Lars....Bro Code....and Barak vs UNC...

As Kelly pointed out, I changed the top banner on the site, hope it looks ok. I also added in the sidebar something called 'Babel Fish'. If any of you have seen Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy you should recognize what that is, and know right away what it does. If you select one of the flags in this widget, you will get a translation of the site according to which flag you choose.

I also added a link of two, one being Barney's Blog from one of my favorite TV shows on Monday's. 'How I Met Your Mother', while I like the entire show, Neil Patrick Harris (yes I know he came out of the closet) is a highlight of the series. His character, Barney is a television classic. Here is a short clip from Monday's episode, which revolved around the 'Bro Code'.



Our friend Kelly also said I didn't post Monday, which I did! I also installed a new application on my smartphone which allows me to post an entry while on the road. Check the various sidebar links to find yesterday's post. A little while ago I changed the default layout here to only show the last 2 posts on the main page. Should I increase the amount? I might create a new test blog to try out some new layout designs if I can remember my HTML, it's been awhile since I tried hand coding anything.

In a Tim Allen tooltime grunt...I bought a new 12" Compound Mitre Saw last night! It was on sale, and I have always wanted one. A few years ago, I enjoyed messing with some carpentry on weekends. Maybe it's a gene I inherited from my Grandpa (mom's side) who was a cabinet maker for a living. Not that I'm any good, but I have fun trying. Maybe this summer I'll try a few projects and post my results.

Before we start the single review for today's post, check out President Hopeful Barak Obama blowing off some steam with my boys.



Yep, that's Barak trying to keep up with the Tarheels a few days ago.

Lars and the Real Girl
Trailer
IMDB.com

4 out of 5
Ryan Gosling ... Lars Lindstrom
Emily Mortimer ... Karin Lindstrom
Paul Schneider ... Gus Lindstrom
Kelli Garner ... Margo
Patricia Clarkson ... Dagmar


I am becoming a Ryan Gosling fan. I like how he is picking some really interesting character's/movies to work on. I would think he has a pretty good choice for projects right now.

This movie is about Ryan's character Lars, who is very uncomfortable in social situations, being touched at all, and almost a hermit. (Sound like anyone you know?) He lives in the garage of his childhood home, which he and his brother now own, the house and garage that is. Their father had passed a few years prior to the when the movie takes place, and their mother passed away during childbirth of Lars. Needless to say it caused Lars to have some issues. His brother is married, and expecting their first child, when his wife decides she wants to help Lars.
They are surprised a few weeks later, when he introduces them to Bianca, his new girlfriend he met online. Problem is, Bianca is a love/sex doll, not the inflatable kind, but the silicone realistic mannequin looking ones.

At first they have no idea what to do, or how to react, so they hatch a plan to take Bianca to see the doctor (also a shrink) since she is tired from travelling all the way from South America to be with Lars! The doctor tells Lars she will need a series of treatments, to fool him into coming in once a week to talk to the doctor while Bianca rests after her medicine is administered.

The initial diagnosis is that Bianca is a delusion, and they should go along with Lars thinking she is real, so the whole town gets on board treating Bianca like she is real, for the benefit of Lars who they all love.

I recommend watching this one.

That's it for today,

ciao!

testing!!

okie dokie....this is a test post from my cellphone!

dont forget to read the earlier post withe the reviews below

Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile

Running behind..

I feel like I am running behind this morning. Maybe because I spent almost the entire day over at my parents Saturday. Then I ran home, showered, let the dogs out, and practically turned right around to head to my sister's house.

I got to my folks around 10am Saturday morning, and was mowing their yard by 10:15. The ground was still pretty wet in a few spots, and I actually got stuck a couple times. After spinning the tires on the Z-Track (one of those 0 radius mowers) my Dad told me to just go around the really bogged down sections of the yard. I stopped at noon for a quick lunch, had to go refill the gas tank for the tractors, and was back mowing again. I finished around 4pm. I know I can do the whole yard in less time, but if you count the lunch, gas station run, and the fact I had to go really slow in some areas or tear the grass up I wasn't surprised how long it took.

After the trip home, a shower, and letting the dogs out, next up was my sister's. Victor (my brother-in-law had asked me to take a look at his parent's computer because it was not booting up for them. So I messed around with that for a bit, had a great dinner, was bitten by one of her dogs, got her wireless modem working on her laptop, and installed a windows XP simulator on Victor's PSP. (playstation portable). On the way home I had to stop at Target to get deodorant, or Sunday would have been a smelly day, and didn't pull into my garage until almost 10pm.

Sunday, I did a little bit of laundry, tried to do some cleaning, and got all the way to the letter 'S' on the iPod fix still in progress. I feel like I wasted the day, and wish it could have been a 3 day weekend.

I did start watching the "John Adams" HBO mini-series. There were 7 episodes and I DvR'd them. So far I only watched the first two, but I'm liking it. I did watch 'Dan in Real Life' Sunday as well.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Trailer
IMDB.com

4 out of 5
Brad Pitt ... Jesse James
Casey Affleck ... Robert Ford
Sam Rockwell ... Charley Ford
Paul Schneider ... Dick Liddil

Have to mention the director, simply because of his cool name.
Director: Andrew Dominik

Be warned, this is not your typical wild west movie, with gunfights! The movie is based on a novel by Ron Hansen, and feels like a narrative in certain sections (maybe because it is). The movie takes place after the final James Gang robbery, and really deals with Jesse James paranoia and his 'retirement'. Enter the Ford brothers and a few other characters involved in that last robbery. One thing I really enjoyed in this movie was the camera/cinematography. The way certain scenes were shot gave them an eerie surreal feel, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

We all know the story of Jesse's final moments and the only reason I didn't rate this a 5 was simple, and not really the movie's fault. I recently watched a documentary of Jesse James, and the part I really enjoyed during that, was the conspiracies around his death. There are legends that he faked his death, stories about buried gold, and secret confederate societies. I wish the movie could have gone into some of those, but leaving it out, did not ruin the movie.

