BSG

Remember way back when in the late 70's when a cheesy Sci Fi show aired on ABC? It was called "Battlestar Galactica" and it starred Mr. Cartwright, Lorne Greene as the leader of a warship that was leading the last remnants of humanity to a planet called Earth while being chased by shiny chrome plated robots with a red light for an eye that moved back and forth (KITT was a cylon too......). Well a few years ago some Lame Ass writer named Ronald Moore decided that this show needed to be resurrected and "re-imaged" (see my previous posts about Hollywood and it's lack of original ideas). At first I was skeptical......okay this guy would update it, not make it as cheesy as it was 20 or so years ago. Then he decided to change most of the lead characters into women???? I was confused by this. Dirk Benedict (Face Man from the A-Team) played Starbuck the hotshot pilot in the original series...Boomer was a very cool male character and the constant partner and wing man of Apollo, the son of the Commander. Well in Mr. Moore's (Lame Ass) update, he decided to make Starbuck a Female and Boomer as well. He made Apollo a whiny wuss and generally ruined the whole idea of a remake for me. Apparently he said there needed to be stronger female characters. Okay, I agree, but let's just make some up!!! Since you are arrogantly "re-imaging" someone elses' intellectual property why not add some original characters. (To his benefit, Lame Ass did add recurring characters in the form of deck crew and other support staff who were just listed as "crewman #5" in the old series). When fans of the original had an issue, the parties involved, Lame Ass and the actress playing Starbuck, copped big time attitudes in interviews, etc by basically saying "Too bad...this is how it is so piss off...". Kind of insulting really. Also were gone our favorite shiny chrome plated robot bad guys. Instead of them being created by an Alien race, Lame Ass used the tired and overused plot device of Machines created by humans as servants who became self aware and turned on their creators. Wow!!!! That's never been done before....(Terminator, I Robot, The Matrix......I can go on but won't). Gone is Gais Baltar the purposeful traitor in the original series replaced by the "accidental" traitor Dr. Gais Baltar in the new series. Also added, are Cylons who look like humans (Cyborgs basically). It was a blonde hottie version that caused Baltar to be a traitor (she hacked his security codes and shut down the planetary defenses). The machine like Cylons are still around, but they look different (and not as cool) from the chrome plated predecssors. So baring all this in mind, I decided to not watch this new reimaging, neither the original pilot movie, nor the first two seasons. But after hearing so much critical praise, and hearing from my friends how good it really was, I decided to jump on board this season. Wow, what a mistake. There are several things wrong with Lame Ass' writing. Number one: You had a thriving population of 10 billion on 12 planets. You are attacked during a celebration and all that manages to survive of 10 billion humans is 40,+ thousand!!! The military is part of that. In that situation the main Military commander (Admiral Adama) would have taken over and declared a state of Martial Law. Every able bodied person would be trained to fight, and tasks and resources would be divyed up with no questions asked. I mean if we in Modern day American can put up with 2 hour security lines at the airport because of 9/11 and not complain......these folks would be kissing the Military's butt for help. Number two: when you discover a planet that is habitable but you are only 3-5 weeks jump on the machines intent on destroying you, you would not stop at any cost and decide to colonize that planet. No. You'd keep on going until you got to the destination of Earth. There would be no elections, no free press, no laborers bitching about conditions....None of that would happen. (As a further note of how out of control the show has gotten, Glen A. Larson the original creator and writer of the show has been finally brought in as a consultant). Anyway, it's still an "okay" show, we will see if it gets better when it comes back in 2008.

