Something in the air...

I make it a rule to not blog about my personal life but today I'm making an exception. It all started when i realized that Saturday was a bad date night pretty much all around. I was at a lame party, Brett was sick, Rosanna and Lonnie came home with horror stories....

It all started a few months back when I met this girl online.. I've come to believe that nothing good ever comes from stories that begin this way, but I'm too cheap to buy a girl a drink. Anyway this girl and I have somewhat of a connection. She even joked about wanting an H3 for Christmas, so I bought her the matchbox version, telling her it's a little small but gets better gas mileage.

So Saturday night I get to the party, oh it was at a bar so I had to run a tab... but considering I have spent many a Saturday night at a bar this wasn't too much of a stretch for me.

I get there and she comes up to me to greet me that was nice. We sit down and immediately she asks if I bring anyone. I told her that I invited Brett but he was sick. I started making small talk with the girls, and the guys. Not wanting to come off clingy, I start mingling with other people and had some fun conversations. I got the feeling that some people were loose associates but not really good friends. Many of them had full days and weren’t totally into being social, but I did my best being a master conversationalist.

The party broke up and I graciously said good-bye to everyone. Perfect timing as I had started getting text messages from Stefanie (not a typo, that’s how she spells her name). We agree to meet up for a drink near her house. I head back to the west side and arrive at the bar apparently just after a fight had spilled out of the front door.

Stefanie goes on to tell me how bad her date was. I bought her a couple drinks because she had to spend all her cash on dinner and the movie. It says something when you need a drink AFTER a date. After some mutual bitching we say our goodnights and head home.

The next night I head up to the Office (the bar not a place I do work) so I can tell Lonnie Happy birthday. It was Saturday but I was… well we all know where I was by now. To my surprise her sister Rosanna was working for her because she and her date for Saturday took Her out. Well Rosanna wasn’t too into the guy either… and he WAS clingy. But in the process they got Lonnie so drunk she was throwing up most of Sunday.
After some mutual bitching we say our goodnights and head home. (Cut and paste makes writing so east!)

Monday I do the gracious thing and email the girl from the party back thanking he for inviting me, telling her I had a good time… okay I did have a good time but she really wasn’t part of it.

Then I get a reply:

First of all, thank you for the car...that was really sweet and
thoughtful.

However, no I did not have a good time on
Saturday. I think I made it pretty clear to people that I didn't want
anyone to come alone because I didn't want to have to entertain anyone.
So, when 3 of my friends showed up alone, I was really pissed. It's great
that you are able to talk to people, but that annoyed me because I then felt
that you were bothering my friends. And, my cousin agreed to talk with you
for awhile so that I could get up and go talk to other people. I don't
want you to get the wrong idea about her. She's not interested in
you.

All in all, I wish the night hadn't happened. I was
incredibly uncomfortable with the entire situation. I guess it's my
fault for putting myself in that situation. You're a really nice guy, but
our personalities do not mesh well together.

I’m actually torn between telling her off and taking the higher road (so I guess I’ll just do it publicly on my blog).

The bottom line is I really don’t want anything to do with someone that would speak that way to another human being. Apparently her idea of a party is: bring someone you know, talk only to them, leave without speaking to other guests. Maybe she doesn’t get invited to many parties, but honestly, I can see why.

First reactions to the State of the Union Address

It can be said that George W. Bush is not the greatest speaker in the world but tonight you didn’t know that. The president seemed more confident and self-assured. His tone was strong and full of conviction. His words were, well, annunciated. Go figure.

Onto the substance of the speech.

The address began with complements to newly appointed Speaker Pelosi. The thought that occurred to me as he was praising the first woman speaker was, what a catfight would occur between Speaker Pelosi and President Hillary Clinton. The destruction of the country might just be worth seeing that play out!

Bush’s domestic agenda started with a plan to strengthen the already booming economy, “through enterprise not government”. The key point to me was that none of his domestic agenda called for increased spending or raising taxes. In fact his plan for providing private healthcare involves a tax cut. This is especially important to someone like me who is employed by a small business and doesn’t get the extensive health benefits a large corporation can afford.

Where he lost me was toward the end of his domestic energy plan. While I’m fine with nuclear energy and even ethanol to some extent, what I don’t get is reducing gasoline usage by 20% in ten years. Mostly because today I filled up my gas-guzzling SUV (okay it’s not that much of a guzzler but it does hold a decent amount of cargo) for a ridiculously low $1.83 per gallon. That’s the lowest gas price I can remember since well before Katrina. At these prices we can't afford to not use more gas!