I recommend this one.



Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Trailer
IMDB.com

3 out of 5
Philip Seymour Hoffman Andrew 'Andy' Hanson
Ethan Hawke ... Henry 'Hank' Hanson
Albert Finney ... Charles Hanson
Marisa Tomei ... Gina Hanson
Rosemary Harris ... Nanette Hanson









The movie starts with a famous quote, which it's title is taken from. "may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead"


Umm, hello Marisa. This movie almost got bumped into the 6 out of 5 range for this little surprise. While I was not happy with her character being an unfaithful wife. Head's up, she has a couple of nude scenes. I was completely shocked to see her do that.

This was kind of an odd movie, they would show a scene, then flashback for one of the main characters days before that scene happened. Philip and Ethan are two brothers, both having financial problems. The older brother (Philip) hatches a plan for them to rob a small jewelery store. Problems occur when Ethan brings an accomplice and shots are fired, placing their mother in the emergency room.

I don't think this was a horrible movie, the cast was great, it just didn't meet my expectations, don't worry, Marisa met them 110%.


Dan In Real Life
Trailer
IMDB.com

4 out of 5
Steve Carell ... Dan
Juliette Binoche ... Marie
Dane Cook ... Mitch
Alison Pill ... Jane
Brittany Robertson ... Cara
Marlene Lawston ... Lilly
Dianne Wiest ... Nana
John Mahoney ... Poppy
Emily Blunt ... Ruthie 'Pigface' Draper

There was quite a large cast in this one, I included Ruthie 'Pigface' because of one reason, Emily Blunt looked hawt, as in I held a cigarette up to the TV screen when I couldn't find my lighter, hawt.

I wasn't sure going into this Romantic Comedy. I knew Steve played a widowed father of three daughters, and wrote an advice column, but that was about it. Come to find out, the whole movie centers around their entire family during their annual trip to his parents cabin (in some town that looked like a fishing town). They have a big family, I don't remember exactly, but there are like 2 brothers and maybe 2 sisters, plus their spouses and kids all meet at the cabin every year to pack it up for the winter.

Dane Cook plays Steve's younger brother in the movie and his latest girlfriend is on her way to join them. Unbeknownst to Dan, she is the same girl he spends an entire morning in town talking to. There is an instant connection, but once they realize she is dating his brother they are forced into an uncomfortable situation. The movie plays out with Dan's relationship between his daughters and his extended family.

I enjoyed this one, it was allot better than I expected it to be, and I recommend it.

That's all for today,

ciao!

Movie Trailer Friday!

I'll probably wait until Monday to write up a review of the three Netflix movies I just watched.

1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
3. Dan in Real Life (technically watching tomorrow when it's supposed to arrive)

If anyone is interested, I accidentally bought an extra copy of the 'Jesse James' movie. Whoever gets a hold of me first can have it. I'll bring it into work Monday.

Let's watch some trailers! Kelly S. contributed a couple, so we can all enjoy.

My Best Friend's Girl
Dane Cook,
Kate Hudson,
Jason Biggs

Jason asks his crude friend to secretly show his girlfriend that there aren't plenty of good fish in the sea.



Henry Poole is Here
Luke Wilson,
Radha Mitchell (Man on Fire, top 3 best movies on my list probably)

Luke's neighbor sees Jesus Christ in a stucco water stain on his house, turning his life upside down.



Step Brothers
Will Ferrell
John C. Reilly

You shouldn't need to know anything after seeing who stars in this, and just watch the trailer!




Meet Dave
Eddie Murphy,
Elizabeth Banks (hawtie (might have seen her on Scrubs as the mother of Zack's son))

Dave isn't your normal kinda guy, in fact, he is a giant robot filled with 1 inch high aliens? (guessing from the preview)



Fugitive Pieces
Stephen Dillane,
Rade Serbedzija,
Rosamund Pike

Drama about an novelist/poet who is still dealing with what happened to him and his family during WWII.



Then She Found Me
Helen Hunt (hawtie!),
Colin Firth,
Bette Midler,
Matthew Broderick

Helen's husband asks for a separation, she is reunited with her birth mother (she was adopted), starts dating Colin, and accidentally becomes pregnant with her ex-husband!



Hancock
Will Smith
Jason Bateman
Charlize Theron

Will Smith plays a superhero who needs a press agent, in comes Jason to change his image.



have a good weekend,

ciao!

We have a new Winner!

Ok, I don't even care that my dear, loving mom might read this. As much grief as she gives me about wanting grandkids, or for me to just be married she should not get upset that I my eyes are always open.

Yesterday FHM crowned their new, yes new, Sexiest Women, in the annual online poll. The new winner bumped Jessica (Alba) down to #3 behind Jessica Biehl. You might recognize this SMOKING H.A.W.T. (yes Liz, that is the highest rating I can give.) actress in the movie 'The Transformers'. She played the female lead, tom-boy, who tags along with Shia LeBouf through the movie. We are talking about none other than the Beeee-You-Teeee-Full...........
Read the full story over at FHM's site. (Which I can't connect to at work.)

Megan Fox

There might even be a higher rating than smoking hawtie for her in these shots.

Oh and make sure you click on the above pic (from Transformers) to see it in Wallpaper size. AKA my new wallpaper at home. I'm going to need a cigarette and a quick nap before moving on the the rest of today's post. Be Right Back............
.
.
.
.
Ok, I didn't want to turn this into one of the thousands of blogs all about incredibly gorgeous women, so let's move on!