Hollywood Strikes again

Today I read something that I just had to rant about.  New Line Cinema feels this need to do a remake of "Escape From New York".  You know, the great John Carpenter movie that helped Kurt Russel shed his Disney good boy image.   There is no other Snake Plisken than Kurt.  Period.  They are casting Gerard Butler from "300" as Snake.  No.  There is no need to remake that (or pretty much any) movie.  Remember the days when a "classic" film was a "classic"???  Now there is no such thing as you will have a choice between the original or the updated "hip" version.  It's also looking like my least favorite TV Genre is dying; Reality TV.  Yep.  Survivor has one year left, no one watches Big Brother anymore.  We've had no more versions of the Bachelor or Bachelorette.  The Apprentice has been tanking in the ratings...all in all a good thing.  The Serialized drama is the big thing now, and of all the ones (I believe a dozen) that started this Fall, only two remain:  Heroes and Jericho.   Now I've said before just how awesome Heroes is.  It's the kind of show that is so good, that you don't have to like Superheroes or comics to get into it.  Jericho on the other hand has reached it's "I ain't watching this anymore" level with me.  It started out good, but every episode after that had me screaming at the idiots on the show.  Your Country's been nuked.  You wouldn't be sitting around a bar playing pool and drinking, nor would you be safe.  Folks would load their guns and shoot to kill.  The stupid bitty running the General Store in town wouldn't expect people to pay her, she'd lock her doors and defend herself.  The Mayor would have mobilized the town, and deputized everyone and declared martial law.  All food would have been rationed as would have water.  Too bad guys, but the show is degenerating into the same old stupid Hollywood crap.  Too much focus on the love story and not enough survival.  It's become a chore to watch and that's when I stop.  Ask my buddy Mike about my take on Enterprise.

Movie Reviews

We recently rented three new ones. Going to watch the last one tonight and return all three.

First off we have "Flags of Our Fathers". Wow. Great movie about the truth behind the famous Iwo Jima flag raising photo. A movie that shows the sacrifice and horror of War and the political BS that is always behind it. It's told from the point of view of the son of one of the men in the photo, interviewing his Dad's old military buddies for a book he's writing. It's told in flashbacks from each man's point of view. I'm waiting for the companion piece "Letters from Iwo Jima" to come out on DVD soon. It's supposed to be a telling of the conflict from the Japanese side. Should be interesting.

Next we have "The Prestige". A movie about two rival Magicians in Victorian England. It's a movie about obsession mainly. About having that narrow focus that is so narrow that you forget there's other people in the world. Good cast. It's great to see Hugh Jackman doing everything he can to not get permanently type-cast as Wolverine for the rest of his career (although that might not be a bad thing with the Wolverine solo movie coming out soon.). Some of the stuff he's done has sucked, Swordfish and Van Helsing, but he's been good in them. Also stars Christian Bale (the new Batman) and David Bowie as Nikola Tesla. Michael Caine is in it as well (so you know it can't suck that bad....he's like Sean Connery. Put him in a movie and you will at least get a shining performance.) and Andy Serkis (better known as Gollum....or at least the voice and the body model for Gollum).

Lastly we have "Flushed Away". Very funny film. The singing slugs are the funniest part of the movie actually. It's like Shrek (hey it's from the same folks) in the way there are layers of humor.

No Pacman.com

Click on the title to be taken to the "No Pacman" website. Pacman Jones, for those that don't follow the NFL, is a "star" player who has been arrested on several occasions for being a Thug basically. The Titans need to get rid of this punk and now. He's as bad as TO and Moss.

Movie Reviews

Three this time.  First off, for you animation fans, there is the Hellboy animated series.  A bunch of one shot episodes about our favorite grumpy, redskinned hero.  If you like the movie, you will like the animated series as the voices of Hellboy and Abe and done by the same actors that played them in the movie.  Borat.  Oh Lord.  Pretty damn funny I must say.  A British Jew named Sasha Baron Cohen (who used to have a Cable mock talk show called "Da Ali G Show") plays a star reporter from a small village in Kazakhstan where their annual event is the Running of the Jew........the whole movie is a look at stereotypes and people's true beliefs when it comes to those stereotypes masked in a Mockumentary about a Kazakhstan Reporter trying to learn about the US.  The real people he interviews who have no idea he isn't who he says he is and their honest reactions to his behavior and questions show a scary side to our Country.  Lots of bathroom humor.  Not for most, but funny nonetheless.  Lastly we have "The Departed".  Holy crap what a great movie!!!  Mr. Scorsese makes a damn good film more times than not.  I've avoided anything with Leo Decaprio in it since I was forced to sit through his horrible performance in "Titanic" and the casting of him as the main character in "Man in the Iron Mask" which ruined what could have been a great remake (the cast who played the aging Musketeers was awesome).  Well Leo has developed into a good actor over the years and does a great job in "The Departed".  When the movie stars Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon and Leo Decaprio....Holy Crap how can it be bad???

