much a homage/ripoff of Clint Eastwood's classic western Unforgiven. It should be interesting, but it raises the point of homage or ripoff? Same as with Tarantino movies - they're all "homages" to previous, little seen, movies. It's been said that all stories have been told by this point, we're just telling them in different ways. I guess you can't get away from your influences, but if you're writing something new you have to be careful how you reference it.

What happened to Angelina Jolie? She's always been hot (hey, I'm a guy), but seeing her in the promos for the upcoming movie Wanted, she doesn't look healthy. I mean, it's how thin she looks. On the movie poster, her arm looks like it's going to break from the weight of the gun she's holding, and I just saw a commercial for the movie on TV and even her face looks gaunt. Compared to how she looked in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, something happened. Hopefully it was just a temp phase or something and she starts eating again. I saw a small clip from her next movie The Changeling (directed by Clint Eastwood) online, and she looks better in that, so it must have been just a timing thing. As far as the Wanted movie goes, I'm not too psyched about it. Curving bullets? Really? I've read the comic it's based on, which was a fun read, but they appear to be going in a different direction with it. They've already greenlit a sequel and the first one hasn't even hit theatres yet. They must be expecting some good box office. Good luck with that.

Stormy Skies

2008-06-20T16:49:00.001-04:00

We had a good storm roll through here last Sunday, and here's a couple shots I took of the sky while I was driving. It looked pretty cool, with the deep blue and the dark and light and coming together. Nothing like Mother Nature...

Someday

2008-06-19T05:25:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posting here folks, once again. Not feelin' it lately, and got less than a thimble full of any creativity. So in lieu of anything original from me till I'm outta the funk, here's something great.

Steve Earle singing one of THE best story songs every writ - Billy Austen:

And Steve singing Someday:
I got me a 67 Chevy, she's low and sleek and black,
Someday I'll put 'er on that Interstate and Never Look Back...

Movie Night

2008-06-15T06:43:00.001-04:00

Well, that was what I needed. Had a nothing day Saturday and had myself an unplanned movie marathon. There were some good movies on the cable channels and I wound up watching a run of:

The Fifth Element
XXX (the good Vin Diesel one, not the horrid sequel that I pretend doesn't exist)
Tomb Raider 2: Cradle of Life (good action movie until the poor ending. They should have used the alternate one that's on the DVD)
Die Hard 4

I hadn't seen Die Hard 4 yet, so after those other movies I was in a movie mood and threw that one on. It was actually pretty good. Not as good as the first 2 of course, but holds it own. Kind of a week villian, but Bruce Willis is in the groove as John McClane. Justin Long did better than I expected and I quite enjoyed the Kevin Smith cameo. The action and stunts were well done and no shaky cam either. A little over the top, but enjoyable. I didn't like the way they neutered the famous catchphrase to get into PG-13 territory, but it's better on the Unrated DVD. Funny thing though - I had the unrated DVD so I assumed I would get the unrated version when I hit play. Turns out I watched the PG-13 version. You actually have to go into the special features and select the unrated version. why they would do that when there's two different DVD versions out is beyond me. Oh well, it was fun to watch anyway, although I'm going to have to watch it again sometime in the unrated version to see what's different.

Yep, sometimes you just need to put your brain in park and watch some "blow stuff up" movies with a big bowl of popcorn.

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-15T06:24:00.001-04:00

Happy Father's Day to all Father's out there!

Being a Father is a tough job and high responsibility, and one I never aim to take on. I am fortunate to have a great Father - a pillar of strenght for the family and always there when needed.

I have a lot of memories over the years of my Dad, but here's one. When I woke up from my kidney transplant surgery, both my parents were there. I needed to sit up a bit in the bed, but the surgery had cut through my stomach muscles and it was going to be difficutlt. In my foggy state, I knew I'd have to pull myself up with my arms, but I couldn't get a good angle on the bed bars. I think I said something like "Give me your hand" to my Dad, and our hands grasped together and I was able to pull up as he anchored me. I could feel the strenghth there and it gave me a shot. Some of that initial stuff after waking up is hazy in the mind, but that part is sharp.

So Thanks Dad for all the love shown and the things done for me over the years. Hope you have a good day.

Tagged!

2008-06-15T06:09:00.002-04:00

I've been tagged - twice! Both the Bachelor and Keanan Brand tagged me with this meme. Did it up quick here, so I might have missed something, but here it is:

What I was doing Ten years ago?
Having some health problems and just about to find out what was really wrong - the kidneys. Was the start of a long 10 years, but I was glad to finally know.

My favorite five snacks?
Popcorn, Mike & Ike candy, Cookies, Jalepeno Pringles, Green grapes and old cheddar cheese

Five things on my to do list today?
Paperwork, laundry, visit family, sleep...

Things I would do if I were a billionaire?
Pay off all my debts and the debts of my family and friends. A new gas saving car for everyone too. Make sure my family and friends are set for life. Go back to working part time where I liked it. Go on a train trip out west through the Rockies - travel all around Canada. Open a comic book store in my town and show them how to do it right. Write stories and publish them myself if no one else would. Buy the Toronto Maple Leafs and restore them to respectability - I'd make a great General Manager. Do something good with the rest.

Five jobs I've had?
Delivered papers, Forklift driver, Warehouse worker, Book store clerk, data entry person, Jack of all trades at a Security Installation company.

Five bad habits of mine?
Don't go to bed soon enough to get sleep, drive too fast - although thats done with the price of gas, too much time on the computer, thinking about other stuff while I'm working, something else I'm sure I can't think of...

Five places I've lived?
Vancouver Island
Farm in Ontario
City in Ontario
yep - that's about it :)

Five CD's I'd have on a Desert Island?
Haywire - Chris Ledoux
Tough All Over - Gary Allan
Live in New York City - Bruce Springsteen
The Hardest Part - Allison Moorer
Set This Circus Down - Tim McGraw

What Happened To The Week?

