Interesting Movie to come, Tales from the Gym, & How to Heal properly
I’m not usually one to get giddy over Video Games-to-Movies, but recently I saw a trailer for Ironman. Yeah, Ironman. And though I didn’t really like the video game, I must say that at the least the trailer for the film looks to be quite entertaining.
Not “and the winner for Best Picture is…” kinda good, but entertaining. You know, like any other summer action flick. Except the Fan-suck-tic 4. There’s nothing you can do to make that entertaining short of lighting it on fire. I’d buy popcorn to watch that f*ck of a franchise die.
Oh, and for those of you that don’t know, apple’s movie trailer website’s pretty nice and has lots of stuff to view (even in HD! Yay!). Take a peek here.
Tales from the Gym: I hate you all….
Welll as you may recall from a recent post, I have had issues of recent trying to get my workout on. These troubles stem from the abysmal creation that is olympic dumbell sets that DO NOT lock as advertised. In fact, today doing our legs (me and The Girl), we had another weights falling off the dumbell episode, so I am 110% positive that they suck and it’s not user error. So there!
Anyway, back to my point. Due to our not having any standard weight sets yet – due to our desire to put it against next month’s or the month-after’s budget – I’ve been doing something quite alien to me: Barbell exercises. You know, all that stuff that I never did that all you meatheads do all the time and chastise me for not doing, like regular bench press & shoulder press. Now before I go any further, let me say that my arm is still not 100%. I can’t even do 1 complete pull-up, as it just plain hurts too much right now. I haven’t worked out regularly since August 9th (I got un-lazy and looked up the date I did it. Yes, I keep track…), and this week marks my first full week back into some sort of routine.
Having gotten that out of the way, let me be honest enough to say that man-o-man, am I freaking weak. Yikes, I have been scary weak. I know that quite a bit of my bench press weakness is due to the fact that I haven’t lifted more than my – Well, uh… my shoes. Yeah, shoes – in more than a month, and even more of my weakness has to do with the fact that I haven’t done actual bench press since sometime around Moses’ parting of the sea. But still, some of it has to be just plain weakness. I’m weak. I– I haven’t managed to even put up my own body weight more than 3-4 times without fear of severe head trauma. And I have spotter bars.
So for all you that knew I was probably pretty weak? F-you man, F-you. I hate you all.
The Healing powers of large inanimate objects
After a month & a half of rest to help my forearm along, I decided to start lifting weight with it gently. Yeah, I didn’t do any workouts for that time. It was a bad injury, it really was, and I’m just beginning to realize that myself, exactly how bad it was. But like I was saying, light weightlifting with it. Mostly to gauge where I was in the process of becoming complete again. I didn’t like what I saw, but I did like how I started to feel. It hurt pretty bad at first, but I pushed through it and the next thing I know, it’s starting to feel better a few sets in.
This is the 4th time I’ve had an injury to my forearm. This is only the second time that it’s been workout-related, so cool your jets on that. Once was just a re-injury of a damaged forearm due to some jackass at work not knowing how to carry large objects in tandem while communicating. But I digress. This time and the time just before it (as I was healing from the injury sustained by dumbass. But I digress…), I went back to the gym before the arm felt like it was 100%, and both times it was because I got to the point where it was like it’s never going to be 100% again, I need to learn to deal with it like it is. So I end up pushing weight, and lo-and-behold, my arm starts to get better. I am not sure exactly why as I’m not omnipotent, but I have a theory as to why lifting weights causes my injuries to heal.
Specifically, I think that it’s simply my body having to deal with the stress of it. It’s the same principles of weightlifting itself: the body will only grow as a response to stimulus. So I’m providing stimulus to the area, making it stretch and bend and go through motions, and as such my body compensates and begins to adapt. What’s more, I think that there’s added assistance being thrown into the mix by increased blood flow and thus increased nutrient availability to the damaged tissues.
So basically what I’m saying is, once you’ve rested your injury for a length of time, if you really want it to get better, you need to begin to push it slowly. Ankle still sore after 5 weeks? Start running lightly. Push through the minor annoying pains. It’ll force your body to adapt, and adapt it will! This is the second time that I’ve worked it out for my forearm, and I must tell you that I’ve done it before for a knee that I never thought would be right again, after 3 months of rest and compress.
When in doubt, lift it out. That’s my new motto.
Peace.
Site Irregularities, Overview: Shooter, & Week rental vs. 2-hr. Rental
I’ve been having some strange issues recently with pages disappearing. I’m not sure if I’m the culprit (hey, I’m just dumb enough to pull it off) or if it’s something else like my host that I’ve been having other issues with during the same timeframe. But either way, sometimes I don’t realize the issues until it’s too late.
So basically I’d like to contract out my semi-loyal 1 or 2 readers as free tech help. If you come to visit the site and notice things wrong (such as previously-posted pages missing), please-oh-please email me using the email link at the bottom of the page, and let me know. I have backups and I can fix it. But I don’t know what’s wrong until I find out, so… Let a brotha know, ya heard?