Yesterday I wrote about Freecycle.org . I haven't posted or found anything to try the actual service out with, but I do want to discuss the amount of email this generates. I went in today and turned off the 'receive email' option. I was getting batches of 5-10 emails popping up, mostly people posting about what they want. I'm almost tempted to send the group moderator an email and ask what the deal is. These people almost sound greedy, posting about how they want "Baking Supplies" because they want to start making cakes at home. C'mon people, this site is not supposed to be a wish list, I mean should I post how I want a plasma TV, and a Rolex? Every post is emailed to your inbox, (unless you turn that feature off) and every new post yesterday was "Wanted..." "Wanted..." "Wanted...." so far today I have seen one message about someone actually offering something, the rest were morons asking for things. I just changed my Group Membership, to 'Web Only'. Though I guess receiving every message gives you a better chance of snatching items first. Anyway, the jury is still out on this.

I also wrote about the new Weepies album Hideaway. If you actually went and listened to the free stream, and want to purchase the full cd, here is a great find. Over at the website Amie Street they are selling the cd for $5 !! I just discovered this website, and it's pretty cool. It is sort of like iTunes or Amazon's music service, but on this site the community determines the price. Songs are priced from FREE-98 cents. The bug plus is they are all DRM-Free, MP3 format songs. You have to sign up, and I actually found some promotion codes here that you can use. When registering, enter one of the codes and you will get various credit amounts. I used the $3 one, so the cd actually cost me $2 ! Browse around the site, they offer different ways to earn credits and explain how the song/album price is determined. When checking out, my "Amie Account" had the $3 credit, and you are given an option of buying more credit, but you have to buy it in their amounts. I chose the lowest, which was $3, used a credit card, and now my balance was $6, letting me buy the cd through them, and leaving a $1 credit in my account with them. You can then listen to your purchases through their site, or download them, in a zip file. Since I purchased a full album the album art was included.

Anybody see this 'whoopsy' yesterday? The country of Georgia, (not the Southern state, the country) had one of their remote controlled recon camera drones shot down by Russia. I have a feeling the Russian pilot didn't realize he was on candid camera, and his little mistake would be an act of war!



That's it for today. I may take tomorrow off, but if I do, I'll try to post a new entry between naps on the couch, the dentist, and renewing my car tags. :-|

ciao

Free Stuff!!

Start off by heading over to one of my favorite band's websites. "The Weepies" they released their latest album yesterday. If you head here you can listen to the whole album, this week only. They are also offering the title track as a free download, probably for a limited time. I'm not 100% sure that link works, but if you go to the previous one try clicking the 'Free Song' link next to the track titled 'Hideaway'. Oh, and go here to watch a video message from Deb Talan, Steve, and Theo (that's the band, well not Theo yet). I'm probably going to check Best Buy after work today and buy this for myself. So far I'm digging it.

Quick note to Kelly S. regarding your comments yesterday....
Sorry if I misled you, I enjoyed Juno, and do not regret buying it. There are only a few DvD's in my bookcase I regret, maybe the Romancing the Stone box set was a mistake, but we have all made them haven't we? Secondly, Blue Ray movies only play on Blue Ray players, sorry, you'll have to buy it on DvD. I never reviewed it, but awhile back I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a Playstation 3, which plays above mentioned format. I have to tell ya, with HDMI cables hooked to it....wowza, very impressive the detail.

Next up is a pretty cool deal I stumbled across. Freecycle.org is sort of a Craig's list for free stuff. The way it works is simple. I can't say if they all go through Yahoo Groups, but the closest list I found to my house was in Gardner/Olathe, and it is a Yahoo Group. The service is free to sign up with, your membership might take a day or two though to be accepted by the list moderator. Ever have something sitting around you don't need or use anymore. You'd hate to just throw it away, and don't want to bother with eBay, you'd donate it to charity, which is perfectly acceptable, but how about trying Freecycle? The group consists of a message board with people posting freebies. For example, you want to give away 5 boxes of kids clothes, an old guitar, maybe some golf clubs. You simply post (following the guidelines) that such and such is up for the taking. Then other members reply, and you work out how to hand it over. I probably didn't do that justice, but now that I was just approved 10 minutes ago, I'm browsing the posts for my new group. There are 2,000 plus members are some samples freebies that caught my eye are. I'm not saying I want any of these, just some examples.

-OFFER: white landscaping rocks
I have a pile of white rocks on my driveway that I'd love for someone
to be able to use. The pile is about 3 feet tall and 4-5 feet in
diameter or so.

-Offer: Entertainment Center
Black entertainment center. Holds 32" TV. Has hidden compartment for
radio, and hidden shelves for VHS. Shelving for vcr/dvd players and
gaming systems.

-OFFER: 1 box of canning jars-OLATHE
I would like to offer a box of canning jars (approx. 12) different
sizes. They need to be cleaned but they have been in storage and have
only been used a few times.

If interested please let me know when you can come and get them.

So the way this works, I'm guessing since I'm new to it, is I would reply to a post and I'd guess it's a first come first serve basis. If I find something, or give something away, I'll post about it. I found this great service on yahoo news, read this story to find out more.

For fans of Atonement's James MacAvoy will be happy to see him in this movie. Also starring Morgan Freeman, and Angelina "STD" Jolie, sorry, I agree she is easy on the eyes, but I just imagine she is a b*tch in real life. The adopting a kid every month thing isn't fooling me. I'm not saying I would refuse to spend some meaningful time with her, I'd just scrub her down with bleach before opening the car door. Yes she is with Brad Pitt, which I was actually let down he left Jennifer Aniston, who in my imagined world would be a much more real person inside than Angelina, who knows, but heck he is Brad Pitt, I'd think if Jennifer wasn't as cool as she is in DominicLand, then he would have plenty of options. Who knows, maybe he is a jacka** in real life and they deserve each other. Anyway......