2008-06-13T05:05:00.000-04:00

Well, that week got away on me. Some stuff came along out of left field that could change some things and I've a lot on my mind. It's a good thing though, so we'll see where it goes. But didn't have much energy or inspiration for blogging. Well, I do get inspiration for blog posts, but it seems to happen at work when I'm nowhere near a computer. And when I get home, I really shouldn't be typing - I should be sleeping. Then the next day, ideas are gone. Guess I should carry a notepad or something. I'll be back around though...

Punisher War Zone - Teaser Trailer!

2008-06-13T04:06:00.004-04:00

Came home tonight and found the first teaser trailer has hit the web for the December movie - Punisher War Zone. It's not a sequel, and it's not a reboot, and it's not a remake, but it's got a different cast than the 2004 Punisher movie. Make of all that what you will. I've been anxious to see a trailer for this (I think I might be the only one based on the online lack of buzz) since I am a huge fan of Garth Ennis' Punisher MAX comic books. (Note here - NOT for kids). I liked the 2004 movie with Thomas Jane and John Travolta, but they could have done better. Will this be better? Will the third try at a Punisher movie get it right?

Well, having seen the teaser, I don't know. The look is definitely much better - dark and gritty - and Ray Stevenson certainly has the look of Frank Castle (aka The Punisher) down. There's mob guys and guns blazing and Frank right there in the middle of it with the odds stacked against him. So far, so good. And most importantly, it looks like they are not doing another origin story here. It's Frank AS the Punisher, not becoming the Punisher. All good.

However, the teaser doesn't give you much on the actual story - it's just mostly a guns / action teaser. And the reported mixing of multiple stories from the comics, including the main villain Jigsaw, is worrisome. Why not just take one good Ennis storyline and run with it? And one other thing - that shot in the trailer of Frank hanging upside down from a chandelier firing his guns as he spins in the air is just wrong. That might be Marvel Universe Punisher, but it's not Ennis' crime comic / soldier Punisher. And that's a vital distinction.

Also, it can't be just action, action, action. The story needs to be good, but dark and fatalistic - almost noir. If they borrow from Ennis' take on it, you'd get the over the top action with solid characterization and story. If they're going for 90's Punisher "comic book" effects, then we're in trouble.

I'm still looking forward to this though, and I have two comic book movies that are going to make my December this year - Punisher War Zone, and Frank Miller's The Spirit. As a comic book fan, that'll certainly make my birthday month.

You can download the trailer here:
Quicktime here.
WMV HD Here.

Hello iPhone

2008-06-09T14:57:00.001-04:00

The Steve Jobs keynote address is going on right now, and I'm following it via Tuaw.com, but big news just hit.

The new version 2 iPhone with 3G will hit July 11th. But here's the best part:

11:45. Rolling it out, same price all over the world. July 11th!

11:45. Price: Was $599. Now $399. Will sell for ... The Crowd Explodes $199 for 8GB. 16 GB $299.

Look at that - a new iPhone for $199, and supposedly same price 'round the world. That would mean none of this "more expensive in Canada" BS. It also means its the first affordable Apple product (haha), in line with other smart phones. It's also going to have GPS, PUSH email (via the dotMac replacement, called MobileMe), and 3rd party software available as well.

As far as I can see, this is the all in one device I have been waiting for. Now I just have to wait for Rogers to get their butts in gear and bring it to Canada. And then see how bad they rip off their customers on a monthly basis to enjoy all this sweet tech...

Come on July!

Horrifying hit-and-run

2008-06-07T23:02:00.001-04:00

Horrifying hit-and-run (Video)

Connecticut police release emergency call tapes in hit-and-run case - Yahoo! Canada News

Connecticut police released a video of a terrible hit and run in an effort to show people what they've become. It's a tough to watch video as an elderly man is hit by a car that veered over to the wrong side of the road and then just kept going after the collision. But that's not the worst of it. As the man lays bleeding in the middle of the road, other motorists continue to drive past without stopping and people on the sidewalk don't move to help. They come out and take a closer look, but no one actually goes to the man to try to help. 911 did get 4 phone calls, but still, it's a sad state of affairs. The man had no help until a police car pulled up.

In the video, the reporter states it is a rough part of town. Another man is interviewed and he points out succinctly what the thinking here would be. The reporter asks him "You could at least call for help, right?" and he responds "You can if you want to, but then you involved." Exactly. And thanks to lawsuits, courts, and no rights for victims, that's the first thing that runs across people's minds when something happens. And it's sad.

When a man is dying in the middle of the road, it should be a "damn the torpedoes, get in there and help!" kind of response. Instead, we call the cops and go on with our lives and hope we don't have to fill out a report or get named in the lawsuit. What happened?

It's a minor thing in comparison, but I recently had reason to think about this too. A little while back my truck died in a rain storm at a busy intersection. I had a cell phone and had called for assistance, but as I sat there waiting with my hood up, a ton of cars and people passed by without so much as a thought of stopping to help. I wasn't expecting it either, and I was downright surprised when one elderly man stopped his car behind mine, got out in the rain, and offered to help. We couldn't get it going as it turned out, and he went on his way with a wish of good luck that my help would arrive soon, but it just reinforced the fact that in today's world the number of people who are willing to get involved keeps dwindling.

If it keeps going this way, what kind of world will we have in the near future?

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Comic Links

2008-06-07T22:36:00.001-04:00

Around the web, some stuff I found in my travels...

WW PHILLY: THE GARTH ENNIS PANEL - NEWSARAMA Interesting stuff here from one of my favorite comic authors, Garth Ennis, and his panel at WW Philly. Some notable stuff here is that he will be writing more war comics for Dynamite called Battlefields. He's got three stories lined up already. And although his seminal run on Punisher MAX is coming to an end, he is lined up to do a Punisher series in the future with artist Steve Dillon too. I'm glad he'll be coming back to the Punisher, as he seems to be the only writer to actually get that character. There's some other good stuff in the article too if you're an Ennis fan.