RPG Conventions

http://dansdiscourse.blogspot.com/2007/03/hotel-full-o-geeks.html

As ususal, Dan the Discourser presents a sad, but true look at the heart of Geekdom in his humorous and articulate style. Very funny.

OH NOES!!! IT'S Y2K PART 2!!!

So in 2005 some idiots in Congress (yeah I know, there are lots of idiots in Congress...like the whole thing....) decided that by starting Daylight Savings time 3 weeks earlier and ending it three weeks later would save fuel. Huh???????? They said people would use less energy because your lights would be on less, etc. Huh???? Now according to the weather guy on the local news channel, all we really are getting is 2-3 minutes of actual extra daylight a day. So we are saving fuel again how??? My Wife works from 8-1 ish usually. I work from 8-5. My Stepdaughter goes to school from 8-3. The amount of driving we do and energy we use will be the same now matter how light or dark it is outside. Period. I would believe that everyone else will be the same. So how are we saving fuel again??? Personally I think we should do away with the whole stupid affair. Arizona never changes their clocks, so why shouldn't the rest of us. It is my understanding that we are the only Country that has this stupid ritual. The reasons to keep doing have changed every year, but the reality of it is they are excuses. It was originally started so that farmers could have more daylight to plant and harvest in. Okay, made sense back then. Now farmers have huge combines with with halogen lights that make the field as bright as day. So they don't need that extra daylight now do they? But yet, when the question is broached every so often you hear excuses like "It makes it so kids don't have to walk home from school in the dark". It has never been dark at 3pm at any point in history that I am aware of. Most kids either take busses home (which drop them a block from or in front of their homes) or are picked up by a parent. So which kids need extra light to walk home in again???? Now Congress gave a year's reprieve on the change so folks could get their electronics fixed so the automatic daylight savings time change works on the new schedule. Of course you had your "experts" getting everyone freaked out (ala Y2K....remember that when the World was going to end because of lazy programmers hard coding 19 before the year field...oh yeah nothing happened did it....) saying "your PC won't change automatically, neither will your cell phones". HOLY CRAP!!!! EVERYONE PANIC!!!!! Bunch of lazy bastards can't take 15 seconds to double click the clock on their computer and change it manually or set up your cell phone clock to what it should be. I love how our Country panics over the stupidest things. OH GOD WE HAVE TO ACUTALLY DO SOMETHING MANUALLY!!!! Lord save us from our lazy selves. Oh, and just in case you haven't noticed, just like Y2K, nothing happened. That's right; NOTHING WHATSOEVER HAPPENED. The World still spins clockwise and gravity still works. Planes are still taking off and landing and I was still able to drive to work this morning. Oh yeah, and these here Interweb things still work. Allright almighty Media, when North Korean Nukes are on their way, then there will be something to panic about. Until that time, CALM THE HELL DOWN!!!! It is your job to inform us, not to cause panic. I think you have forgotten that.

Gamer's Anonymous-Part Deux

http://dansdiscourse.blogspot.com/2007/03/gamer-definitions-continued.html

In my previous post I explained what an RPG is. Click on the link above for the Discoursers hilarious, but sadly accurate, depiction of Gamers. And yes, I'm an Old School Gamer.