Based on the graphic novel by acclaimed Frank Miller (Sin City, 300, to name a couple)
Wanted
Releases (per IMDB.com) June 27, 2008


ok, that's all for today, I was going to go all deep and philosophize you, but I won't. I just have an issue that's been bugging me for awhile, and I've just about reached my tolerance limit, I feel a rant coming, but it's more of a personal issue, and unless you get me drunk, and I mean really drunk, I doubt I'll share it here. I'm a pretty 'keep it to myself' kinda guy.

ciao!

My friend Jerry sent me a link to this video of the car I was thinking about looking at once the Charger is paid off....

Thanx Jerry!




ooooo baby, if I thought my Charger was horrid in bad weather, I can't imagine how much I would hate trying to drive in snow with that. Maybe I'll find out ;-)

Just a couple more things before I write up those last two reviews. I'm probably the only UNC fan that reads this (I guess I count as a reader) but just in case, here is an excellent video they showed at their end of season banquet. It's about 40 minutes long, but I really enjoyed it. Featuring highlights, and a hilarious commentary by Bobby Frasor, bloopers, antics, etc.

Tarheel Video

I would normally save, (trying to make it a regular weekly thing) movie trailers for Fridays, but this one has such a cast I'm breaking that rule already. This is almost a sequel to 'Gross Pointe Blank' which is one of my favorites. This one quickly shot to just about the top of my list when I found the trailer.

War Inc
starring;
John Cusack (c0-wrote the screenplay, and co-produced the movie)
Joan Cusack (of course!)
Marisa Tomei (h.a.w.t.)
Hilary Duff (aging nicely)
Ben Kingsley

Call me later Marisa, I'll be off work after 3:30 if you want to do anything tonight....










How about a few summer blockbuster release dates?
May 2
-Iron Man
-Son of Rambow
May 22
-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
May 23
-War Inc
June 27
-WALL-E
July 18
-Batman:The Dark Knight

Juno (blu ray)
Trailer
IMDB.com


Ellen Page ... Juno MacGuff
Michael Cera ... Paulie Bleeker
Jennifer Garner ...Vanessa Loring
Jason Bateman ... Mark Loring
Allison Janney ... Bren MacGuff
J.K. Simmons ... Mac MacGuff
Rainn Wilson ... Rollo

I included Rainn above even though he had a very small part, he cracked me up. "That ain't no etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle that can't be un-did, homeskillet. "

4 out of 5

I know Kelly is wanting to read what I thought, so I hope I don't let her down. I gave in to my bad habit of buying a movie before even seeing it, and even worse on $30 blu ray! Oh well, I don't regret it, but I may need a whole room at the next house I live in just to store all my movies, I must be up to 600 at least.

I started watching this expecting the movie to be a quirky comedy, from the previews I thought Michael Cera (Bleeker) would have a bigger role, and had my fingers crossed Rainn Wilson would too, he is friggin hilarious on 'The Office'. I was surprised that this could be more classified a dramatic comedy, or maybe that's not right, but there was definitely a story here. A high school junior (16?, 17?) gets pregnant, and the movie revolves around her decision to go ahead with the pregnancy, with plans on adopting the child. She finds Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner, a married couple unable to have their own child in the local newspaper. After meeting and an arrangement being made, the movie follows here all the way to delivery.

I recommend this one, I'm glad Jason Bateman's movie career is going well, I wish his TV show 'Arrested Development' (also starring Bleeker) was still in production, but so far he has made some good decisions on the big screen.

The 10th Kingdom (dvd)
Trailer
IMDB.com

Cruise over to IMDB.com to check out the full cast, there are too many to list!

4 out of 5

You may have to do some searching to find this one on DvD. This was a 9 episode mini-series that aired on TV back in the year 2000. I was over at my parents and borrowed my Mom's copy to watch again at my place.

I won't go into allot of detail, but have to say John Larroquette's character cracks me up in this one. Look closely, if you can't tell by the voice, but Ed O'Neil plays the troll king. The star actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, who you might know from the TV show 'According to Jim' looks stunning throughout the whole series.

The show is about a father daughter who are forced, in a way, through a magic portal in NY's central park to the 9 magic kingdoms. You guessed it, number 10 is our world. Enter the fairy tale world of Cinderella, the Big Bad Wolf, Sleeping Beauty, and countless other characters we all know.

I recommend making the effort of finding this series on dvd at the local video store, Netflix, or whatever. It has some great comedic scenes, and I enjoyed it back in 2000, just as much as I enjoyed it this weekend. The DvD set contains 2 cd's (one double sided=3).

Ok, enough for today, enjoy.

ciao!

Gadget Charging Box & 4 Movies !

The weekend if over, once again, too quickly. Seems to be a pattern with that. The ground was too wet to mow Saturday at my parents, and it was a bit chilly until later in the day, so I decided to catch up on my DvR'd TV shows, and watch the pile of movies I had sitting in the living room calling my name. (dominic......watch us.......open another beer.....order pizza, don't bother cooking....)

Before we talk about them, I was checking around some of the blog sites I frequent and found a pretty cool idea for a gadget/electronics charging station. I meant to take pictures as I put this together, but spaced it until I was about halfway done. I was on the website Instructables, which I will add to the links here, and started looking around for other ideas. I stumbled on this blog called Two Loose Teeth, which I'm not sure what else the author writes about, but I may browse around later. I pretty much copied her idea here to create my charging station.