Warren Ellis » Obamania and Warren Ellis » Bending Mars Two links here to writer Warren Ellis' website as he talks about the US Election and the Mars expedition. Anything written by Ellis is a trip of course, and will contain salty language. However, his view on the Obama/Clinton thing is interesting from a view from Britain and I'll admit as a Canadian I too am following the US pres battle with interest. Now that Clinton is out, it's down to a head to head. Can't wait to see how it turns out. Ellis' Mars article made me see a different side to what appears to be a money wasting venture. He's got a point that we should take a shot at it, as we clearly are doing a bums rush on finishing off Earth. We gotta have somewhere to go, right?

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Dreaming of the Weekend

2008-06-07T22:13:00.001-04:00

Another miserable week over with. No sleep for most of it, thanks to the monkeys running my building, so I took Saturday to crash out. Nice day of absolutely nothing. Did craft a nice nasty letter to the management office that I'll be dropping off though. Nothing ever comes from writing a letter, but at least they'll know I'm not impressed, and sometimes that's all that matters. You can't do a lot about a lot these days, but sometimes you gotta rattle the cage.

Anyway, slept hard last night, and had crazy dreams. It was like a stream of consciousness moving from one thing to the next and cramming in all kinds of people I know too. And in the dream it all made sense, but when I woke up and still remembered bits of it, it was quite a trip. Too bad I can't video record my dreams - that would be awesome. Come on tech people - we can find ice on Mars, but we can't video record dreams yet? And where's my flying car?

At least most of the worst should be behind me now, just the regular time killing of the job for the next year until I can move up. On the upside, I'm getting good use out of my PSP at work on my breaks. I managed to watch the whole Rambo 4 movie over the week, and that is a good movie to watch at work. Quite cathartic when the world is ticking you off. Just kidding. Some reviews panned it online, but I really liked Rambo 4. Beyond the just insanely bloody last half, it's interesting to see Stallone try to tell a story here, point out some real world suffering, and aim for something more than just another action flick. Watching some of his comments on an Amazon video, he really was trying for something more. I think a lot of people missed it just looking for a Rambo experience, but it's there.

Anyway, back to listening / watching podcasts tonight and just chillin'...

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Canada Gets Movies

2008-06-04T12:15:00.001-04:00

Well, looky there. Apple and iTunes have finally gotten around to offering movie rentals and purchases through iTunes in Canada and the UK. Guess the studios got their heads out of their rears and decided this download thing might actually be useful. Unfortunately, as with everything else from the big studios, it's much too late and behind the times.

I mean, look at those prices. For starters, they're more expensive than in the States, even though the dollar is par. Secondly, rentals are $3.99-$4.99 (which is decent), but purchases are between $14.99 and $19.99. Are you kidding me?! Who in their right mind would pay $19.99 for a downloaded movie with no extras? The DVD would cost as much new, or less used, and you'd get the behind the scenes stuff and DVD extras. Plus, I'm sure it's like the songs - you bought it, but it's coated in DRM so you can't use it where you'd like.

As far as I can see, the purchases are priced out of competitive structure, and with DRM they're worthless. The rentals are intriguing though, and competitively priced compared to PayPerView / On Demand rentals off my Rogers box. And if you have an AppleTV unit, you can get them up to 720P high definition, which is pretty cool. I could see the rental aspect from a convenience point, and the rental price is actually better than Rogers (just checked - same movie is $4.99 from iTunes, $5.99 from the cable box). I'm all for any competition that puts pressure on Rogers. And on the rental front, Apple gives you 48 hours to watch it in Canada compared to 24 hours in the States. Maybe that's why we have to pay the extra buck.

So welcome to Canada, Apple - what took you so long? You've got some work to do making the rental / purchase movie section of your iTunes store clearer, but at least you managed to break the online barrier in Canada. Let's hope you can bring costs down again with the iPhone too...

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Cool Short Film

2008-06-03T14:14:00.001-04:00

Via the film site RowThree, this short film was brought to my attention. Much like those BMW short films from a few years back, it features Robert Downey Jr. in a Volvo ad that's really a short film directed by Stephen Frears. It's a cool story concept, and a twisty little trip that's worth your 13 minutes of watch time. It's broken into two parts here:

Part 1

Embedded Video

Part 2

Embedded Video

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Hollywood Goes Even Lower...

2008-06-02T15:12:00.001-04:00

Indiana Jones Soundtrack Intentionally Muted In Theaters

This is some story. Apparently, Paramount intentionally degraded the audio is the prints of Indiana Jones sent to the theatres. Basically, each theatre got a print where the audio drops out at a certain spot in the movie. The point to this? It's their way of being able to track a pirated copy of the movie.

This is ridiculous, as the author of the above article points out. You pay high prices to see a movie in the theatre which is supposed to be seeing the movie the best way possible. Now you're paying to see an intentionally degraded product.

As if I needed any more reasons to stay out of theatres. The overall experience keeps getting worse (other people, cell phones, talking, high prices, high food prices, etc, etc), but there was still the movie itself in big screen and big audio. Now there's not even that anymore. You guys are messing with the only reason left to go to a theatre!!!

If this is the kind of stuff they're going to pull, they won't be getting my money.

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It's Enough...

2008-06-02T03:55:00.001-04:00

Had my one day weekend here, and it was a good one. Went out with a friend this aft, spending time walking about a book store, grabbing a bite, and generally talking away a few hours. It's those moments in time that help keep the focus through the morass of tedium the fading weeks seem to be. Value them when they appear. When it's all said and done, the few grains you manage to steal from the sands of time are all that really matters anyway...

Hmm, this melancholy post here could be brought on by the music of choice too. Another find on MuchMoreMusic, I heard Robert Plant and Allison Krauss together on Please Read The Letter from their project album Raising Sand. Some YouTube trawling later, and I've been playing this one often - Allison Krauss and Plant singing Through The Morning. A really haunting tune, and her voice is pure gold. This is a duet album I wouldn't have thought of, but I'm buying this record...

Then I was in the mood for some Captain Mal and the crew of Firefly, so I put in the DVD and watched the pilot episode. Such great characters - so sad the show was cancelled way before it's time. But he has one of my fave quotes of the show at the end:

"Well, we're still flyin'"
"That's not much."
"It's enough."