Gamer's Anonymous

Okay, since the Discourser and the Super Goober have finally outed themselves, I guess it's time for me to do so as well.  Hi, I'm Steve the Ranter and I'm a Gamer.  Yep, I'm one of those Geeks that roll many sided dice and have a piece of paper with stats on it in front of me that I call a "Character".  Like my two friends I started out with the "training" RPG (that's Role Playing Game for the uninitiated) Dungeons and Dragons.   Now for those that don't know what an RPG is, it's very simple.  Take your basic board game.  But instead of being confined to a linear path around a board, take that board and put it in your head.  Use your imagination (that's the important part of an RPG), now picture that board as another place.  Some other "World" with continents and oceans and rivers and cities and populated by people.  Now, still using the board game reference, take the little plastic pawns that come with the game.  You know, the non-descript multi-colored pawns that you use to represent you progress around the board.  Take that piece in your mind and flesh it out.  Make it male of female, give it hair, or not, eye color, etc.   Now give that fleshed out pawn (I will henceforth call it a "character") an occupation, a background (who are it's parents, where was it born?).  Now clothe it, and equip it for travel and adventure in the "World" that you will be playing in.   That's an RPG.  Depending on the criteria for character creation, your character can be human or non-human, male or female; it's up to you.  Now take your character and put him/her in a group of other character's.  This is called an Adventuring Party.  Here's where it gets different than a normal board game.   An RPG gets it's base nature from the aforementioned board game as far as guiding a pawn towards a goal; but that's it.  An RPG is more like an interactive story.  Your character is one of the characters in the story, and the things you do/say affect the outcome of the tale.  Your quest is guided by a Dungeon/Game Master, also known as the Storyteller.  The GM guides you through the tale (and in turn the "world") by giving you situations and awaiting your interaction.  Sample game:  The GM tells you that your character is sitting in a tavern/bar having a drink after answering an ad for someone to go check out the haunted house/scary hills/dark forest where monsters/bandits/ghosts are terrorizing/killing/kidnapping villagers.   There usually is some game hook to get all the folks at the table, the players, together.  After the meeting the next part usually goes something like this:

 

GM: Okay, you've gotten your assignment and need to leave soon.  What does everyone do?

Player 1: I get supplies.

Player 2: I gamble a bit, I'm already supplied plenty...

 

So depending on what the GM has in store, you may have an uneventful night, or something may occur to further the story along.  Sometimes you may have a character that chooses to do some research, the GM will have to decided just how much info to give that person.

 

Sounds complicated???  It's not really.  It's like life in a sense.  You are given choices, and make them for good or ill.  RPG's are popular with highly creative people.  A night's gaming is very social and brings a group together.  You learn to work as a team; essentially it's you and your fellow Players vs. the Storyteller. 

 

If you stick with gaming, you eventually branch out and play using other rule systems and worlds.   Some systems, like Hero, are generic enough that you can create any kind of character in any kind of genre you can think of.  Others are more restrictive: Legend of the 5 Rings (Feudal Japan) and Shadowrun (Future cybertech world) are two of those that come to mind.  An RPG is fun and entertaining.  If you've never played one, but are contemplating, I suggest you do so.  You won't be sorry you did. 

Captain America is Dead

Wow!!! Marvel actually kept this one a secret. But, you know comics....he won't stay dead for long.

Book Recommendation

So take Philip Marlowe's office, and his running narrative, mix that with the attitude of Beretta then take that guy and send him to Hogwarts and you've got Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden; Chicago's only practicing Wizard. Look him up he's in the book. Author Jim Butcher has created a fine character in Harry Dresden, star of the "Dresden Files" books. Harry is dishevled, unorganized but nonetheless a powerful Wizard. He has a 30 lb cat named Mister (who lost his tail in an accident). He wears a black duster and carries a Staff and a Wand (Blasting Rod he calls it) and causes high tech electronics to malfunction in his prescense. (Has to do with something about Magic vs Technology). Since he can't use a computer, Harry has his own version; Bob. Bob is an elemental Spirit of Air trapped in a skull. He's very "cheeky" and a bit of a pervert (Bob will stop in mid-sentence to check out a pretty client of Harry's). Yes, this is the same Dresden Files that SciFi has made a series out of. The series is okay, but the books are better. Now I'm only basing this off of reading the first book, but honestly they are good.

Had to add this. I've finished book 2 and I am working on book 3. So far they are great!

Movie Reviews

Cat and I just finished watching two new movies that I must tell you about. The first is "Man of the Year". I loved it. We do need a Comedian to win the Presidency......we need something. It's a humorous but true view of politics. The next one is "Stranger than Fiction". A very different movie that is pure fantasy. You never know why this particular author is writing about this real life person, nor do you know if she created him or he her. Matters not as that's not the point of the movie. I wonder myself sometimes if this happens to all of us. Haven't you ever felt like someone was narrating your life?