The simple fact that gas prices have gone down shows that there is plenty of gas to go around. Decreasing the use of gasoline can only be done if there is an alternative that meets both our expanding economy’s need for increased fuel and that fuel works as well as gasoline. Reducing our decency on foreign energy in place of our own domestic supply would be my preferred alternative.

Onto the war. Without going into the detail of his increased troop initiative from last week, we got a laundry list of accomplishments from the democratization of Iraq. All good things, and he did lay out the danger of those things coming to an end without our forces there to protect Iraq from the preverbal wolves at the gate… every gate surrounding Iraq.

More on our enemy, by quoting Bin Ladin among other terrorists he did a good job at painting the picture of what we are facing. These men make the villains in James Bond films look like the care bears. “It is better to be dead than to be alive while the non believers share this world” is just one quote he used. And they say Ann Coulter is intolerant!

Finally the end of the speech was the part of agenda where we give away all our money to Africa because they have none.

Overall I predict a slight boost in Bush’s popularity, but it will be short-lived when the first casualties from the Iraqi troop increase start being shown on cable news. His confidence may stem from the fact that at this point popularity polls no longer matter. He is free to be himself and I think that’s who we saw tonight. For the fist time he laid out his agenda, which was not for bigger government but lower taxes and free enterprise incentives.

Where was this president for the past 6 years?

Reviews that should be posted elsewhere

Because my new side gig USA Voice.org is experienceing technical difficulties I have decided to repost the last 2 reviews that have gone unread at my trusty old blog.

Review 1: 24, season 6

24 Season 6 off to an explosive start.

Unless you have been living under a rock, the hit series 24 has been going on for five years with all of your friends, as well as certain political and sports talk show hosts telling you how great it is. Season six promises to be as good, or better than its previous seasons.

Star Kiefer Sutherland plays Jack Bauer, federal agent. Getting his orders directly from the president he sets out to quietly and covertly stop terrorists. Season six opens up with Jack being freed from twenty months in a Chinese prison. Obviously tortured and needing a Shave, Bauer is quickly sent into action as a terrorist in Los Angeles wants Jack’s life in exchange for information that could lead to the end of a series of terrorist attacks across US cities.

Jack Bauer is simply the American answer to James Bond. Rarely wearing a suit and tie, Bauer is seen yelling, chasing after bad guys and shooting to kill just a little more often. Oh, and Jack has a wife and daughter, so no affairs with sexy foreign spies.

24 offers a unique perspective on the serialized drama, with each episode happening in real time. Each one-hour episode tracks the events of that hour, with twenty-four episodes making up a season. Aiding in the storytelling is often a split-screen view showing simultaneous views of action in different settings.

Despite it’s praise from noted political figures such as Senator John McCain (R- Arizona) and conservative radio mainstay Rush Limbaugh, the show is not overtly political. Characters such as President Palmer are not given party affiliations, leaving you free to see your own political views in the character depending on their role as a protagonist or antagonist. Other shows that do promote a political agenda do so by taking an extreme side, while 24 sets up a character to be a political extremist but brings them back to a more realistic level rather quickly.

Despite its extreme praise from the right you don’t need to be a registered Republican to enjoy the show. Though heavy praise comes to this show from the political right, it is simply enjoyable as the most action-packed show on television. If you want to get into the politics of 24 the show depicts the war on terror the way we hope it won’t be. The terrorists are portrayed as Middle-Eastern militants trying to execute another 9/11 every week. Other TV shows and some movies dealing with the same subjects do their best to disassociate Islamic organizations with terrorism. 24 dares to go there and it seems to be a formula that works.

The first episode of the season is a great jumping-on point for new fans, and if you’re upset that you’ve missed the beginning of this season, fear not. Fox has released the season premier on DVD, containing the first four episodes of this season, just in time for you to catch up by Monday night.

Review 2: The Naked Trucker and T-Bone Show

Part skit comedy, part sitcom, all bad: The Naked Trucker and T-Bone Show

Tonight Comedy Central premiered The Naked Trucker and T-Bone Show. We’re eight minutes into the first episode and I’m already panning it.

Not since Ugly Betty Has a show’s title been a deterrent to viewers. But since Ugly Betty won a Golden Globe I suppose the big shots at Comedy Central decided to green light this monstrosity.
The show starts out with what appears to be two men at a diner discussing the literary value of a diner menu versus a John Steinbeck novel. One man appears to be suffering either a learning disability or severe brain damage. The other is a naked trucker who seems articulate and is reading The Grapes of Wrath. This might be funny in a Seinfield-like way if the T-Bone (the one with the severe brain damage) did not sound like his tongue was entirely too large for his mouth.

The show continues to a studio with a live audience. The duo introduces video segments through failed attempts at humor as it is obvious they did not have enough writing talent to write a sufficient plot device to link the disjointed video segments together.