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Another Week Down...

2008-06-01T03:28:00.002-04:00

Glad that long week is finally over. Worked today, then put the week to bed. Going to be a short weekend as I go back on Monday, but at least from here on out I should be back to my regular shifts and hopefully find a better routine.

Grabbed some groceries at the 24 hour Sobey's on the way home, and managed to get home in time to watch the movie Silverado on AMC. Pretty decent western, with a good cast - Kevin Costner, Kevin Kline, Brian Dennehey, Danny Glover, and Scott Glen. Not a classic, but a good movie, with some good lines.

Then I flipped over to TCM, and came across a black and white movie with typical noir jazz music playing. The main character (played by Robert Webber) I recognized from a Rockford Files episode (Farewell, Aura Lee was the episode), so I tuned in. After a car accident, the guy has amnesia, hallucinations, and woman troubles, so figured it could be good. Wasn't sure what I was watching, so I hit the TCM website to see what the name of the movie was. It's called Hysteria, a 1965 movie. But here's the thing - on the website, there's a "Synopsis", except as I read it, it not only gave me the synopsis, but also the plot and the ending. Way to go, TCM. You can check it out here if you want to save yourself 86 minutes of movie watching time.

And in looking at some Apple links, I was looking at the Aperture software page and found some interesting videos on how professional photographers use Aperture for their work. Even if you don't have any interest in the Apple software, it's still kind of interesting listening and watching how they select shots and do edits to come up with great photos. Aperture looks like a pretty good professional grade program too. And only $199! Yeah, I think iPhoto is working fine for me for now...

Hope to get around to my fave blogs and websites again tomorrow after I get some sleep...

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Whole Lot of Leaving...

2008-05-29T16:00:00.002-04:00

I really like this new song from Bon Jovi - Whole Lot of Leaving. I happened upon it in my TV channel surfing one night, and I haven't seen it since, but thanks to YouTube I have it saved and can play it on loop. It's got a really good rhythm, and good lyrics too. Almost country-ish. I guess if today's country is being pushed to the teenie bopper pop market, I'll have to turn to the likes of Bon Jovi and Kid Rock for good tunes. In the words of Benton Fraser - "Oh dear."

To London And Back...

2008-05-27T16:02:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm back from the London trip to do the quarterly kidney checkup. As Lavinia asked in a previous comment, what is a kidney checkup? Well, sometimes I forget not everyone has read every post I've made in the last 3 years (haha). As it so happens, almost 5 years ago now I had a kidney transplant, after a bit of time on dialysis. It was a success, and been working good so far. About every 3-4 months though, I go back to where I had the transplant done at London University Hospital in Ontario (great staff there, and good people) and the Doctors check me out and make sure everything is doing what it's supposed to do - the kidney, the diet, the meds, etc. Once again, I got a clean bill of health. The blood pressure is always an issue because of the meds, but we've made a slight adjustment and it should be clear sailing.

The day is always a long one, leaving early in the morning to make the early morning appointment. However, a trip out of my usual routine gives me a chance to work my (relatively still new) camera. Was never one to be much of a shutterbug, but since I got my digital camera, I enjoy it quite a bit more. The only way I'd carry a camera around was if it was slim, small, and lightweight and still take good shots. I think I've found that with my Casio Exilim. Takes good shots and records video in MP4. It's not professional grade, but it works for me. Combined with iPhoto / Pixelmator on my Mac, it's a lot of fun.

Anyway, you can go here to check all the shots I put up at Flickr, but here's some select shots of the day for the blog...

We came across a rollerblader in the bicycle lane. Does that qualify? Traffic wasn't too happy passing him on the bridge...

Pulling up to the Hospital. It's a pretty big building, and they always seem to be adding / changing with construction too. They do a lot of work here.

This was weird. The hall to the nephrology clinic was covered with sheeting on the wall for the construction and other safety lamps for lighting. Gave it an Indiana Jones treasure hunting feel to it or something...

Looking down on the helicopter pad from the parking garage. We saw one come in and land once, and there is not a lot of room to do it. Coming down between the hospital and two parking garages would take some skill.

London has some rather old buses in their fleet. The orange stands out though.

After the Bachelor's post on old Barns, I had to snap this shot as we drove...

I really liked this shot with the mirror. I'm still half hidden in shadow and shades, so I'm putting it out there. Still on the fence whether to post myself online, but I'm think I'm starting to lean over...

And finally, a really nice shot of the beautiful clouds and sky. Makes a nice wallpaper too.

All in all, a good day, a good report from the docs, and a day to count one's blessing...

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No Rest For The Weary

2008-05-26T00:36:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the delays in posting here folks, but been a busy couple of days. I did get some rest at least before I went to work Friday. Saturday was busy with condo work and general "things that need doing" getting in the way, but I did get to enjoy watching a few of the Death Wish movies on TV. That first one was good as an ordinary man going on revenge flick, and the second one was ok too as a man caught in a vicious cycle. But boy, that third one just did away with any pretense of being serious and just went full on action cheese / overacting fiasco. Still kinda fun, but in a Batman Forever kind of way. Death Wish 4 was predictable as all get out, but the end was a different twist. They weren't exactly great cinema, but decent entertainment. I guess I was in a Death Wish marathon mood anyway.

Hockey season is winding down as well. The local team lost the Memorial Cup, and Pittsburgh opened the Stanley Cup finals with a loss. I really should stop cheering for the teams I want to win - they never do. The last three Stanley Cup finals all blew as Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa all lost and I was cheering for them too. So, um, go Detroit! Maybe reverse psychology will work.

Going to try to grab some sleep here, before getting up at the crack of dawn to head out of town for the quarterly kidney checkup. Should be fun, or not. Wish I had an iPhone so I could post from the road. That would be cool.

And I was messing around with Pixelmator again, and came up with this. Its a shot I took driving to work, and then wound up making it look funky. The practice is fun anyway...