Movie Review plus Random Musings

We took Liv to see "Bridge to Terabithia" the other day.  Wow! Not what I expected, I was expecting a "Narnia" type of thing.  Not even close.  You will get misty eyed, I don't care who you are.  Not going to say much about it because it will spoil the movie.  It's one of those "sit down and discuss" movies for kids.  Now on to Random Musings.

 

Heroes.  Holy Crap can this show honestly get any better???  Network TV has a habit of ruining a good premise by dumbing it down too much.  "Jericho" is kind of getting there, although last weeks episode pulled it out of the Soap Opera quagmire it was slowly sinking into.  It still amazes me how a bunch of people still want to cling to the "old" ways when it's obvious the world is screwed.  You saw a mushroom cloud evaporate Wichita Kansas.......saw it!!!  Saw other clouds on TV, then the TV went dead.  You've seen a guy with radiation poisoning come crawling into town....but you still cop the attitude that all will be okay.  NO..it won't.   They need to put a big wall around their town and man the catwalks in shifts.  All food is to be divvyed up and rationed, same with water and other supplies.  Anyway....back to a show that is one of the best shows on Network TV.   Heroes isn't holding back.  They are plunging ahead and advancing their storyline while adding more twists and revelations that will continue to advance the whole show for a good long time.  The alignment (to use a Geek term) of the folks involved is blurring.  You aren't quite sure anymore who is a good guy and who is a bad guy.  The one "villain" ends up showing some humanity, the other is just nuts and an obviously evil man.  Surprises abound.  This is some good story telling. 

 

Books.  I'm almost done with the "Song of Fire and Ice" series that has been written to date.  There are three more books coming and that's it.  So far we have one Mother's stubborn recklessness causing an all out War.  Well it didn't really cause the War per se....it gave certain schemers the go ahead to kill the current King.  A nice hunting "accident" put blame on an evil "wild boar".  The Widowed Queen puts her spoiled, cruel son on the Throne which causes the Son of the Stubborn Mother to declare himself a King.  Then the two Brothers of the former King claim they have a right to the Throne.  A fifth faction makes a claim to the Throne as well, and the world erupts into War.  Meanwhile this Stubborn Mother has lost sight of her two Daughters, it's rumored that her two Younger sons are dead (the one who was the cause of her recklessness) and her son that declared himself King is betrayed and murdered.  As is she.  These books are great!!!  The flow of the storyline is well done to the point that the complicated and intricate plots do not get lost.  You can easily follow all the unraveling threads of the tale so far.  I'm also eagerly awaiting news of when they will start casting and filming the HBO Series based on these books.  Each book will be one season.   Trust me, at 1,000 pages average they will need to do one book per season.   Next on the agenda after "Feast of Crows" is "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher.  It's Book one of the "Dresden Files".  Yep the show that is currently on SciFi Channel.  The show is good, but from what I've been told the Books are far superior (isn't it always that way...).  This Series of books is about Harry Dresden who's office door says "Harry Dresden: Wizard".  He's the only Wizard listed in the Chicago Yellow Pages.  He's a PI who the Police go to when the case is "just too weird".  Can't wait to dive into that one.  I will need to pick up the other 5 books in the series so I can read them all.  After that is "Under the Black Flag" by David Corrdingly.  It is the true history of piracy.  Ah yeah.  Can't wait for that either.

The World We Live in

So we've all heard, ad nauseum, about Anna Nicole Smith. A human being died as a result of a tragic life. That's all the respect I will give. That's all the respect she deserves. NOT 24/7 reports of the "MacBethian" tragedy her life was. What we as human beings can derive from this circus is that we are a greedy, vile lot who often times care naught but for ourselves. Now on to JetBlue. A company that like most corporations is concerned with making a profit. But unlike most corporations who screw up, got down on their corporate hands and knees and begged the Country's forgiveness. They addressed a huge issue, resolved it in a quick fashion, then did the honorable thing and said "We screwed up and we are sorry. You deserve better for the money you pay us." WOW!!!! What's funny is the media should be covering this story 24/7, lauding the efforts of JetBlue.....but they don't. Who cares about that. "We" want to hear about the stripper/playmate who married an Old Oil Tycoon with one foot in the grave and where she's to be buried. Who cares!!!