One nearly high point, well as close as this show will have to one, was a guest starring appearance by Will Ferrell. Ferrell plays a hitchhiker who challenges the truck to a race in a segment called “Hitchhiker Of The Week”. Ferrell capable of funny and almost is, but T-Bone’s mush mouth and Ferrell’s rambling make me feel even more sorry for the trucker, beyond the fact that he’s naked and sitting on a leather truck seat on what appears to be a warm day.

Much like David Spade’s The Showbiz Show, Too Late with Adam Corolla, and the mortality of South Park’s Kenny, don’t expect this show to last very long.

The blog post one year in the making

A new car, new job and the Steelers won the Superbowl. 2006 was a pretty good year overall.

It all started on January 1, as every year does. The Steelers had clenched a 6th seed in the NFL playoffs, and worked their way to the big game doing the unthinkable, winning three games on the road. Sometimes not only playing the opponents but the opponent’s fans’ emotions, Refs and thin air.

And yes, I did grow a beard to match Big Ben.

Sometime in that final week of January I ventured to my local Saturn dealership to look at new vehicles. With interest rates on the rise I settled on a Black 2006 Saturn VUE. However with the Superbowl only days away I had apprehension about trading in my native Pittsburgh car, so I told the guys at the dealership that I would not drive off the lot without my brand new Pittsburgh Steelers License Plate holder attached.

They even played the Steelers fight song for me as I got in the car.

Then came the Superbowl. If you haven’t noticed I’m a bit of a fan. So much so I DVR every game, and play on a delay with the sound muted and listening to the Sirius Satellite Radio broadcast of the game featuring the Steelers announcers. Now this made watching the Superbowl interesting. Wanting to see the commercials we would switch audio feeds on my TV to hear the best part of the game, the commercials. The NFL really needs to get rid of that Superbowl bye week and put the game back in January where it belongs!

The team in Black and Gold won and I broke the dress code by wearing my Hines Ward jersey to work on Monday. A coworker asked, “If they lost would you have been unbearable today?” I said, “No, I’m more unbearable because they did win!”

In April I said goodbye to my work home of more than five years. It was time to move on and I’m glad I did. I left Cardinal Health for Xcelerate Media. It’s a small e-learning company. How small? We’re located above a Starbucks in Dublin.

It’s almost a complete 180 from corporate America. I show up in Jeans, or shorts, sandals… well whatever I’m comfortable in. The people I work with are great. And Stephen Correll has nothing on our office.

We pass the football around the big room all the developers work in. We developed a random number generator with a list of restaurants attached to the numbers just so we can decide where to go to lunch. This is negated by the fact that we go to Donato’s about three times a week.

We have a Consultant who comes into our office every so often, and is compiling a list of things we do that would get him fired at his office. I guess calling out “not it!” when the phone rings is frowned upon elsewhere.

There was one black mark on the year, and that was the passing of Grandma. She was a fighter a feisty one and stuck around longer than we expected. But she is missed. But not necessarily at 7am on my birthday when she liked to call me to remind me what day it is.

Finally at the end of the year I gave into my friend Kelly’s request to write movie reviews professionally. Yes, you heard me right, I am now officially a professional movie critic. She is an editor with the online newspaper USAvoice.org. She said that since I’m already writing reviews I should do it for them and get paid. So there may not be as many on my blog, but there will be more reviews in the paper.
Well that’s the blog post that took a year to write, well only about a half hour in reality. But you get the picture. 2007 looks to be even better, of course it would be depressing if I didn’t say that. Who wants to look forward to depressing stuff anyway?See you in the New Year!

ROCKY! ROCKY!

Invariably in a list of great sports films you will see the word “Rocky” appear at least once. Often times more often than that, and never with the Roman numeral “V” after it. Come to think of it, repeat after me: “Rocky V does not exist… Rocky V does not exist…”

Now that we have that out of the way we can move on to the final (Sly’s words) installment in the Rocky series, “Rocky Balboa”

This summer when I saw the first preview for this film my gut reaction was, “he has to loose this one.”

And that is addressed in the exposition of the film. If you’ve been living under a rock or been in US custody for being an evil dictator in the Middle East (at which point you’ve already been executed) you know that the premise for this movie is that a sports show pits Rocky Balboa against the current champion in a virtual boxing match in which Balboa wins. This garners interest in the boxing world and a fight is set up.

But even before we get into this plotline of the film, we get a lot of Rocky visiting the old neighborhood, and replaying in his mind, and ours, the classic scenes from the first two movies. On top of that, quite a bit of time at Adrian’s grave.