No Cable, No Sleep, No Luck

2008-05-22T15:53:00.001-04:00

Not very happy, happy today. Got out of work at 3 in the morning, went and got some groceries, got home at 4, got to bed at 5, tossed and turned and got to sleep at 6, and got woken up by an overzealous garbage truck driver outside my windows at 8, and then woken up again at 9, 10, 11, 12, and 1. How they managed to synchronize their noise to be on the hour, every hour, is beyond me.

And on top of it, I hate my cable provider, but I do love the internet. Last night before going to bed I flipped on the TV and found a show on that I got into. It was Without A Trace, and I guess it was the season finale from their first season. I haven't watched much of the show, but it's pretty good. Anyway, this show had a hostage situation going, and tense drama, and then with 15 minutes to go, poof - out went all my channels except for about half a dozen. What the?! So I hit the 'net, and I could have downloaded the show from a torrent, but the only way I could find the first season was getting the whole thing at once and I wasn't about to download 8 gigs to see 15 minutes. So I surfed a bit more and found a transcript of the show and was able to read the conclusion. Nice - thank you internet. I may check out more of the show too on DVD, or maybe even that massive torrent, as it's pretty good.

Must prepare to go back to work now. Hopefully I'll come up with more interesting posts and get around to my favorite blogs soon too and catch up. After some sleep, of course...

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Another Country Music Awards Rant

2008-05-20T04:07:00.003-04:00

In my web travels, I discovered that the ACM country music awards were on Sunday night. Now, I've lost quite a bit of interest in the awards shows over the years, but I usually knew when they were on and looked at the winners. This time, I never even knew the show was going to be on CBS, and had to go looking to find out who the winners were. (although I caught the show rerun on CMT Canada tonight) As usual of late, I was quite disappointed. The only decent call was Brad Paisley winning male vocalist. The rest of the winners were basically doing the job of pointing out that I am clearly no longer in the desired country music demographic. I'm only 31, but I fear I am now too old for todays cookie-cutter, country music "stars".

Even though Reba hosted, noticeably absent were the likes of Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride, Dixie Chicks, and more. In fact, most of the people I would have liked to hear sing were only walked out as presenters. Here's a note to the ACM bosses - if you have Dwight Yoakam on the show, YOU LET HIM SING! Anyway, as is their want of late, the show was a heavy push for the young newcomers on the scene. Carrie Underwood has pretty much replaced Faith Hill as the go to country female singer, and Underwood's twin upstarts of blandness - Kellie Pickler and Taylor Swift - got the big push as well, with Taylor even winning an award. These three are so interchangeable, it's hard to tell them apart. Taylor got notice for her clothes ripping, water soaked performance number, but that's about it. Many other "who's that?" performers were featured, but the most ironic award had to be new male vocalist going to Jack Ingram - he of at least 10 years of singing experience. At least it was a name I recognized. The other acceptable one was Miranda Lambert winning album of the year. Previewing clips of the album on Amazon, at least she's got some talent beneath the bombast and has a more unique voice and style to stand out from the pack. And thanks to previewing her album, it sent me on a round about web tour to find EmmyLou Harris' classic Easy From Now On, which is a great tune penned by Carlene Carter, but that's another story.

There were good performances from George Strait, and um, somebody else I'm sure, but the highlight of the show had to be Garth Brooks. He won an achievement award of something, but the good part was him doing a medley of his hits. Makes one realize how much Garth Brooks is missed, at least by this fan of country music. It's funny, because when he was the big thing in the 90's, people were saying he wasn't country then either. However, listening to him tonight in comparison to the other acts trotted out, he may as well be the George Jones of his generation. Hearing him still in fine form sing songs like Thunder Rolls, Callin' Baton Rouge, Friends In Low Places, Rodeo, In Another's Eyes (with Trisha Yearwood!) and The Dance among others is downright refreshing when confronted with song of the year winners Sugarland screeching out ear bleeding notes to the masses.

I guess to each their own in who they like, but it ain't getting any easier to be a country fan these days.

Oh, and one last thing. Big, BIG thumbs down to CBS, who obviously doesn't want anyone to maybe view these performances again. There were a lot of clips put up on YouTube, but every one I clicked on had been taken down for violation. Nice going CBS. Try not to be so scared of this thing called the internet next time.

What If Your Shorts Short?

2008-05-20T02:22:00.002-04:00

Via Engadget, we find out there are brains out there trying to come up with blood pressure monitoring system - in your underwear. The jokes write themselves for this one, but I don't want to be wearing these when the pump starts squeezing to calculate the blood pressure. I'm sure there's no real pump, just electrodes, but I think my BP would go up just looking at something like this...

Philips dreams up underwear-infused blood pressure monitoring system - Engadget

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Australia Trailer

2008-05-19T01:52:00.005-04:00

A new trailer has hit the web for the Baz Lurhmann directed epic, Australia, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Normally, these kind of epic period piece movies aren't my style, but this one looks good. Here's the synopsis:

A romantic action-adventure set in northern Australia prior to World War II, AUSTRALIA centers on an English aristocrat who inherits a ranch the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn cattle driver to drive 2000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country’s most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin, Australia by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier.

It looks like a good action adventure western/WWII epic. I'll have to watch this one. And if those comparisons of Hugh Jackman to a young Clint Eastwood weren't there before, they will be now with that one shot in the trailer.
You can download the trailer in 480P HD here.

Good Enough For Me...

2008-05-18T23:54:00.002-04:00

Still in a creative quagmire of blogging, but maybe that's just 'cause I'm tired. Got a Sunday and Monday off here - holiday in Canada - and I think I'm just gonna sit back and chill. But still, here's some random thoughts...

The Sin City movie was on Showcase last night and tonight. Has it been that long already? I remember eagerly awaiting this to come to the theatre in 2005, now it's on cable. Guess time goes quick. Of course, I'm watching it at the moment, but taking a commercial break in the middle of Dwight and Gail's scene in old town just isn't right...And everything seemed to be going so well...