So here is what I did.
Supplies
1. Artsy box. On sale for $9
- Since I decided to do this Sunday, and needed craft stuff, I went into Jo Ann. Yes, it felt weird, being a dude, craft stores always make us feel like people are staring and questioning what we are doing there. Especially at this store, that specializes in sewing, but Hobby Lobby is closed Sundays!
2. 1 pkg small, 1 pkg large, brushed silver plastic Curtain Ring/Eyelets. $9, and $8
- Sorry, I searched all over the Jo Ann website, but can't find what exactly these are called. I looked in the store for what the blogsite I got the idea from used, but couldn't find them.
3. X-Acto or straight blade.
-I used my craftsman razorblade out of the toolbox
4. Clamps
-Already had these too. You'll want small ones.
5.Elmers Glue

How-To:
1.I used the small template guide that the eyelets came with and traced a hole on what would be the back, for the power cord.
2.On the opposite side, I made a second 'large' opening for gadgets with larger charging equipment. I then made four small holes with the other eyelet template.
3.Using the glue, I placed the eyelets on each side of these holes, clamping them down and letting them dry for a few minutes.

That's it, pretty simple. Don't make fun of the box I used, it was the most non-feminine one they had. I might give this one away as a gift, and look for a more manly pattern. I may see what other designs for this I can come up with, when time permits.


Ok, so here are pics of my finished product. (you can click the image for a close-up)

<--This would be the front. With three of the holes being used. You can always add more holes if needed.







Here is the back. Where the power cord sticks out ---------->

<---Here is a shot of the inside. Notice how the eyelets I used have a front/back piece, giving it a clean look. I plan on replacing the power strip in there with a surge protector of course.






Here is a closer shot of the front, I think I spaced out the holes pretty well, for not measuring ;-) ----->


<----Final shot, with a few gadgets plugged in. Phone, BT Headset, BT headphones. If this looks like something you'd want, but don't have the patience. I might be convinced to take orders. I'd have to charge for materials and time, sorry, I do way too many things for free lately. Ok, feel free to leave a comment and make fun of me for doing 'crafts' this weekend. I can take the grief. This project gives me a centralized spot to recharge the growing collection of gadgets I am addicted to. Let's talk movies.

In the Valley of Elah (dvd)
Trailer
IMDB.com

4.5 out of 5
Tommy Lee Jones .. Hank Deerfield
Charlize Theron ... Det. Emily Sanders
Jason Patric ... Lt. Kirklander
Susan Sarandon ... Joan Deerfield


This could have easily been a perfect score. Tommy Lee Jones delivers another great performance. Here is another actor I have really enjoyed his last few roles.

The story is about Tommy Lee's Army son, who goes missing. His unit returns from active duty in Iraq, and before he has even told his family he is home, he disappears. The Army calls Tommy Lee to notify him that their son will be marked AWOL, if he doesn't return to the base. This is news to them, since they didn't even know he was back in the states. He promptly drives to the base, being a former Military Policeman, and starts investigating on his own. Shortly after, his son's body is found, chopped up, and burned. While the local police, and the military argue over whose case it is, he decides to solve the case with or without their help.

I recommend this one, great movie.

Michael Clayton (dvd)
Trailer
IMDB.com

4.5 out of 5

Tom Wilkinson ... Arthur Edens
Michael O'Keefe ... Barry Grissom
Sydney Pollack ... Marty Bach
Tilda Swinton ... Karen Crowder
George Clooney ... Michael Clayton

Another one that could have been a perfect 5. I was not 100% sure what to expect from this movie, since the trailer didn't really give me a good idea.

Michael Clayton works for a law-firm sort of as, to use the term he did, a 'janitor'. He cleans up messes of high profile clients. When a senator gets a DUI, or a CEO is arrested with a hooker, etc.
He is called in for one of their own. Tom Wilkinson's character works for the same firm, and has spent 7+ years on the same case. A 3 billion dollar class action suit against their farming supplies client. He has a breakdown during a meeting, stripping down naked, on film, and pretty much losing it. Michael Clayton is called in to fix it. The story plays out with what big business is willing to do to cover up the truth.

I recommend this one as well.

Outlaw (dvd)
Trailer
IMDB.com

2 out of 5




Sean Bean ... Danny Bryant
Danny Dyer ... Gene Dekker
Rupert Friend ... Sandy Mardell
Sean Harris ... Simon Hillier
Lennie James ... Cedric Munroe
Bob Hoskins ... Walter Lewis

Well, they can't all be great. Even though the story was good, the acting was pretty good, and the script wasn't horrible, this scored low for one big reason. The camera work.

Some of you might know Sean Bean from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He played Boromir, remember, the one with the horn, and part of the 'fellowship'. Anyway, in this movie, he is returning from active military duty, only to find his wife has found other companionship, and his town is out of control. Innocent people are victims of brutal gangs, drugs are rampant, and the police is looking the other way. He enlists the help of three like minded people to take a stand. The reason I scored this so low, is anytime the scene wasn't a distance shot, it seemed like the camera-man had 10 too many coffees. If they were going for that effect, it was a bad decision. The camera was shaky, seemed to sway, and has at times hard to watch.

Only rent this one if you're cable TV is going to be out for the weekend and don't get motion sickness.


Lions for Lambs (dvd)
Trailer
IMDB.com

5 out of 5







Robert Redford ... Professor Stephen Malley
Meryl Streep ... Janine Roth
Tom Cruise ... Senator Jasper Irving
Michael Peña ... Ernest Rodriguez
Andrew Garfield ... Todd Hayes
Peter Berg ... Lt. Col. Falco
Derek Luke ... Lt. Arian Finch

Yep, this one was the winner for the weekend. Since Robert Redford directed it, I was not surprised. Redford is not trying to be a conspiracy theorist, or take a political stand, he is just telling a great story in this one.