One of the more interesting retrospectives lands Rocky in his old neighborhood bar. This leads to the reintroduction of one of the most classic characters in the Rocky series, “Little Maria”. Just like he did when he was a nobody club fighter he offers somewhat unsolicited advice, to make her life just a little better. This time she actually takes it.

The things that make Rocky such an endearing character in American Cinema are still there: his dumb wit, his tolerance for Pauley, and his everlasting love for his late wife, Adrian.

In fact it is in this exposition that makes this film as good as all the critics say it is. The movie’s central theme is that just because someone is older doesn’t mean they’re useless. The theme is driven home by writer/director Sylvester Stallone through dialogue and visuals true to the Rocky genre. Or to sum it up as Toby Keith said, “I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.”

The movie is very non-Hollywood in several ways. As a function of our youth-oriented culture nobody gives Rocky a snowball’s chance against champion Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver). But Rocky is a fighter and a fighter must fight. Even if he is “too old” in the eyes of, well, everyone.

Much like you believed a club fighter could go the distance against the champ thirty years ago, this time you believe a sixty-five-year-old man can get into a boxing ring.

Now I’ve spent a good deal praising the first two-thirds of this movie, and that brings us to the fight scene. It is the fight scene that keeps this movie from being on a par with the first two (and best two) films in the series.

From the opening bell it feels almost like the fight scene from thirty years ago. Rocky, the underdog, gets outboxed hands down in the first round. From there I’ll avoid the spoilers, but the fight could have been better.
That being said, finally the Rocky story has an ending fitting its great legacy.

A Movie For Book People

First off, credit to someone in Hollywood for finally having an original idea. After years of remakes, franchise sequels and film versions stuff we’ve seen in other mediums we finally have something that is about as original a concept as there has been in recent years.

I’m talking about “Stranger Than Fiction” the latest offering from the current golden boy Saturday Night Live Alum Will Ferrell. Now before you go on expecting another Elf or Ron Burgundy type performance I’m going to warn you upfront: Will Ferrell underplays his role. He underplays it so much in fact he accepts the fact that he is not the best actor in the film. By my count he is solidly in the bottom two.

But that’s where this movie separates itself from other Will Ferrell movies. Instead of playing someone with more mouth than brains here we see Ferrell as Harold Crick, IRS agent and watch wearer. That’s about the extent of his character at the start of this film.
A humdrum character who goes through an extraordinary series of events in a short period of time. The first of which is hearing a voice narrate his life.

That narrator is the voice of Emma Thompson and she’s not just narrating the movie, she’s the voice of author Kay Eiffel who is writing the book in which Crick is the main character.

Finally convinced he is not crazy and actually living in a story he seeks out literature Professor Jules Hilbert played by Dustin Hoffman, who is the best actor in the movie and steals every scene he is in.

As it turns out Eiffel’s literary style is such that she kills off the main character in all of her stories and Crick is her next victim. This has Crick quite upset.

Rounding out the cast is Queen Latifah, the author’s assistant sent by the publisher to get Kay off her writer’s block. I’ve said it before and I must stress the point. Rappers don’t make bad movies. And the Queen continues that tradition.

Finally we have Crick’s love interest. Played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. A college dropout baker hippy wannabe who Crick finds himself auditing. Can you guess what happens next? I’ll give you a hint, It’s not Will Ferrell sleeping with Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah or Dustin Hoffman!

You just won’t understand the complexity of this movie unless you read good books. Not just novels you find in the grocery store line, but really good books by people whose names get used in sentences with words like “literature” and “genius”. Tom Wolfe comes to mind, as does John Updike. People whose stories show real human growth and where seemingly insignificant things become the defining factors in the characters’ lives.

If you’ve read these kinds of books you know what I’m talking about, and you’ll get what this movie is about. You see this movie is not so much about the principle character Harold Crick, but really about the book Kay Eiffel is writing.

Those great books you’ve read, this is the story about how those great authors come up with those books.

If it’s possible for a movie to make you appreciate books this is the best attempt to do so. Ferrell’s performance is passable because he under acts for once in his career. His casing in the main role was simply to sell tickets, but it is by allowing the rest of the cast to lift up his performance that makes the movie better than the sum of it’s parts.

The movie is PG-13 and deservedly so for sexual situations and a wholly unnecessary f-bomb. But the appeal is to more mature audiences anyway. I doubt anyone who has yet to write an English term paper would be able to hold their attention on the screen… or is that what the sex scenes were for?

A Night at the Office

Wednesday night I decided it was time to go get a beer so I wanted to look for a bar I'd heard about called "The Office"

Great name, by the way.

"Honey, I'm going to the office!" 6 hours later you come home plastered. "I really love my job!"