Have you seen the commercial for Pepsi Max? They say, in an altogether too upbeat way, "Now with Ginseng and MORE caffeine!" Really? That's what people need these days? Instead of maybe calming down and trying to get more sleep, we'll just increase the uppers we take. Yeah, nothing could go wrong with that plan...

During an eternity of a commercial break here for Sin City, I flipped the channel down and found Sheryl Crow and Kris Kristofferson singing Me And Bobbi McGee on a Willie Nelson birthday concert on CMT. Classic song, and as somebody once said, it's one of those songs where you go, "Man, I wish I would have wrote that." Feelin' good was good enough for me, good enough for me and Bobbi McGee...

And here's a pic I took out the rain covered window of my truck looking down a road with street lights lit. Then I ran it through Pixelmator experimenting with different settings trying to get a harsh black and white image. Thought it looked cool until I realized it was only because I knew what the picture was. Otherwise, it looks like a mess. A fun mess though. Will have to try again with something more recognizable...

Nope, Not The AC

2008-05-16T05:20:00.002-04:00

Wednesday morning I was woken up early by work being done around the building. They had posted a sign letting us know they would be cleaning the carpets in the commons areas. Fair enough, I thought. Worst case, they'd make some noise momentarily outside my door as they worked through. What they didn't tell us in the one sheet notice was that they were bringing in a company that would run some kind of pump, compressor, or generator quite loudly starting early in the morning. And they proceeded to run the noise maker right outside my window for 4 and a half hours. I woke up in a weird stupor after only a couple hours sleep wondering what the hell was wrong with my air conditioner. After closely examining it while half asleep, it occurred to my fogged brain that the noise wasn't coming from the AC unit and that maybe I should open the drapes and take a look. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed.

So, of course, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I flipped on the TV and found that Due South was on. It was part one of the two part Mountie On The Bounty. It thankfully took my mind off the noise frustration for a while. That was a classic show.

Well, I did manage to catch a short nap before going to work the night shift and then when I came home I had to watch the conclusion, so I threw in the DVD and watched part 2. Great stuff. Nothing like Fraser teaching Ray how to swim with: "Bloom! Close! Kick 'em in the head!" to brighten a miserable day.

Now, brightened day or not, I need to get some sleep.

Tunes

2008-05-14T05:50:00.001-04:00

Not much new coming to mind here, but did find a couple YouTube song vids I thought I'd post for your enjoyment...

Here is the video for Allison Moorer's song I Ain't Giving Up On You, one of my favorites from her album The Duel. I really like the lyric "All I want to do is break even, And you're the best chance I've got." I didn't even know there was a video made for this song. Thanks YouTube, and where were you CMT?

At work, they have a radio station piped over the loudspeakers all the time. Unfortunately, I am not privy to the station setting or the volume as of yet (most times I'd prefer silence), but every now and then somebody sets it to a decent station and I hear some good songs. I heard this song one night, and hadn't heard it before, but I knew the voice was Canadian rocker Bryan Adams. I managed to scope the lyrics well enough through the tin speakers and came home and did some internet searching and found it. It was Bryan Adams song In The Heat of the Night. I liked the tune, so here it is.

So Fired You're Rehired...

2008-05-13T01:39:00.003-04:00

Big picture here, if you want to read the article.

So there was a kerfuffle in Canada about a woman who was fired from Tim Horton's for giving a 16 cent timbit to a toddler. She was called in and fired for giving product away for free. She did the smart thing and called a newpaper, and it hit big, causing a PR nightmare for Timmy's, and rightly so. Even though it's pointed out that it was the individual franchise and an "overzealous" manager, it didn't look good on the famous Canadian coffee and donut shop. They've been going downhill for years, and this is just one more bump in the downslope.

Now, because of the uproar, they rehired her, which is good. But there were two things in two different papers I read that caught my attention. One was that she thinks the firing wasn't because of the timbit, it was retaliation for her bringing up the manager's absenteeism at a meeting. Not right, but it makes sense. Management doesn't like to be shown up, even though they usually make it easy. The other thing, in a different paper, was where she mentioned that as she left the restaurant in tears after being fired, a total stranger gave her 40 dollars. He told her somebody did that for him when he was fired.

Of all the hoopla surrounding this 'event', that last bit was the most interesting. Maybe the world isn't completely screwed just yet.

This n That

2008-05-13T01:15:00.001-04:00

Been out of the loop for a few days of work and trying to sleep. But another week is here, so we march on with this and that. Got a story percolating in the back of the brain, but nothing quite crystalized yet...

Hmm, movies, what have we got there? Terminator 4 is going into production and will be a PG-13, which effectively lowers my interest to "wait for weekly rental".....new trailers for The Dark Knight and Indy 4 are out on the web....The Dark Knight just looks awesome, and I think the late Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is going to blow people away....Indy 4 trailer is good too with some good lines and action, should be good.....Iron Man made another 50 million while the new movie of the week, Speed Racer, barely made 20 million in it's debut....hello flop, goodbye profits.....I guess nobody really wanted to see nausea inducing color explosions of CGI.....and I'm one of them....and have you seen the commercials for the new Adam Sandler comedy You Don't Mess With the Zohan? Wow, does that look bad. Not even one laugh there.

Finally, after too long, I gave my PSP another go at getting converted video behaving on it. I got around to updating the firmware, and now I can just drop MPG4 or H.264 vids into the Video folder and away we go. It actually works! This is how it should have been in the first place, instead of Sony's brain dead and archaic renaming / numbering system hidden 4 folders in. Now I can watch TV shows or movie bits while I'm on my lunch break at work. It'll do quite nicely until I determine if I can afford an iPhone once Rogers unleashes that bill nightmare on Canadians...

