2008 the Year in Review

Here's my Year in Review for 2008. We saw the year of the "kick ass" Super Hero movies with the Dark Knight and IronMan......haven't seen Hulk yet, although not really convinced it will be that good. It looks like the new Punisher movie went in and right back out of theaters; not really surprised at that. Sports, the Raiders and the Niners ended on good notes and with good coaches (who are replacements for the ones that started the season). Yeah, I guess I should mention the Titans having a stellar season too, and with a vet as their QB, not their whiny little Rooking superstar. Baseball; I'll get back to you on that. The Giants and A's sucked and it doesn't look like it's going to bet better soon. TV; lots of good new shows and a whole crapload of stupid ones. Life on Mars, The Mentalist, Eleventh Hour....all awesome. Leverage, just as good. The Shield ended on a WOW! note like it started. Politics; the American people finally spoke up and said "Dear Republicans, we've had enough of your shit for the past 8 years. Go sit in a corner and be irrelevant for another 8 or so until you pull your heads out and figure out where you went wrong". An intelligent, well spoken, honest, Family Man is going to be our President. A man who props up his weaknesses by surrounding himself with people who know what the Hell they are doing and actually listening to their advice. Okay, I guess I should mention he's the first Black President.....but honestly that doesn't matter. Only a small portion of the population still cares about such things. We saw what happens when you sell your soul completely to the company store and let them turn you into something you aren't. That was John McCain. He went from the once proud Maverick, bucker of the system that he was in 2000 to Old Man Withers from any Scooby Do cartoon saying "I'd have gotten away with it to if it wasn't for you meddling kids and your dog..." Seriously, he turned into mean, angry, Old Guy with slight alzheimers. He let the RNC pick that joke of a running mate which essentially killed any chance he had. Just shows how out of it the RNC is. The Republican Part; the Party of Irrelevance. The Homefront; Cath and I are going strong after what will be 5 years this January 22nd. The oldest go married and I have a new Granddaughter. We also have a kitten who is bringing out the kitten in our older cat. I haven't been back home to visit still, but Mom and Dad and Sis are coming out in April. The Economy put a kabosh on Cath's Real Estate career....at least for now, she's wanting to get back into it and I can tell she misses it. 1/20/09 can't get here soon enough for me, know what I'm saying? Airsoft; my team The Order has become more respected as a separate entity and less "friends of Bad Karma" like we used to be. We are coming into our own and it feels good. Then again I have a bunch of great teammates so it's hard not be good.

In conclusion, I for one will be glad when this year is over. Enough of the crap already. Here's to '09 being much better.

Winter is Coming....

Sorry George R.R. Martin I had to borrow that from you.......actually Winter is here....now!!!  To my dear friends in the GoG...I give you the true meaning of cold....it was 9 degrees this morning.  Yes you read that right, 9 fricking degrees.  That's bloody cold!!!  Hell I remember back in Cali when it was like 40 we'd be "damn it's cold today...." and put on a heavy coat.  I can't imagine anyone getting used to this...this is warm to a damn Polar Bear....9 flipping degrees.......brrr......

The Christmas Truce

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce

I like to put up the link to this story this time of year as it's one of my personal favorite tales of WWI. To me it speaks truly to the duality of mankind. We kill each other one minute, then pause just long enough to enjoy a shared experience like a Holiday....then back to the killing. Great story that shows that not even War can dampen the Holiday Spirit, and that there is a connection we all share regardless of where we were born or what language we speak.

Wiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!

Yep, we finally got a Wii. Nintendo has impressed me with the way this motion controlled console works so well. Remember all previous attempts at motion control? Can anyone say Nintendo Power Glove???? You know, it used sonics for motion. But when you got it home, it absolutely blew. It never worked and it ended up being an expensive paper weight. Cathy and I have been talking about getting one, mainly for the Wii Fit board and exersice programs that come with it...hey need to get off my fat ass and get some exercise and train for airsoft in the off season....besides it's a way to get Cathy to play video games with me (she can't get into the PS2...which is fine. I will use that for my violent, war games and FPSes....). Although I do want to get the star wars lightsaber duel game.....and maybe the light saber controllers (they fit over your Wii remote although I can just see me actually hit someone with them....can't help it I'm a fencer for crying out loud!!)