Well it's a nice place. Brand new and it looks like a bar you'd see on CSI Miami. The bar itself was pretty packed so I squeezed in next to cute girl with freckles and a nose ring and ordered my Miller Lite.

"high five." The cute girl with the freckles and the nose ring said while holding up her hand. Oh, and she was pretty drunk too.

SoI high-fived her, but she only made contact with half of my hand.

"You missed," I said.

"Have you seen Borat?"

"No I haven't."

"He does that... High five!"

This time playing on her inebriation I missed her hand on purpose.

"You Missed again."

She started laughing not sure if missing was her fault or mine.

We tried high fiving a few more times and I became like Lucy to her Charlie Brown always snatching the football away just before Charlie can kick it.

Finally I missed on purpose and tapped her on the forehead. She laughed flurtatiously then introduced me to her boyfriend.

Stem Cell Tic-Tac-Toe

People who think Christians are all of one mindset, reading the Bible instead of the newspaper, watching NASCARR and finding more Muslim countries to invade.

People who think that have obviously never set foot inside a church. Like any demographic segment there are as diverse a set of opinions as you might have at your average beat M*ch*g*n party.

That being said I walked into a conversation at church Sunday on the topic of Stem Cell research. Now I know liberals like to think Christians never put down the bible and are otherwise uninformed, but in reality it’s liberals who rarely read past the headlines and learn the facts about stem cell research.

I’m going to base the rest of this blog post on these three facts:

1. Embryonic stem cell research is legal (just not funded by the federal government)
2. Embryonic stem cell research has yielded ZERO treatments
3. Adult stem cell research has yielded over seventy treatments

The conversation began somewhere around the point that the government should permit stem cell research.

Of course I had an opinion and said that the government does permit it, they’re just not funding it. Private industry has done plenty of research as well but because there are no results it has become a money hole and thus they have focused efforts on adult stem cell research where the rewards are abundant.

The reply was that the government should fund it because there are so many cures that could come from stem cell research.

At this time I defined the differences between adult and embryonic stem cells. Of course embryonic stem cells only come from aborted fetuses.

That’s when I was presented with the great myth: embryonic stem cells are untyped and can be made to become any kind of cell.

Well that’s a great theory, but it has yet to be proven in practice, whereas adult stem cells are providing over seventy cures for varying diseases.

Now I rarely get political at church, but I had to play my pro-life card here. You do realize that the only way to get embryonic stem cells is from aborted fetuses? And the real political motivation behind the stem cell issue is to legitimize the practice of abortion.

“Well, what else are you going to do with an aborted fetus?”

Sometimes you just aren’t prepared to react. This coming from someone who lives her faith, and is even in seminary with the hopes of becoming a pastor.

If I may take a take a page from Ann Coulter, the church of liberalism isn’t so much without God, just trying to become him.

But you don’t have to take my word on the miracles of adult stem cells, here are two articles with the details on everything I’ve said above.

Enjoy.

Using The Body's Own Stem Cells To Grow New Arteries

Now, vision possible with [adult] stem cells

Thursday night breakdown

6:00 walk over to the Dublin Village tavern for $3 burger night with Buddy.
6:45 Karrie, Laci and Matt show up.
7:15 Bryce joins the party
8:00 round of shots
8:20 Bob and his brother join in.
10:00 we move the party to Chubbys
12:20 Bryce bets me that I won't make an 8:00 AM conference call
12:30 Finally get home
7:15 Wake up
8:00 AM conference call and I am there, with bryce

Mr. Pimpmobile: Gone But Not Forgotten

Related posts: Mr. Pimpmobile: Part 1, Part 2


I think we’ve all met this certain kind of individual. The type that after a while you wonder how they get their shoes tied in the morning. You wonder how they hold a job or why they’re allowed out of the house without wearing a helmet.

Mr. Pimpmobile is one of these people.

It’s been about a year since I’ve seen my nemesis, though I happen to see the Pimpmobile at Kroger one day last winter. But apparently Mr. Pimpmobile misses me.

Now It’s been a few years sine I’ve moved. But as I recall I pretty much had the new address memorized within a few days, and within a year, I was getting all my junk mail at my new address.

Well yesterday afternoon as I was chillin’ with some Seinfeld reruns after work, there is a knock on my door. My hippy dippy neighbor lady said that a package was delivered during the day and she signed for it.

Not expecting anything I thanked her for it and started to open it. That’s when I saw the addressee. It was addressed to MR. PIMPMOBILE!!! Ladies and gentlemen, a year after moving he’s still giving out his old address!

Now at this point I ceased opening up the package because even though I have no idea what’s in the box I’m very sure it’s not something I would want.

Who are you calling a Hallo-weenie?