Words or The Pen is Mightier than the Sword.

So last night on the Grammy Awards the "Dixie Chicks" won a crapload of awards.  Now if you remember correctly, 4 years ago these three Ladies were branded "terrorists", "communists", "traitors" etc all because of one member's political opinions.  Apparently after 9/11 it was deemed "traitorous" to speak ill of the Commander in Chief.  Hmmmm....I thought the First Amendment gave us the right to do that without persecution.  Now all Natalie Maines said was this: "We are embarrassed that the President is from Texas."  Now why she felt the need to say this before a song during their concert I don't know.  There is a time and place for Political Agendas, a concert shouldn't be one of them.  But, oh well.  What was so harsh about what she said?  Hell, I'm embarrassed he's my President.  Should people be making Death threats against me????  The problem with her statement, according to a vocal minority, is that she said it on Foreign Soil and just before we invaded Iraq the second time around.  Apparently it's "bad form" to speak ill of the CIC on Foreign Soil.  Huh??????  This lead to a huge backlash as Country Music fans everywhere were burning their CD's and they were being blackballed because of on stupid statement.  People wanted their heads; literally and figuratively.  Heck a co-worker today was making a comment about it and I looked at him and said "What did they do that was so bad?"  He mentioned "what they said about the troops" and they rank right up there with Hanoi Jane Fonda.  Not likely.  I went to wikipedia to see if they indeed said something about the troops.  They didn't.  Natalie Maine did say something about questioning the need to be Patriotic.  I am patriotic, because I love the Country I was born in; the US, but I always thought Patriotism was taken way too far after 9/11.  All of a sudden people are flying flags and sticking "United We Stand" stickers on their cars, etc.  It became trendy and cool to be Patriotic.  Someone was getting rich off of selling plastic flags and stickers manufactured in China and Mexico while Americans were becoming more paranoid and the Government was taking away more of your Civil Liberties in the name of "National Security" by adopting a "locking the barn door after the horse gets out" attitude.   I did find it very hypocritical to say the least.  There have been a number of 9/11 related movies out.  I've refused to see any of them because I don't think someone, anyone should get rich off of that tragedy.  I have come to the conclusion that Natalie Maine is a loud mouth with "little Chick" syndrome.  She reminds me of that girl that you are dating that gets you into fights at bars because she can't keep her mouth shut.  She loves to stir the crap and does it well.  I do find it amusing that they thought their fans would understand.  These are Country Music fans girls....Hello!!!!  Most true Country Fans come from the South, are Right Wing Conservative Christians and love W.  These are the same people that love Nascar too.  Nascar, where if you aren't from the South you are treated like you have two heads.....  These girls should have known too that in Country Music, if you aren't Texas or the South you are treated like the red headed step-child (just as Dwight Yokum....he's from Bakersfield, CA...).  If you are from those areas of the Country, you are expected to act a certain way. Looks like the Grammy's gave the finger to all the doubters last night.  These girls though should take a hint though.  Unless you are doing some kind of Political Cause concert (Farm Aid, etc) or you are singing at a fund raiser for a candidate, leave your Politics at the door, or put it in a song....at least if it's in a song, then you are expected to voice that opinion.   On that note I will leave you with some food for thought.

 

"People should not be afraid of their Government.  Government should be afraid of their people."

 

(quote from "V: for Vendetta")

 

"Those that would trade liberty for a bit of security deserve neither."

 