Updates and ramblings....

So my favorite TV show Heroes is back on stride with it's last episode of the season. There was a big shake up when new writers took over after an episode or two because the best two writers were tapped to by ABC to write for "Pushing Daisies".......even they couldn't help that show. Now they are back and this latest episode was much better than the whole season. Things got so jumbled and muffled and confused that it was driving viewers away. Although I must say the show has basically become a modern retelling of all of the great '80's X-Men story lines. The latest, Volume 4, is called "Fugitives". Nathan Patrelli (a person with powers himself) has just given US President Worf....yeah that was Michael Dorn, I'd know that voice anywhere...a dossier with the names, photos and explanations of powers of all the characters from all three seasons. What he wants the Pres to do? He, Nathan, wants to round them all up and throw them in camps....er I mean a Facility so they won't harm anyone. Nathan was always borderline villan but now he's crossed over completely. It seems that Sylar burned up with the Primatech....I doubt it. This is Heroes after all. Clares bio-mom seems to not have bought the Personal Immunity Advantage to her flame powers....ooops.... So basically Nathan has become Senator Kelly and has initiated the Mutant Registration Act.....I wonder if there will Sentinels.......

SuperGoober posted a great description of a typical Gathering of the Geeks on his blog. It's really funny, and having experienced several of these I can hear the voices and bad impressions mentally.

The oldest Girl is married now. She's happy and they are doing great. My new GrandDaughter is getting bigger and cuter. Oh yeah she's going to be spoiled. Nanu is already looking for plans for a doll house for her.

That's it for now.........

All Hail Mr. Plow!!!

Actually all Hail Mr. TDOT Salt Truck. So about 3-4pm yesterday the Wife calls to tell me "hey, have you looked outside yet?" I knew it was going to be a balmy 36 yesterday but I didn't know it was going to freaking snow!!!! Now, as the title of the blog suggests I'm originally from California, where if you want to see snow you drive 4 hours to Tahoe to see it then drive home to the 50 degree winter weather. The flakes yesterday were so big that visibility was as bad as it is during a good San Francisco morning Fog.....The GoG knows what I'm talking about. It stopped snowing by the time I got home, but it was cold enough to start sticking. Slippery!!! I had to salt the driveway this morning so I didn't skate driving out of it. On my normal route I lucked out and got behind a TDOT salt truck!!! This means that the road ahead of me was nice and non-icy. Of course you don't follow too closely behind the salt truck....does nasty things to your paint....but it's easy to see the Area of Effect (Salt Truck: 4d6 EB, AE Circle. Only when roads Icy -1/4 Charges: 1 truckload +1 linked to:Change Environment: icy road to non-icy road). All Hero System fans will get that last bit......yes I know my Geek is showing. I must say this snow crap sucks. Of course the Discourser has dealt with this before as he used to live in a snowy State so he knows my pain. I just look at it this way, it's another skill I will develop.

More recomendations

Bought Dark Knight yesterday....brillant movie. Heath Ledger will be missed. He was demented as the Joker. Brought the characters true nature out. The same character that blew up the second Robin (although the readers pretty much voted for this because apparently that character was a complete ass) and tortured Commisioner Gordon and shot Barbara Gordon paralyzing her in The Killing Joke. Yeah very twisted indeed. Also caught the second episode of Leverage. I'm going to like this show.