The movie revolves around 3 stories intertwined. Redford plays a college professor trying to reach one of his students that shows promise. Tom Cruise plays a senator giving an exclusive interview to Meryl Streep. Finally Michael Pena and Derek Luke, play two best friends, ex students of Redford on a mission in Afghanistan. The Cruise/Streep portion, while part of the overall story is not as directly tied to the Professor/Student one. The one on one Redford has involves discussing his ex-students, and their decision to drop out of college to enlist. They discuss, and almost debate the ever present issue of 'are you part of the problem or the solution' to put it simply. The whole story takes place simultaneously over a 1-2 hour period. The two students, part of the new strategy Cruise is discussing are lost on a mission. Alone, together, injured their story plays out as a battle against time. Will rescue arrive before the enemy does?

Great movie, the scene where the mission goes wrong was very strong, and I recommend this one completely.

I will continue this tomorrow, with a review of Juno and The 10th Kingdom, which I also watched this weekend.

Sorry this was so long!

ciao!

seriously, oil prices hit a new high!

From the title, you should expect a rant to follow. Do we really need to hear everyday on the news that oil reached a new record high price? At what point is that not news? Do we need the morons on TV to also tell us the earth is still spinning this morning, and gravity is at 100%?

I had plans to watch 'In the Valley of Elah' last nite, but since my dad was out of town, I invited my mom over to have dinner, and hang out. We drove into town, so I could get dog treats, and gift bags. The bags are for the upcoming Italy 2007 party my parents will have on July 5th. I'm not sure if I ever posted about this but here is the scoop...

Oil prices reach new record....just kidding. After my second trip to Italy last October, I told everyone in the group (about 20 ppl total) all family or friends of the family, that if they sent me their pictures on cd, I would once again (did this for the 2004 trip also) create a movie/slideshow of the best pictures. My parents then have a party, we watch the movie, and I give them all copies. So the point is, I bought the gift bags, so I can put the movie dvd, a dvd of every ones pictures, and that person's original cd's they sent me. At some point when I have some free time, I plan on making a shorter version of this movie, and maybe upload it here, or put it on dvd for anyone who wants to see it. Not too many probably want to sit through the 45 min version (I had over 3000 pics to sort through) which is mostly pictures of the group.

Regarding Italy, some of you know I am saving money to return back to just Sicily. I am shooting for sometime this year, and to spend two weeks. The big news I wrote about yesterday, is that I found out I might be able to go sailing, for either a full day, or even longer. You see, I love being on the water, and not in ski-boats, or speedboats, or whatever. I like the wind powered kind of boat personally. On our first trip we had plans to have a dinner aboard a catamaran, unfortunately my Aunt got a little sea-sick and we had to cut that trip very short. So I shot an email to my friend Ciro in Palermo. Ciro has been our guide on both trips, and I can't describe how great he is. On our last trip he made an offer for me to come back, and stay with his family. I would help his wife, son, and him with their English, while I try to learn Italian. They already speak it, they just want to improve it. Ciro responded to my message and gave me the news. I am even more excited now, I seriously think I could live on a boat for the rest of my life. I dream of owning one big enough for just me and the dogs, then disappearing on the ocean one day. Sort of like the movie 'Into the Wild' but an aquatic version.

It's Friday, how about a funny.



Also, since it is Friday, and who actually gets anything done, a few movie trailers.

Smart People (in theater now)



Son of Rambow (coming soon)



Batman:The Dark Knight (coming soon)
RIP Heath Ledger, such a shame, I always imagined Heath was an approachable actor, that was a real person, and not fake.



Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (coming soon)



WALL-E (coming soon)



Space Chimps (coming soon)




That's enough, now get back to work!

I was weak and bought Juno on Blue-Ray last night, so expect a review early next week. With the weather my plans this weekend are still cloudy, if the ground dries enough it's off to my parents to spend 6 hrs mowing their yard.


ciao!

oh well......

What a horrible display of bowling last night. I wish I could say I did my part and bowled over my average all three games, but I was bad, just like the rest of my team. We were demolished, crushed, butter was spread on us and we were toasted, blown away, taught a lesson, taken out back and beaten with 2x4 wood planks. You get the picture. It was bad. We lost all three games and total by quite a large amount. It almost felt like a slow motion punch, or even better a slap, in the face you see on the HD Kung-Fu channel on TV.

That's all I'm going to say about it. Unfortunately it was the last night, so I get to spend the summer with this bitter taste in my mouth. At least we did make $51 apiece for the rest of the season. Plus I won 2 out of three poker games, so I walked out with about $60 I didn't walk in with.

Anyway, take a look in the side column. I added a widget that if you want to receive an email when this blog is updated, then sign up already! There is also a link for the RSS Feed to the site. I can't get it to work here, but my friend in ATL (Atlanta) said it worked for him. Somebody please sign up, because there is also a meter over there that shows how many subscriptions there are! If you have no idea what an RSS feed is. Check Wikipedia's article. You need an RSS News Reader for any of them to work. I use one called KlipFolio it is a free service (many are) and works pretty good.

What RSS Feeds do I currently have running?

• Weather
• North Carolina Men's BBall News
• Daily Tarheel
• ESPN.com - Men's BBall News
• Tarheel Fan
• GoodTutorials.com
• World Time Monitor
• The Simple Dollar
• Derek Hess Blog
• Stock Tracker
• KC Chiefs News
• Pocket PC Freeware site

I also added a link to my friend Alex's site, along with an RSS feed from his blog. Check it out, and forgive him for being a jayhawk fan, we can't all have good taste.

Real quick, a review on my new headphones. I haven't had time to watch "In the Valley of Elah" yet though.