Ben Franklin

Movie Reviews

Two new ones.  We rented "Superman Returns" and "Flyboys".  Let's just say I'm pissed at Bryan Singer for deciding to make this movie before making X-Men 3 (which had another director that did okay).  Superman Returns was an okay movie, but I didn't understand why they did the whole "he left to investigate rumors of bits of the Planet Krypton" that still existed.  What the heck was that about?  I read they didn't want to do another "origin" story movie, but the did via flashbacks.  Lois Lane has a son that is Superman's child.  Okay, so let me get this straight.....you've slept with this guy, but yet you still don't see that Clark Kent and Superman are the same guy???????  Oh wait, he's wearing glasses and acting like a clutz....oh that's a good disguise.  That's like my Wife seeing me tripping down the sidewalk not wearing my glasses saying "Who's that guy?".   I did like Kevin Spacey as Luthor.  He was brilliantly cruel and evil.  Good casting job there.  I guess it's that I've never been a big fan of Superman.  I always thought he was kind of boring.  Why even bother to go up against this guy?  You can't kill him.  Lasers, nukes, guns, knives, etc....he can't be hurt by any conventional method.  Oh a "rare" glowing green rock that is a hunk of his planet is the only thing that can stop him.  Yeah, it's so "rare" that every other issue some Villan seems to have a chunk.  "Rare" my butt.  If you really are curious to see how it came out, then go ahead and rent it.  Honestly, this isn't a "must see" movie at all.   Flyboys, now that's a good movie.  You don't see many WWI movies and this one was well done.  Liked the characters and loved Jean Reno as the French Captain.  Great Dogfight scenes and the German Aces epitomized that era of fighter pilot.  Think the Red Baron.  Good movie.

End of an Era

Click on the blog title for the complete article. My friend Laura emailed me an article from the San Fran Examiner that has brought a tear to my eye. Our (me and my friends back home) version of the bar "Cheers" is closing it's doors after 36 years!!!! Yes, the home of the Habanero Hamburger and the Windsor Burger and the home of the best Fish and Chips in the area according to famed Columnist Herb Caen; the Prince of Wales Pub in San Mateo is closing it's doors. Apparently Jack Curry (the Pub's owner) doesn't own the building (I thought he did) and the owner of said property wants to open a bar of his own?????? WTF????? Number 1 it's not in the greatest of locations. The only thing that keeps it running in spite of it's bad location is the fact that the Prince of Wales is a San Mateo institution. The High Tech companies in the area; Oracle, EA, etc often initiate Noobs by bringing them to the POW for a Habanero Hamburger. I've been frequenting this establishment since the early Nineties. We used to have a Fencing class at the College of San Mateo and used to head to the POW afterwards for dinner. Jack knew your name when you walked through the door. I can't imagine someone wanting to throw away guaranteed rental income for the risk of running a business that no one will go to because you just took away their favorite place that was there. It's like closing down the best family run Italian restaurant so you can open your own. Ah well, such is the way of things. Jack will find a new location and this replacement bar will fail. Lot's of memories........

The Attack of the Mooninites!

Has it come to this???? Has our Government got us so scared of the "Terrorist Boogeyman" that people see a black sign that looks like a Lite Brite and think it's a bomb?!?!?!?!? Yes, the above picture is real. These little signs have been up in several major cities for 2-3 weeks now, and some yahoo in Boston yesterday sees one and freaks out. The police shut down interstates and bridges and go into Red Alert panic for the little thing you see the State Trooper holding in his hands. Look closely at it folks. We are a bunch of scared little freaks in this Country. These little signs were up in New York, LA, San Fran, Chicago and Boston. Boston is the only one that freaked out. For those that don't know what the image is, it's a character from the Adult Swim show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force". They are making a movie based on their cartoon and this was an advertising stunt. Of course Boston City officials are getting indignant about the whole situation "This is not amusing" harumph harumph. Basically they are pissed off at themselves for over-frickin-reacting!!!!! What idiots!!! Honestly how can you see a flashing led sign and say "Oh My God....it's a BOMB!!!!!!". I've said it before, the Terrorists don't need to attack us ever again; we've done their work for them.

OH NO IT'S SNOW!!!!!