Laundry basket: $2.49



Rope for suspenders: $1.99



Safety pins: $1.19



Winning the prize for most original costume: PRICELESS!

TV

Is it just me or is TV better these days? Yes I know that’s a silly question; how could I get any better?

About a year ago I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that stated “Television has traditionally been a writer’s medium and Movies a medium for Directors.” The article went on to describe that the decreased cost of visual effects due to the use of computer imagery has put many TV shows on a par with our favorite Hollywood Blockbusters.

The article went on to site shows like Smallville and CSI as being among the most popular and using the new digital media technologies to tell their story.

This, combined with the fact that Hollywood most movies are remakes these days shows that these effects are nothing without good writing when it comes to movies.

And the timeliness of this post has everything to do with tonight’s premier of Lost. So as a tribute to the most important season premier of the fall, here is my review of highlights of this season so far.

Sunday Night Football
NBC Sundays 8:00
Football returns to NBC with host Bob Costas, and his team of pundits, Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, Sterling Sharpe Peter King and Chris Collinsworth host a high quality, excellently polished football show. Madden and Michaels do the play by play during the game which means you only actually have to listen to Chris Collinsworth during half time. That when you should actually be in the kitchen opening another beer anyway!

Till Death
Fox Plugging all holes in the weekly lineup
Brad Garrett only a year removed from “Raymond” is now leading a series as the disillusioned married man mentoring a newlywed neighbor. There you go; the basis for every episode. I probably wouldn’t have mentioned this show other than the fact that Fox airs this show about 3 times a week just to get you to know that “we got the Raymond’s brother!”

Heroes
NBC Monday’s 9:00
On the surface, it’s X-Men. And they’re up front about it. They even make references to X-men comics and other science-fiction works. However a good idea is a good idea, and when you add good writing and acting into it you have a very intriguing story and characters you can empathize with. Unlike last season’s Surface NBC seems very intent on promoting this show to success. The show’s Jump-the-shark moment could come if the story-within-a-story plot device comes off as cheesy. So far, so good.


Jericho
CBS Wedyesdays 8:00
Last season when the networks decided to fling as much science fiction at us as possible due to the success of Lost in 2004 we got a lot of eye candy that didn’t stick around for the whole season. The problem with these shows was that they focused wholly on the science fiction element and not on the gripping human drama that is the heart of Lost. Jericho finds that formula and correctly implements it. Jericho is a small Kansas town that is cut off from the rest of the world when a mushroom cloud is seen in the distance over Denver. With no communication and resources limited, the townspeople must work together to survive post nuclear America. It really is Lost in the Midwest fully taking advantage of an ensemble cast to portray gripping drama. Jumping-the-shark could come when they run out of nuclear-bomb related conflicts. Then again I never thought being stranded on an island without Maryanne and Ginger would never last 3 years!

The other shows premiering this fall:
Ugly Betty: the title just doesn’t appeal
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: I don’t watch shows with Alec Baldwin
30 Rock: This is the show with Alec Baldwin? Aside from the Baldwin factor I really can’t tell the difference.
Friday Night Lights: Why is this on Tuesdays?
Smith: The most common name for a TV show.
Daybreak, Kidnapped, Standoff, Vanished, Runaway: All basically the same show.

Where Somebody Occasionally Might Recall Your Face But Is Drawing A Blank On The Name

The Backstreet Pub is closed!

I recall the day I first saw my condo and was standing on the front porch with my realtor pointing at the sign in the back of the strip mall across the street and saying, “I drink there!”

Yes, walking distance from a place that has Miller Lite on tap is a selling point in my book!

But last weekend Brett and I were having a couple beers and he pointed out to me that the booths up against the window were gone and that one of the plasma TVs was removed.

Me being an optimist asked the bartender on duty why all the changes. Her line was that they were having the carpet cleaned. That sounded reasonable enough. However on Wednesday Brett emailed me to tell me it had closed.

So now I am a man without a home.

Thursday night I walked into the Gooseneck Tavern in Powell. Immediately Kristy, the lovely bartender on duty, knew why I was there.

Friday, I tried Chubbys… unfortunately it’s a bar run like a resturant, so at 1:00. That’s about the time I still had 5 songs left on the jukebox.

The Backstreet used to let me stay at least until the jukebox ran out.

I ran into Jason at Spoonz… That was the first bar I knew about when I moved to Columbus. I also haven’t closed that place down in quite some time. He told me that he and some mutual friends go to The Hard Road Café for the Buckeye games. So Saturday after the Buckeyes beat Iowa 35-21 I traveled to Hard Road for a beer, or three.