Motorola s9 Bluetooth Headset
Price $50-$130 (ya, shop around)

After shopping around for some new wireless headphones I decided on these. A couple guys in the office have them, and I admit I laugh at them walking around all day with them on, but I stand corrected. You won't catch me wearing them 8 hours a day, but that isn't why I bought them either. I already have a nice set of wireless Sennheiser headphones, very comfy, that I wear while at work. So the purpose of these was for taking my newly started walks around campus (exercise, it's 1.5 miles 1 lap!) also for when I walk the dogs at home. So far the headphones work pretty well, After some difficulty pairing them with the Bluetooth transmitter (keep reading). I was able to walk almost from my kitchen at home to my bedroom before getting static feedback. They were great while I grilled out on the deck. Leaving the mp3 player on the kitchen counter. Weird thing is in the morning, while walking into my building from the garage, they cut in and out. Yet when I leave at the end of the day, I had a solid connection. This headset can also pair with a Bluetooth enable mobile phone. The music supposedly pauses for an incoming call, then resumes when you hang up. Personally, I have a Jawbone headset, which isn't going anywhere. (Leave a comment if you want a review of the Jawbone I've had for a few months now). There are controls on the headset, which are supposed to let you pause, track forward/back, and adjust the volume, which I haven't gotten to work yet. So far I am happy with them, if you notice the giant price range above, do some work and shop around. I bought mine brand new off eBay for $49 plus shipping. Brand-new in the box, and that included a free car charge for the set. Here at the campus store, they are $130 I think.


So how am I getting the sound from my mp3 player (iPod or Sansa) to the headset?

Homer Bluetooth Audio Dongle
$49 at Micro Center

hehehehe, (insert Beavis voice) 'dongle' hehehehe. After originally walking into Micro Center looking for the iPod bluetooth adapter, I was told they stopped carrying them. Nobody was buying them, and audio was the suXor through Bluetooth. I wasn't discouraged, and found this adapter in the headset section. The box said it was for non BT phones, Mp3 players, home stereos, etc, etc. Priced at $49 I snagged it.
The pairing took a few tries, if you have no idea what that means, when you sync a device through bluetooth, it is called 'pairing' when you create a secure connection between the two devices. That is why you don't hear the person next you while they and you are on bluetooth earpieces on the phone. The only reason I ran into problems, is the instructions for some reason tell you how to pair it with a specific headset. Of course that was not the s9 motorola's. Anyway, after they found each other, the sound took another second or two, and I was smiling. I can't completely blame the sound breaking in and out on the headset, I am pretty sure the 'dongle' is half the problem when that is happening.

Ok, that's enough for today.
Tomorrow I'll try and share some awesome news about my trip back to Sicily!

ciao.

Big Night

Tonight is the last night of my bowling this season. My team usually gets on a hot streak towards the end of the year, but we usually don't crack the top 5. Last week, we were sitting pretty in third place. I don't remember the exact numbers, so I'll make them up, but all you really need to see is how close we are. Oh, and the scoring is pretty simple. Each week you bowl three games. You get 2 points for a win, and 1 point for winning total pins. So every week there are a possible 7 points. Make sense? Let's say you win the 1st game by 10 pins(2 points), lose the second by 5 pins(0 points), and you win the third game by 5 pins(2 points) Now do the math, you were up 5 pins total going into the third game, and end up winning total pins by 10 pins, so for the night you get 5 points.

The first place team had something like 60 points, second place 59, and my team, in third with 58 points. Don't pay attention to the number, just the difference. Last week, we won all 3 games and total, giving us 7 pts, and bumping our season total to 65. The first place, and second place teams, lost their first two games. I didn't stick around to see the third, but even if they won it by a crazy amount, to take game 3 and total, the most points they would leave would would have been 3 points. So just in case, let's give it to them, even though it's very difficult to lose 2 and take total. That changes the top 3 (not sure about 4 and down)

With these made up season point totals going into tonight....
My team -65
Team A -63
Team B -61


So this week it will be a bowl off/position week, and winner takes all on our lane. Unless I am completely wrong about last week, we will be playing the second place team, for the grand prize, with either a difference of 2 points or more. There are lots of different scenarios that can play out, but as long as we win more points tonight, we could win it all!


















Sorry, wanted to add one last thing. I discovered a trailer for this movie just released on DvD, starring Ryan Gosling. The trailer looked to good I bumped it to the top of my Netflix que.

Lars and the Real Girl

Jerry the Dog, you gotta love how amazing animals are. If Barkley or JayJay were the fetching type, I'd be spending the day finding where to buy, or how to build one of these for them. How adorable is this dog?



Ok, let's get these movies outta the way, I'll try to keep them short

The Brave One (dvd)
Trailer
IMDB

3 out of 5
Jodie Foster ... Erica Bain
Terrence Howard ... Detective Mercer
Nicky Katt ... Detective Vitale
Naveen Andrews ... Dr. David Kirmani


Ok, I am admitting that I am becoming a Terrence Howard fan. After seeing a few movies he is in over the last couple months, I am impressed with the roles he has taken recently and the performances he delivered.

In this movie, Jodie and Sayid, oops I mean Naveen, are a couple victim to an act of violence. Yes, Naveen plays Sayid on one of my favorite TV shows, LOST. He has a very small part in the movie, not to give anything away. After many months of rehab, Jodi understandably is still shaken, and illegally purchases a gun for protection. The movie plays out as she does not hesitate to stand up for herself with , and not be a victim any longer.


30 Days of Night (dvd)
Trailer
IMDB

2 out of 5
Josh Hartnett ... Sheriff Eben Oleson
Melissa George ... Stella Oleson
Danny Huston ... Marlow
Ben Foster ... The Stranger

Ahh, Melissa George, I just can't decide if you are hot, or h.a.w.t. You have a familiar face, I know you had a small part in LA Confidential, but I just can't think if you just look like another actress, or I am imagining things. Ok, in case you are reading this, you classify as h.a.w.t. please call me ;-)

Josh is the star of one of my favorite movies, Lucky Number Slevin, if you haven't seen, Kansas City Shuffle your way to rent/buy it. I have to mark this one down in the bad choice column though. Well, the chance to meet and work with Melissa may have swayed my decision if I was in his shoes.

