New Photo Galleries are coming online..
Once I get it figured out and configured the way I think it needs to be, I’ll be in the midst of putting up pictures from my iPhoto desktop install (rather than paying flickr 40 bucks a year for the same thing).
If you have, or know a picture that you think is funny, please send me the URL so that I can add it to the funny album. Everyone needs a laugh.
Wayne
On Politics.
While I’m certain there are a few truly wonderful people who choose to go into politics, as a generalization, I think the system of politics is designed to eat away at the good in the best of men, eventually equalizing them all to the lowest common denominator.
3 blogs for the price of one!
The posts from my ihatewallpaper remodeling blog need to be edited and images corrected/added, but we’ll get there soon.
Quote of the Moment: Iron Man 2
My bond is with the people, and I will serve this great nation at the pleasure of myself. If there’s one thing I’ve proven it’s that you can count on me to pleasure myself. – Tony Stark
Why I stopped writing movie reviews.
Every once in a while, someone asks me an interesting question out of left field. This is in fact how I get most of my ideas for posts. Having just re-org’d the site, one such friend/visitor asked me why I don’t post movie reviews any more, when I obviously still go to movies all the time.
To answer that question, about a year ago it seems, I got a chance to watch Jamie Kennedy’s movie “Heckler” which is pretty much an quasi-documentary on the fact that the Internet has made it so easy for anyone with $3.00 per month (for web site hosting) to become a self-proclaimed “movie critic”.
While it may be extremely narcissistic of movie stars, it turns out a lot of them “google themselves” and actually read the words written by these unqualified jackasses. Some of the so-called reviews even attack movie stars on a very personal level, and while I tend to think they need to “suck it up or don’t read it”, saying that would be like telling *you* not to be affected by the most personal crisis in your own life. Easy to say, hard to do.
To that end, at some point after seeing that movie, I went back and read a couple of reviews I had written and realized that while I have what I think is a valid opinion of the movie, I too sometimes drifted dangerously close to personal attacks. I too tend to be an unqualified jackass, and while I don’t think I crossed any imaginary lines, the potential is there. So much that I wish I could apologize personally to Matthew Broderick for my review of “The Producers”.
I love the movies. All told, I probably go see about one a week on average. While I don’t hold movie stars up as demi-gods or anything, I respect the sometimes difficult job they do. As such, while I truly enjoy writing as well as movies and TV, I just don’t feel the need to trash them online any more. There are plenty of other idiots out there for that.
Did Jamie Kennedy’s movie have anything to do with that? Sure, but it didn’t change everything. It just helped me realize two very important aspects of the Internet lifestyle;
- Even though I don’t think so, thanks to Google, the world is watching,
- The Internet never forgets.
To the stars, directors, and entertainment companies, thanks for keeping me entertained. I wish sometimes you’d refund my money for crap movies (The Blair Witch Project comes to mind), but then again, I’ve learned that “crap” is subjective. Smelly and expensive to see in the theater, but subjective.
Will I ever write a movie review again? I’m sure I will at some point. There have been plenty of excellent movies out there in the last few years that I’ve thought about reviewing, but I just don’t have time any more like I used to. I may have also been getting burnt out a couple of years ago when the local theater was running $5.00 tickets and I saw (and reviewed) a couple of movies a week.
Who knows, but to quote Tony Stark from Iron Man 2:
My bond is with the people, and I will serve this great nation at the pleasure of myself. If there’s one thing I’ve proven it’s that you can count on me to pleasure myself.
Quoting the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
This planet has — or rather had — a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much all of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.
Killing off my friends..
Spent the morning cleaning up, or I should say “cleaning out” my Facebook “friends” list, which is somewhat akin to the digital equivalent of “spring cleaning”, something everyone should do occassionally.
When I started hanging out on Facebook — like the other 500 million of you — I got roped into playing their games. Somehow or another, that seems to attract people who add you as friends, though you’ve never met or conversed in any way. Most games use the “friends” list as a method of sub-viral marketing to get more people to play, increasing their profits.
Anyway, this morning, I wiped out over 100 people I’d never heard of from my “friends” list, but in my fervor for digital cleanliness, might have accidentally nicked a few legitimate friends. It’s hard to keep up sometimes, especially when women you know get married and change their names occasionally.
If you’re one of the affected, please feel free to jump back on board.
Chalk this up to a new Merit Badge.
12:35 am, 11/11/10. — I officially earn my unofficial merit badge for ‘coon hunting.
This little critter is the second in about five years to have broken in and laid havoc to my attic. She’s now resting — hopefully comfortably — in the cage in my now-sealed garage until I the morning. I don’t want to kill her, or have her put down by anyone, so I suppose a nice, leisurely drive into the country is warranted.
Just hope she’s the only one, and that now, I can fix my roof where she broke in.
This time, rather than paying some guy $400, all it took was a $19.95 trap from Harbor Freight, a couple of bowls of cat food, and a LOT of patience over the course of about a week.
Karma being what it is, the other $380 will probably have to go towards fixing up the hole she tore in the corner of the roof.
[UPDATE: I took her over to Brahan Springs Park and let her go into the woods. Feel-good moment for both of us I'm guessing]
The Dellrose, TN loop.
Today — being one of probably the last 75 degree days of the season, and me — with time on my hands, I decided to take the standard loop from Huntsville, AL, up through Fayetteville, TN, around 64 to Dellrose, TN, through Elkton, and on to Ardmore, TN where I picked up US-31 into Athens, AL. A Coke/gas break, and back to the house for me.
Days like this where I can get out on a little 120 mile loop and I’m in no hurry whatsoever are incredibly relaxing. It took me about 3 hours (stops included), and I went by my dad’s old farm in Dellrose where nothing ever changes it seems, rolling through some tight 45 degree turns, and enjoying myself the whole way.
Tunes on the radio, 50 to 55 mph, and 42 miles-per-gallon. Well worth the $8.00 worth of gas, and one more ride that I’ll probably do again in reverse, just for the heck of it.