Not everybody knew my name there, but at least a few familiar faces, cold beer and I got to listen to the worlds worst rendition of “Feed My Frankenstein”. Saturday night is Karaoke night at the Hard Road… That’s why Saturdays I usually went to the Backstreet.

I need a beer!

In The News

It's been a while but here it comes again...

The Adventures of Andy Presents:
IN THE NEWS

PETA vs Six Flags over Roach promotion

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/lifestyles/
76871,4_5_JO29_BUGS_S2.article

People for Ethical Treatment of Animals is calling on Six Flags Great America to
cancel a live cockroach-eating contest planned for next month's Fright
Fest.

Six Flags officials announced this week that visitors to
Fright Fest 2006 will be offered a chance to eat a live Madagascar hissing
cockroach, a three-inch version of the Blattodea order that is native to the
island of Madagascar, but raised on farms for use as pets and feed.

Okay PETA, since cockroaches are members of the Insect Kingdom and not the Animal Kingdom this one is out of your jurisdiction. Thanks for playing, we have some lovely parting gifts for you.

Just for comparison, a Madagascar hissing cockroach can grow to about the size of a Whitecastle slider…. And is only about half as gross.

My Two Dads

http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/two-men-and-a-baby-battle/2006/09/28/1159337281168.html

New York: A former boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith says he is the father of
the former Playboy playmate's newborn daughter - and he is seeking a DNA test to
prove it.
In an interview on Us magazine's website, Larry Birkhead, a
photographer, described as laughable claims by Smith's lawyer, Howard Stern,
that he was the father of Dannie Ray Hope, born in the Bahamas on September
7.

"I have asked for a DNA test," Mr Birkhead said. He was confident of the
result. "I know I am the father of the child. I look forward to having a
relationship with my new daughter."

I smell a sitcom!!!

HP chair deflects blame in spy saga

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20498924-36375,00.html

The role played by Mark Hurd and his assistants in the Hewlett-Packard
boardroom spying scandal moved further into the spotlight on Thursday as
Patricia Dunn, HP's ousted chairman, laid blame for the fiasco with the
computer-maker's management team.

Ms Dunn's denial of responsibility for the scandal came as Ann Baskins,
HP's general counsel, became the closest HP official to chief executive Mr Hurd
to resign as a result of the controversy.

See and this whole time you were worried about Bill Gates and the CIA…
it was HP the whole time.

You can send your apologies to:
Apologies: C/O Adventures Of Andy
Dublin, Ohio 43016

That’s the news, I hope it was as good for you as it was for me!

A Long Overdue Review of Pirates of the Caribbean 2

One of Disney’s biggest surprise hits of recent memory has been Pirates of the Caribbean. It is simply a swashbuckling tale of pirates, ghosts and the politics and romance of the British colonies.

Admittedly I have only seen the first movie once. It was shortly after the DVD release. Given the hype surrounding the sequel I did not have a chance to review the source material before seeing part 2.

However that did not take away from my enjoyment of part 2. And that’s as much as you need to know going into this movie. It is a pure joyride.



Continuing where the first film left off Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is back in command of his ship, while Norrington (Jack Davenport) has Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) in custody and bargains with them to steal Jack’s magic compass so he might find a lost treasure.

Got all that? Okay cause that’s only the first half of the plot.

We soon find out that Jack Sparrow is on borrowed time and owes a debit to the mythic and visually stunning Davey Jones (Bill Nighy).

Throw in a love triangle between Bloom, Knightley and Depp and you find yourself in what boils down to the Star Wars of the high seas.

There are however two disappointing aspects to this movie. First it’s rated PG-13 for some intense images that could upset younger audience members. For older fans yes this is the Star Wars of the high seas. However, instead of bad guys in white plastic armor and an onyx-caped villain we have some rather gruesome half sea creature half human evildoers.

Continuing with the adult themes is the innuendo Depp creates when interacting with Knightley, as well as his drinking. Not quite the virtouous Luke Skywalker, and Han Solo was still a better roll model.

The second is the ending… it’s not. With Pirates 3 due in 2007 we are left with a cliffhanger that feels not so much like an ending to this movie, but the beginning of the third act. It just leaves you with that unfinished feeling when you leave the theatre.

The movie is paced well, always something visually appealing on the screen (but what’s not visual appealing about the Caribbean or Keira Knightley?). The humor is delivered with spot-on timing as well as believable and engaging dialogue. Overall the move does what the first does, but with a bigger effects budget and another edition due in a year. Like most of Disney’s live-action movies as of late this is a good one, but you may want to leave the sensitive younger kids at home.

P.S. Jack Sparrow runs like a girl!

The Parable of Han Solo

This week I was out buying a video game and looking at DVD’s when I saw the Original Star Wars trilogy on DVD. Now this is the original unedited versions that are without the 1997 special features that some fans believe ruined the saga.