Scene: The Northernmost town in North America, Alaska, where they have a month (30 days duh) of no sun. What a perfect time for some blood-thirsty vampires to come to town for 'groceries'. Maybe because I like my vampyres more of an Anne Rice Lestat, than what they portrayed. Low rating because it's pretty much 146 minutes of monsters chasing the townspeople and them dropping one at a time.

Slipstream (dvd)
Trailer
IMDB

1 out of 5
Anthony Hopkins ... Felix Bonhoeffer
Written by Anthony Hopkins, does not equal good movie. Skip it......seriously. Rarely do I give up on a movie, but after 20 minutes I ejected this, put it back in the Netflix envelope, and moved onto reruns of some show on TVLand. I only listed Anthony's name, because after 20 minutes, I have no clue who played major roles. I know Christian Slater makes an appearance. I wish that guy would catch some good roles, with a voice like Nicholson , how can he not be?

on the coffee table. What I mean, is how they flash some scene like a Anyway, the plot apparently is about a writer who is confusing reality with a book he is working on. The problem is, there is so much camera flashes, kind of like subliminal messages. I felt like putting a bottle of Pepto-Bismo on the table next to me. After the first 10 minutes, I thought, surely this won't keep going, but 10 minutes later, I still have no clue what is going on, and they are still throwing images of Monks in Tibet, nuclear weapons, World War II, etc, etc. I said enough, if anyone reading this does manage to make it to 21 minutes and the sun comes out from the clouds, making all of it understandable, please let me know and I'll rent it again. Such a dissapointment from Anthony, please stick to acting Sir Hopkins.

Atonement (dvd)
Trailer
IMDB

4 out of 5
Saoirse Ronan ... Briony Tallis - Aged 13
James McAvoy ... Robbie Turner
Keira Knightley ... Cecilia Tallis
Romola Garai ... Briony Tallis - 18

Keira Knightley, one sec, while I wipe off the drool on my keyboard. Ok now I'm ready.

I don't watch the 284 different award shows, but I'm pretty sure this one won a few statues. I had this on my netflix que, but went ahead and bought it after my friend Kelly's advice. The movie revolves around a lie Keira's sister tells the police, which results in James McAvoy's character being sent to prison, and given the choice is released to serve in the army during WWII. Once you get used to the flash forward, and flash back story you should be ok. I am recommending this one, but do not want to give any of the story away so won't write too much. I have to give an extra star for the water fountain scene with Ms Knightley who is a vision as usual.

That's it for today, I think my friend Kelly Snyder is the only person reading this, anyone want to prove me wrong? Leave a comment, it really isn't hard to do.

Soon to be written about....
-My new Motorola s9 Bluetooth headset
-The Bluetooth adapter for my iPod/Sansa
-In the Valley of Elah (borrowing from a friend)

ciao

@#!$% iPod !#$%^*

argh, iPod, argh! (ok, more my fault than iPod's)

So Friday I attempted to sync an audiobook (cd) onto my iPod. It's called iSpeak, an Italian language book, that would maybe kick start me learning Italian. I followed the instructions, but when it was trying to sync, it stalled and was not responding. Stupidly I used the computer task manager to end the task, hoping to just try again. When I re-opened iTunes and tried to start a song, an exclamation point popped up next to the song. This continued for about 10 tracks. In a panic I google'd what that meant to find out some very bad news. Probably because of what I did, my iPod was showing all 3800 songs I had on it, but couldn't play them. I can't really explain why, or how, just what I had to do or rather am doing to fix this blunder.

I would estimate 80% of my songs ended up missing. So on and off all weekend I was sitting at my computer adding the missing songs back on. If anyone has a better way of doing this, please let me know! Here was the process I came up with.

I started at the top, and went artist by artist in iTunes. After letting the entire playlist rujn through (with some help mashing the skip button) I could see the songs with the exclamation points. I created a folder on my desktop, found the missing song on my externeal hard drive (where I store my mp3's) and copied them into the new folder. Once I finished a letter, I would do a mass transfer onto the ipod. Next, I cleaned up the id3 tags in itunes. Of course this was annoying since 99% of my songs had album art, genre, album, etc all setup. All this was gone, and I had to fix things like the artist not populating, etc. I then started again at the letter, and went artist by artist deleting the bad files.

Then I moved onto the next letter in the alphabet. Talk about frustrating! So far I have fixed artists A-K, with allot left to do.

In between cursing myself for bringing this on, I did some laundry, watched a few movies, and chased down a case my a new different mp3 player.

Speaking of, I wanted to find a small mp3 player, and use it at the gym, or for walking the dogs. I even have this crazy idea of taking a walk during the day at work around campus. I did some research, and decided on the Sansa c series. This did not need to have a large amount of storage, since you can fit about 240 mp3 songs on 1gb, I was okay with going small. Plus, you can adda microSD flash card to boost the capacity.



No, this is not my hand, or the actual player I bought. I found the pic on google, but it is the exact model I purchased. With the 2gb microSD card I bought at the same time, it is now a 3gb player.




1g = 240 mp3s (average)
2g = 480
3g = 720 songs

Not too shabby for it's size huh. Benefits over the iPod shuffle? The ability to add memory, the display screen, most importantly, the price! A 1 gb iPod shuffle runs about $49. The Sansa c240 1gb, was $37 at micro center.

That's all for today, tomorrow, hopefully, I will find the time to write up some movie reviews for...
1.Atonement
2.30 Days of Night
3.Slipstream
4.The Brave One

ciao ciao