OVERview: Shooter
Are you a a patriotic fool that’s been screwed over by the government you swore to protect? Would you like to continue to protect them even though they’re corrupt and despicable? (Don’t worry if you’re unaware of how despicable they are; we’ll tell you later in case you don’t catch subtle hints because you’re a dumbass!) Are you smarter than the average bear, able to outwit the entire FBI, CIA, underworld mob bosses & corrupt ex-military officials, yet prefer to drink out of beer bottles after your dog?
If you answered yes to all of these questions, then you may be the Shooter we’re looking for!
Let me begin by saying that this movie is not bad, but it’s not going to garner anything more than a hollow Rambo comparison. It’s not as smart as the Bourne Series, which is sad because they fall prey to their own sets of mistakes (though still a grand movie) Shooter is good for a one-night-action-thriller-have-a-large-surround-sound-system-and-willing-to-use-it type of scenario. Yes, I have these scenarios that come up occasionally, and Shooter sort of fit the bill. Be aware that if you read on from here, I am going to spoil a few points of the flick, because they’re just that dumb, and I felt insulted that they left certain things either completely unexplained or they gave you crap for answers and hoped it would suffice. Such as:
Look, I’m a democratic soul, even what the neo-conservatives might call a “damn dirty liberal,” but even so, there’s only so much left-wing boozing I can take. You have a point, you make it, or even better you allude to it, then it’s done and over with. Doing that, then going even further to explain the allusion and then even further to give a keynote speech about it in the middle of a movie is a little overdone, OK? I’m all about enlightening the masses to the evils of big-business & government coercion, I’m on your side, but there’s a not-so-fine line between enlightenment & preaching.
Then there’s the final defense argument in the shooter’s case. He claims he’s been framed by a third party, and arranges a meeting with him, the third party, the government prosecuting him, and his weapon that was “used” in the shooting. He proves his case by asking whether the gun had been tampered with since being found (answer is no), and then loading a round and trying to fire it, which doesn’t happen successfully. He explains that he couldn’t have fired the shot, because before he left his home (that he shares with his beer-drinking dog), and as he always does with shelved rifles, he removed the firing pin. This immediately gets him released, even though there are at least two things wrong with this:
Just because the firing pin is not there does not mean that he didn’t just remove it after he fired the shot. This is such a weak, weak explanation that whether he was innocent or not they should have shot him on the spot for being a complete idiot.
No one even bothered to question whether or not the round he put in the chamber was live. What if it was just a dummy round? Then guess what? It wouldn’t fire, because there’s no primer or gun powder. Would give the same outward appearance as the explanation he was giving, but be an entirely different reason for it.
Then there’s one last bit at the very end that got me laughing instead of applauding. After everyone’s gone free, the bad guys, the ones that can move people in & out of governments without question to kill, the ones that have friends in high places and an army of mercenaries to defend them & seek out others to destroy, seem to forget the good guy that can totally f*ck their sh*t up is out there, and make no attempt to finish what they started (end result: good guy dead). Instead they puff cigars next to a fireplace in the dark with little-to-no protection, allowing the good guy to waltz in and shoot them dead. I mean crap, if it was that easy, you shoulda done that 2 hours ago dude.
I know I just went about blasting the film, but it’s not all bad. For you guys, there’s a really hot chick wearing a see-through shirt and being all innocent-like. And for you girls, there’s Mark Walberg, who I’d probably have sex with if he asked me to nicely. The guy’s hot. He’s got the physique I work for yet never attain. A-hole. And more, if you’ve got a decent sound system with some good bass response, then audibly it’ll be a decent experience. And there’s always the cool factor associated with military-grade weapons being clickety-clack-clacked to the extreme & helicopters exploding, and seeing people who deserve mercenary treatment get it. A lot of the tech is right on if overdone, and up until the last 10 minutes it keeps you very engaged.
Overall? I’ll give it a C+, with the caveat that it is an action flick solely, and you shouldn’t expect a riveting, mind-bending journey.
And in related movie news
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before (I’m too lazy to look & see for sure), but my and The Girl have sort come to an impasse in regards to movie night. We don’t disagree, we just can’t decide how to proceed further. We both like to go to the movies, but truth be told it’s expensive, being at least $20 with no food or drink (which we don’t mind so much), and then on top of the cost of entry we have to sit around with a whole bunch of people we don’t know, who may be loud & rude, or possibly smelly, or possibly and/or smelly.
Compare & contrast this to renting a movie. Even if we don’t do Netflx and opt to go the old-fashioned rent it from a store route (we have one a short walk from our house), the cost of entry is much cheaper at a whopping $5 a flick for the both of us. Then there’s the fact that we can eat & drink whatever we desire with little additional cost, and there’s no and/or smelly, loud people there to contend with. We have a 52” HDTV with a superb surround-sound system, so it’s not as though we’re missing much of the “experience,” either. Plus we can pause and go pee if necessary, or rewind to hear something we missed. So we have cheaper ticket price, more convenience in about every way, and a damn-near equal experience. Sounds like we have a clear winner, right?