More Movie and TV recommendations

Cat and I did something we hadn't done in awhile; went to a movie. I know, we don't get out too often. The last movie we saw was Indiana Jones and the Aliens.....you know that piece of crap that Lucas and Spielberg made.....a script that took forever to write, and this is the piece of crap they come up with????? I've come to the conclusion that if the name Lucas or Spielberg is on a movie, I'm not paying to see it. They've become reverse King Midases....everything they touch turns to a steaming pile of crap. Anyway, I will leave my Lucas/Spielberg hate for the time being and get back to it. We saw Transporter 3. Yes I know, I'm lucky that way. My Wife loves these movies as do I. We both agree, the stories are lame but it doesn't matter. The whole point of a Trasnporter movie is to watch bad ass Audi's race at high speeds with some intense driving manuevers and to watch Jason Statham do some bad ass martial arts. He's not trying to be a serious actor here, the guy knows he makes good action movies and that's all he needs to do. Haven't seen in the Name of the King (heard it was crap) nor have I seen Deathrace (there they go again with the remakes). Transporter 3 was good. There was a lot of the elements that make these movies fun; like riding a rollercoaster. Saw the preview for Watchmen. Oh my freaking God that movie looks awesome. Also saw the one for the Spirit which looks bad ass too. I also saw more examples of Hollywood running out of ideas with the following two remakes: Return to Witch Mountain and My Bloody Valentine. Yep, The Rock is going to star in a remake of the Disney classic Return to Witch Mountain called Race to Witch Mountain. Same basic story but updated. They are remaking My Bloody Valentine but making at 3-D version. Seriously, stop now. Don't remake the old cheesy 80's horror movies. Let them stand on their own. Now to the TV recommendations. Just watched the full premiere episode of Leverage. Pretty good. It's kind of a mixture of Snatch and the Ocean's movies. It's a group of thieves who is headed by an ex-insurance investigator who is the "one honest man" in the bunch. They go after the bad guys and act like modern day Robin Hoods. The team is made up of the Face who is an excellent con-woman, the muscle who is a guy that looks like a surfer dude but is a fairly bad ass martial artist. The computer guy, who is basically a geek and the cat-burglar, a borderline crazy woman named Parker. Then there's the leader, Nathan, the "one honest man". It looks to be pretty good. Also, if you haven't caught it yet (good luck in doing so) the last episode of the Shield was bad ass!!! Vic's bad karma came to bite him in the ass big time.

Boycott Dollar Tree

Click on the entry title to go to the Chronicle article. A single Mom of an 11-year old son was working at the Dollar Tree in Fairfield when a random nutjob comes into the store and stabs her to death. When he is caught, he tells the police his only reason for killing her was that she was black. Pretty horrible, but here's the real nasty part; Dollar Tree and it's Insurance Company are refusing to pay her son Worker's Comp benefits because even though she died on the job, her death "wasn't job related". Can you freaking believe that?!?!?!? This Corporation that sells shit made in China for a dollar can't pay a kid left motherless because of some racist asshole the 250K this child is entitled to as the sole survivor of this tragedy. It is work related Morons!!! If she didn't have to work that day, she wouldn't be dead. This reminds me of Ford and the Pinto memo. Some number cruncher told the heads of Ford that it would be cheaper to pay the lawsuits when folks died in the firey explosions of their Pintos then to fix the problem with the car. Imagine that? Thought processes like that I just don't get. Yeah it may be cheaper to pay lawsuits, but we are talking wrongful death lawsuits!!! For every lawsuit they pay, someone died and it was their design flaw (a bolt underneath the gas tank that when the car was in a rear end collision scraped across the gas tank opening it up and causing sparks) that did it. I mean 250K for a workers comp claim is nothing to a corporation like Dollar Tree. Their product overhead is nothing. Cheap crap made in China for pennies and sold for a buck or 2...c'mon it's a brillant scheme. So please join me in boycotting this heinous company.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/08/BATP14KFTT.DTL

Follow up: Click on the above link for the article. So it looks like Dollar Tree got shamed into paying the full amount. It's taken two years for this Family to get justice. For once the media did some good. After this story broke, Dollar Tree stores were picketed and empty. See folks, speaking with your wallets does do some good sometimes. Personally I will continue to boycott their stores as the thought of them denying someone what is rightfully theirs because of a technicality is wrong, and will cost them more than the 150,000 that was due the Family. Isn't that funny, they tried to save themselves 150K but will end up losing more than that in sales and might have to close stores.