More Moorer

2008-05-08T03:37:00.000-04:00

Been listening to Allison Moorer's latest album Mockingbird, and I am really digging it. Not a bad tune on the album - shouldn't be either as she highlights songs written by other female artists that have meant something to her. It was meant as a tribute to the female voice, according to the liner notes, and a project like that could be tempted to go with more of an agenda, but she doesn't do that. She just does great songs justice with her own voice and style. I'm a guy, but I know good music when I hear it. While there aren't too many female singers these days that get my attention, Allison Moorer is one who always does. One of a very small group of singers on my list that if I hear they are coming out with a new album, I know I'll buy it without having to hear samples or the like. Always been a fan, and she does a great album here, crossing over several different genres seamlessly. My favorite track is Revelator - a Gillian Welch penned tune. It's a classic Moorer track with that opening electric guitar riff into a fiddle and then her soulful voice. A perfect midnight track when you're thinking about getting out of sight and what might be revealed She does a great job too on the June Carter Cash written classic, Ring of Fire. It's slowed down, but done very well. Orphan Train is another good track and she closes with Jessi Colter's I'm Looking For Blue Eyes which was a song with special meaning for Allison. It's certainly a worthwhile album to check out. It's not strictly country, or strictly anything. Just really good songs sung by someone with real talent. I shake my head when I think of how I'll probably never hear even one of these tracks on radio stations around here.

Pixelmator - Sink or Swim

2008-05-06T02:22:00.001-04:00

I do like to dabble in editing and creating pictures on my computer, ala Photoshop. However, as someone who had a PC that was too old to handle Photoshop requirements, and I didn't have a degree in Photoshop either nor money to buy it, I learned my picture editing "skills" on Microsoft's Photodraw. It worked for me, and I enjoyed it. It was basic, but it did the job. Then I switched to a Mac and was looking for something like it. I read great things about Pixelmator and got that installed, but on first couple of uses I found it awkward and didn't really like it although looking at stuff made with it made me want to learn more.

Then today, a friend who calls me "savvy" with computers asked me if I could come up with something quickly for a fundraising draw she was involved in and they needed a ticket made that would be printed and sold. I do love a challenge, but now that I have my PC hooked to my tube TV at 800 X 600 resolution, it wasn't really in the cards to work on that. So it was Pixelmator or bust.

I found some pics on the internet that I could use to work into the ticket along with the text needed, and just dived in. And I guess that truly is the best way to learn. Surprisingly, I found it easier to work with and the project came together very quickly and even I was impressed with the outcome. More importantly, so was she. I believe Pixelmator has an interface more like Photoshop than the very basic Photodraw I was used to, which caused my confusion. However, I figured out what I needed and even got some nice text effects as well worked in.

All in all, I'm impressed with Pixelmator and will continue to learn it. It's a more than affordable solution for Mac users not wanting to shell out Photoshop money (and really, who can?) and I know there are even more powerful features under the hood of this thing. Next thing is to get my Graffiti tablet hooked up so I can edit and draw with a pen stylus instead of a mouse. Yep, gotta get on that...

Network or Channel?

2008-05-06T01:54:00.001-04:00

Was listening to Prime Time Sports show today, and host Bob McGowan pointed out an interesting oddity between Canada and the States. In Canada, we have the Shopping Channel and the Weather Network. However, in the States, they have the Shopping Network and the Weather Channel.

Weird, eh?

Rollin'

2008-05-04T23:47:00.001-04:00

Nothing much to say at the moment...listening to Kid Rock "Only God Knows Why" and surfing through YouTube vids...another week fallen off the calendar, which is good and bad depending how you look at it...had truck troubles with the Dodge, but thank God for Fathers, rope, and being there...and the truck is rolling again, still got some more miles left in 'er...went out for a bit to road test it and get some gas and grub...we ain't gonna be driving long if oil companies keep drilling our wallets instead of drilling for crude...and who knew Dairy Queen was still such a popular joint on a Sunday night...I ate my Wendy's burger across the street and watched the place crowded and hoppin'...it's amusing watching people from a distance...but I rolled home then and think I'll watch a movie and pass out...yep, solid plan, that.

That Wasn't In The Prenup

2008-05-02T04:41:00.001-04:00

Newlyweds spend night in jail after brawl at Pittsburgh-area hotel - Yahoo! Canada News

So they get married and follow it with a fight in the hotel. He karate kicks her to the floor, guests from another wedding party intervene, and guess what - she turns on them! The couple wind up moving the fight to the lobby, throwing things at the other guests.

She gets bailed out by her father and leaves jail - still in the wedding dress. He left jail with a swollen eye and one shoe.

Needless to say, alcohol was involved. I'm sure someday they will laugh and laugh while they tell this story to their grand kids. Or their lawyers.

Goodbye Bandwidth

2008-05-02T03:41:00.001-04:00

So, around the web we hear reports about ISP's (well, the big boys anyway) going out of their way to treat every 'net user like a criminal, and then charging them an arm and a leg for the privilege. Every time I hit the net, there's only more bad news coming from the uber controlling ISP's - namely Rogers and Bell here in Canada.

Bell is already being taken to task for their bandwidth throttling war against all things P2P. They erroneously claim torrent users are slowing things down and they have to put a lid on it for the sake of other users. But that's been proven false and it's basically all BS. Same with Rogers who are getting rid of their unlimited plan and capping the Express high speed plan at 60 GB monthly bandwidth. If you exceed that, you're on the hook for $2 a GB up to a $25 max, I think. Basically another cash grab, but even worse, they are positioning themselves to make serious extra coin in another year or two when 60 gigs just are not going to be enough. As more video streaming and downloading options become available, bandwidth is going to get used up fast.

I have Rogers high speed because it's really my only option where I am. Granted, I haven't exceeded 60 gigs use yet, but my usage is climbing and I'm not too thrilled about the cap. Nothing much I can do about it though. Well, there is one thing. Since ISP's are throttling us on the assumption any torrent use must be illegal (read not using their sanctioned downloading options for movies and other stuff - not to mention their fear of people dropping cable for the internet), then the only solution here is to download like crazy. Everything and anything - download it! Because if I were to exceed the limit by say, 12 gigs, I'll be on the hook for $24 extra bill, but if I download 50 gigs extra, then I'm on the hook for $25. May as well cancel my cable TV and download everything off the net instead and break even on the deal or even come out ahead. It's a thought anyway, if this is the direction it's going. Will have to double check that $25 max limit over charge though.