Having come from a part of the Country where it doesn't snow, I find it hysterical to see and hear people's reactions to the snow we do get here in Tennessee.  In the SF Bay Area, it would sometimes get so cold that there would be frost on the lawn....little icy particles on the tips of your grass......that's it.  Here in Tennessee, we might get an inch or two, but it's usually all melted by the afternoon.  One time last year it hung around for 3 days but by the third day you could start to see it melting.  The slightest hint of "it might snow" out here and folks rush to the grocery store and buy up all the bread and bottled water, etc like it's the end of the world.  It's the attitude of "Oh MY God!!!!  We might be snowed in!!!!".  Yeah, snowed in overnight!!!!  Then in the morning all is well and it's like nothing happened.  I can remember my friend Jeff telling me about when he grew up in Detroit.  Now that's snow!!!!  He said you'd have to go outside and shovel off your car.  Start it up and wait an hour or two while it warmed up.   Meanwhile you were shoveling the driveway.  This three hour process was done so you could drive 25 minutes down the road to the store for food.  Nuts!!!!  The weather people out here always build it up.  "Oh no....look here's a cold front about to hit us!!!!"  It usually misses and goes to the South and all is well.  Yeah it snowed last night, and yeah there was still snow on the ground when I went out this morning.  But it was on the grass, not the sidewalks or my driveway.  It was a normal drive to work, actually a faster drive because of folks freaking out because of the big, ginormous dusting of snow we got.  Bet it's all gone by the time I get home tonight.  BTW, it's supposed to be sunny and almost 40 tomorrow.  So much for our "HUGE" snow storm.

Airsoft Whiners: Part Deux

I've explained my hobby of Airsoft here before so I won't go into that much detail as to what it is.  Go back and read Airsoft Whiners the first for the details.   Here in Middle Tennessee, we have one brick and mortar airsoft store called "Nashville Airsoft".  You would think a retail store would want to promote the sport as being a safe one, but all these guys seem to want to do is have a "mine is bigger than yours" contest.  They run games of their own at the Bad Karma Field where I play, but they don't use the Bad Karma rules (a big part of why I will never attend one of their games).  The speed and power of an airsoft gun is rated in FPS; or Feet Per Second.  A standard assault rifle AEG (airsoft electric gun) usually shoots around 285 fps to 330 fps out of the box.  These guns of course can be upgraded to shoot a bit faster.  People, wrongly, believe that faster means farther.  True, a .20 gram plastic bb traveling at 350 fps goes a bit farther than a bb traveling at 285 fps, but it still loses kinetic energy when it gets to it's destination.  Kinetic energy is what makes the target feel the bb hitting them and what makes them raise their hand calling themselves hit.  What will make the bb travel farther is a tightbore barrel.  Also a longer barrel.  A tightbore barrel gives the bb more spin (think the rifling in a regular firearm) thus more sustainable kinetic energy.  The longer barrel means it is sustaining this energy in a controlled space where it is kept constant for a much longer time, therefore it travels further because it has more "umph".   The standard rules on the BK Field are like every other field I've played on.  400 fps for regular riflemen with no range limit, 500 for snipers with a 100 foot limit (trust me at 500 fps, at 100 feet it will feel like 400 but still hit you) and SAW's at 410 fps (their high rate of fire causes the piston to lose some fps) with a 25 foot range.  These are good, safe distances and speeds and all that one needs honestly.  It is well known that every time you start to upgrade a regular AEG higher than say 415, it increases the risk of you frying the motor, striping or freezing the gears, etc, etc.  Basically crap starts to go wrong more often.  The guys that run this store, NA, have a no FPS limit at their game days.  Their whole deal is to see just how high they can upgrade a gun.  I've heard reports of people being called whiners because they lost it at an NA game by being shot point blank in the back of the neck with a gun shooting 600 fps?!?!?!  I'd be pissed too.  That's like getting slapped in the back of the neck with a bullwhip.   One of the many reasons I won't attend one of the games they run.   If that ever happened to me, it would go from guns shooting plastic bb's to me pinning the guy to the ground pounding his face in.  It's unsafe and uncalled for and it disgusts me that this is a retail store who's lively hood depends on the sport.  Idiots.  Now they have been having these delusions of starting an "Airsoft League" where teams take on other teams for bragging rights I guess.  Sorry man, this ain't paintball.  Alot of former paintballers play airsoft because they like the whole mission based objective style of play.  Not team A on this side of the field and team B on that side, ready, set, come out shooting.  It's stupid, and you might as well just go play paintball if that's what you want to do.  They have been making asses out of themselves "calling out" other teams.  The good teams: Bad Karma, OpForce and my own team The Order have ignored them.  We don't like that crap, and frankly we have nothing to prove.  It's a damn hobby.  We are out running around with realistic bb guns playing "army" for Christsake!!!!!