One of the most notable changes is that in the Special Editions Greedo shoots at Han Solo first in the classic bar scene.

In the updated version Ben Kenobi and Luke Skywalker have just agreed to book passage on Han’s ship the Millennium Falcon. Once Han agrees he sends Chewbacca to ready the ship. With Han alone Greedo, a bounty hunter, corners Solo at gunpoint and fires a warning shot above his shoulder before Han fires back killing Greedo where he sat.

The original vision shows depicts Han unholstering his weapon below the table and before Greedo is aware that there is a weapon pointed at him he is dead.

All movies should be made like this! Not the updated PC version that makes many true Star Wars fans want to puke but the way that hits you in your gut as great movie making? Why because it’s believable!

And this is how the war on terror should be fought.

We know the terrorists want us dead. Like Greedo they’re pointing guns in our preverbal faces. Liberals in our country would like to think that the enemy would fire a non-hazardous warning shot before we should be allowed to fire a deadly counter strike. However they forget that their last “warning shot” cost 3000 lives, 4 airplanes and my favorite 2 buildings in New York City!

Back in 1977 Han Solo got it right.

9/11

We're still here!

Women

Comments from Dustin on Women and how they view themselves:

I was talking with a co-worker (female) on the subject of weight loss and/or self-image for females. Pretty gutsy, huh? Well, she made a comment that girls always are very sensitve about weight because of how guys expect or want them to look.

I told her that was false. I said that girls watch their figure and try to lose weight to impress OTHER WOMEN, not guys. I went on to say that women think guys care a lot about women's weight and stuff, but we guys really don't care that much on the average. When she asked me why guys talk about really hot women and want to approach them because they were thin, I responded by saying that guys do that to impress OTHER GUYS.

I went on to say that women shouldn't worry about weight and if they would just eat and exercise moderately their body will find it's ideal weight and they will be healthier than being too thin for what they are meant to.

Here is what I did not say. Basically, all that worry is a waste of time and causes them to be bitchy. Guys don't like bitchy women. We guys would certainly put up with an extra (at least) 10 lbs. if the women would all be happy. We don't like mean stick women, we like happy and healthy women!

Basically what he's saying is we don't need you to be an anorexic bitch... we just need you to not be a bitch!

A Reality Show That Brings Out the Best in People?

I don’t review TV that much and I assign myself the blanket title of “not a fan of reality shows” however I have found one case where I can enjoy such a premise.

“Who Wants To be A Superhero” Has been airing on the SciFi channel this summer. It takes 11 contestants who dress up in brightly-colored spandex and must prove themselves to that guru of all things comicdom, Stan Lee.

Now I must of course I must criticze the producers for not including the ultimate superhero in their competition... ME!!!

What sets this show apart from every other reality show in existence is that there is no backstabbing, no double-crossing and no manipulation of others to get ahead. Why?

BECAUSE THAT’S NOT WHAT SUPERHEROS DO!!!

All throughout this “competition” (it’s a reality show, the NFL is competition, this is semi-scripted roll playing on TV) the contestants have been asked to perform various acts that a superhero might face in everyday life. Many of the challenges were simple and rather indicative of the show’s low budget, but those who perform admirably are rewarded, and those who do not are asked to “turn in our costume”

This is a stark contrast to the Survivors and Apprentices of the reality world. There it is exposing weakness and beating down the competitors for selfish gain that makes for winners on those shows.

What Stan Lee has done here is influenced our reality show participants to support each other and are actually sad when someone is asked to leave.

The final episode airs this Thursday and will decide who will win between "Feedback" a computer nerd turned superhero, and "Fat Mamma" a heavyset black lady who touts the banner fo self esteem and punishes bullies.

It’s cheesy, it’s silly but it’s also wholesome and uplifting family viewing. And the winner get’s their character turned into a Darkhorse Comic series.

Fan mail

I love reader comments. The best is when someone takes the time to email me.

Yesterday I recieved the following regarding my "Planetism in our Solar System" post:

Hello,

I just wanted to let you know, that I will possibly be using your
post "Planetism in Our Own Solar System" as an example of an argument in a
critical reasoning class. Your blog will be cited, but I thought I'd let
you know.

-J

p.s. - I for one agree, this planetism must stop!

To which I replied:

J, If I'm getting that kind of recognition, I think I'll go back and
double check my spelling! ;-)

Feel free to use whatever crazy ideas I post.

andy!

To which he replied:

Andy,

I've never seen your blog until today, but I grab random blogs to use for
this course. I already corrected a couple spelling errors, but I'll check
back periodically for more arguments.

-J

A weblebrety's work is never done!