Either way, it doesn't look good for the future of the internet, at lease in Canada anyway. Rogers has a monopoly and Bell is fading fast. And now, the iPhone is coming to Canada - finally - and guess who has it? Rogers. Can not wait to see how they mess that up and over charge us like crazy for that thing. If it's as bad as I think it will be, I may have to stick with my old Virgin mobile pre paid flip phone for a while longer yet, even though I really want an iPhone. Can't be paying an arm and a leg for a cell phone when I'll need that arm and leg to pay for gas in the truck...

Or we could all just go back to telegrams, pony express, and telling stories by the fire or on the back porch while looking at a star filled sky for our communication and entertainment needs. Probably be a better world...

PS - just tried going to Rogers website. It isn't working either.

Me Mini Movie Reviews: Blast of Silence (1961)

2008-04-30T04:41:00.002-04:00

I watched the 1961 noir movie Blast of Silence the other night. A really good film, made on a shoe string budget, about a hired killer in Manhattan at Christmas on a business trip, is a lean and mean noir hidden gem.

Writer and director Allen Baron also stars as the lead Frankie Bono, the hit man on a job over the holidays. Lionel Stander provides the hard boiled voice over narration that fits perfectly but is in a very rare second person narrative, even though you know it's Frankie's head doing the talking. Frankie perfers to be alone, but contacts must be made and there is time to kill as well before he can complete his job which leads to interaction with various characters - some good, some bad. Frankie begins to realize he might be looking for something more than his current profession, and it's a monkey wrench in his otherwise expertly crafted professional plans.

While the plot is there to hold it together and keep things moving forward, Blast of Silence is more of a character study of Frankie Bono and his thoughts. There's no wasted moments here either, as the taut 77 minute running time plows straight forward through Frankie's business trip. There may have been better actors for the role, (Peter Faulk almost did it) but Baron plays the hitman accurately as one who is downright uncomfortable around people or situations that aren't killing related. This guy is an outsider, who just doesn't fit in, probably anywhere, and his back handed attempts at it over a lonely Christmas prove rattling to the out of place Bono. He tries to find a way around, but this being a noir, you can see plans just not coming together.

The cinematography is excellent, providing the dark night streets of Manhattan along with the isolation of the busy Christmas packed crowds as well. There's one excellent shot down a New York street where the camera doesn't move at all as Frankie comes walking towards it and you can just feel the city. Like Baron points out on the DVD, the city itself was like a whole other character in the movie. And I have to mention the cars - they don't make them like that anymore.

The DVD is from the Criterion Collection, and they really do this package up right. Some excellent DVD extras, including an hour long documentary with Allen Baron as he travels through Manhattan many years later retracing the steps of the film. The still photos as well show just how much the city and locations have changed since the film was made. The documentary was made pre 9/11 and the twin towers can still be seen on the water line shots.

The reason this movie even made it to my attention was because of the comic Criminal (written by Ed Brubaker and art by Sean Phillips). Sean did the artwork for the DVD cover as well as writing and drawing a 4 page comic included in the DVD package that introduces us to Frankie Bono. I love Sean's gritty and moody art on Criminal, and it works perfectly here.

Overall, this is a great addition to my movie collection. As a fan of noir films, it doesn't get much more noir than this one, which was actually made at the very tail end of the era for that genre by a rookie but determined movie maker who came up with a great little gem. If you like indie movies, noir films, or are just tired of the current lack of theatre hope, it's worth checking out for a hard and fast trip through 1961 Manhattan with Baby Boy Frankie Bono. Out of Cleveland.

Verdict: Recommended.

Slowly But Surely...

2008-04-28T00:38:00.001-04:00

...I'm getting back to upgrading and modifying my setup here at home. I had the ideas of what I wanted to do, but then got derailed by the job. Now that I've put in a month there and am getting used to it, I can now think about other things again.

Finally got around to setting up my Picnik account like I mentioned in the other post, and now I've installed the new web browser Flock on my Mac. This is one very cool browser for those of us plugged into various social networking, blogging, and media sharing sites. Once you get it setup, you've got very quick and easy access to your favorite sites in the sidebar - Facebook, Flikr, Youtube, Twitter, etc - that continue updates and access even while you surf off to other sites. It also has a photo uploader and blog editor included that makes it easy to get your thoughts and pics online without the usual 35 mouse clicks. There's even drag and drop abilities built in. The media bar is also pretty cool. Again, quick access to your friends uploads or Flikr or Youtube top picks. There's also an RSS feed reader built in too so you don't have to keep clicking back to your fave sites. There's certainly been some thought put into this browser with a plethora of options built in for the Web 2.0 crowd. I'm going to keep putting it through it's paces, but I like what I see so far. Didn't think anything would pull me away from Firefox, but Flock just might.

Also got my old PC hooked to my TV (still a tube, no LCD yet :) so I can watch my DVD's and videos while I compute on the Mac. And with the wireless Apple Airport Express working away, it's all networked quite nicely. Someday I'll have a big screen TV on the wall, but still got other bills to pay first.

Now I'm blogging, surfing, and watching my new DVD's of the old TV show The Equalizer. That was a cool show - basically a version of the Punisher, but a British version with more class and witty retorts. But he knew how to meet out the justice to the bad guys. "Got a problem? Odds against you? Call the Equalizer."

Take A Picnik

2008-04-27T02:41:00.002-04:00

I'm probably behind the curve here, but found an excellent website for editing pictures called Picnik. You sign up for a free account, and then upload a picture from your computer or any of a number of picture storage sites (Flikr, Facebook, Photobucket, etc) and edit away with their online editing software. You can then save the pic back to your computer, email it, or save it out to any of those other sites.

It's remarkably streamlined and easy to use - especially for those of us that like to mess around with editing pictures but don't have a bachelor's degree in Photoshop. You can do some fun, creative things with it or even just crop or fix red eye. Certainly worth a look.

I took a shot of the front of my Dodge RAM truck and then played around with editing it. Was a fun little time waster (click to enlarge)...