Maybe not so much. See, we’re both kind of impatient folk (me especially). I hear about a movie I want to see, and I want to see it right away, not wait the 4 months it’ll take for it to come out on DVD. And right now there’s a glut of movies either out or on the horizon that we’d enjoy watching:
Superbad (don’t ask)
So you see that there’s plenty of reason for us to be impatient. We want to see these movies, but we’re not sure that we can hold off for an extra 4-7 months after the hype starts to actually see them in the coolness & privacy of our own home. Sucks, huh? I mean, movieplex prices puts our total at $280 for these flicks. Renting them as they come out puts us at a mere $70. Netflixing them could be as cheap as $27.
Gimme props
Got two – count ‘em, TWO – lists in one blog. I’m freaking awesome. Yeah!
…Peace.
Ju-Jitsu+electronics=bad, & doggy doctor appts
Ju-Jitsu may be bad idea for household electronicsLast night was the Season Premiere of Family Guy, my all-time favorite television comedy. Unfortunately for me, I only saw enough of it to be highly pissed. Here’s what happened:
I turn on the Tele, and lo-and-behold, the signal is fading in and out every handful of seconds. Just great. I did sorta find out why, but this hardly makes sense. OK, so every time a car drove by, the signal broke up. Yeah it seems odd that cars – at ground level, driving by 50-60 feet away – would be able to muck up the signal, but I kid you not this is my experience. So anyway, I didn’t hear any of the punchlines, and only occasionally heard enough in a row to make out a buildup to a punchline. Yeah, great, this is great for my already-short temper. Have I told you I’m Italian? Fugedaboudit.
So how does Ju-Jitsu tie into this? Well let’s just say that I took out my frustrations on the gawdamn antenna, and contemplated putting a fist through the TV too. I pounded on ears so hard that now my hand hurts. Seriously. And I know that the antenna’s feelin’ it too, dammit. It better be at least. All that damage, and I don’t even have any formal hand-to-hand combat training, just imagine the damage I’d do with Ju-Jitsu training under my belt? Yeah, scary stuff. Flying Tiger Claw through the 52” HDTV, anyone? Let’s not imagine that.
Today – we attempt a Doggy Doctor visit
I say attempt because we’ve never done it here and who knows how that goes? Anyway, it’s more than just a check-up/check-in, as the Dumb One (Zoey) recently came up with a booboo on her head. We noticed she had scraped it or banged it or something, then it started scabbing – and getting bigger. Wounds shouldn’t get bigger, they should get smaller, right? So yeah, the timing’s great, even if we’d rather it not have been an event at all. What I mean is, we had planned to register our dogs this month anyways, so it’s convenient that she chose now to get the Black Death Plague or whatever it is she has, though obviously we’d rather it never happened at all.
We came to suspect that perhaps she had fleas or something, because The Girl bathed her (she stinks for whatever reason) and noticed a whole bunch of things (that’s the technical term) crawling away in haste to escape the water. Personally I think they are not fleas (seemed too big), but something of the small insect pest variety. Also, another point against fleas: We don’t seem to have any in the house. Miles, the Smart One, is fine. No fleas on us. No fleas anywhere. Just some bugs on her (probably because she stinks).
We feared at first that Miles would too be afflicted, but it dawned on me that it’s a slim possibility. Why? Because he plays with Sea Lions. Not that sea lions repel fleas or anything, but if you’re out in their territory – the water – as much as he is, well fleas need air to ‘breathe’ and as such probably wouldn’t take residence on a dog that thinks he’s a fish. Or sea lion.
No, seriously: Miles spends more time in the water than 95% of most fish species. I can’t keep him from diving in. If I gave him a snorkel he’d probably turn into a dolphin or something. He’s a magnet for water. Whever we go, if there’s water, he’ll find it. It’s like he can smell it. Does water smell?
But back to Electronics for a moment
This lack of steady signal coupled with the lack of HD content is going to drive me insane. I watch maybe 6 hours of television a month. Yeah, that’s it, not counting a few minutes of news here & there (most in gleaned from the internet). So for me, there’s really no way to justify spending $60+ a month to watch that 6 hours of TV in HD over cable or satellite.
Which leads me to believe that maybe, just maybe, Apple & iTunes should jump on the HD content bandwagon, so I can jump on it too. I had balked at the idea of spending $1.99 to watch a show that’s free on TV, but since I can’t get HD anyways, and it’s commercial-free & I can archive it, it’d worth it. I’d be spending $16 a month to watch the TV I watch, instead of $70. Yeah I’d lose some programming options, but I’d get more of what I want for less.
This really is the new model I think. Cut out the middle men (advertising) and get the content direct, paying for it what you think it’s worth. Of course that brings up the issue of pirating it. I thought about it – and still am somewhat, as at least Family Guy is not on iTunes – but it just seems like more than I want to get involved in just to watch some TV programming. I mean, I don’t want to be giving up my bandwidth to schmucks around the globe. It’s a free ticket to my system, you know? I just want to download the content I want, then play it on my TV at my choosing.
Yeah, Apple TV is looking nicer & nicer. F*ck, with a laptop the way I roll, I could skip that. My Apple Laptop could be the ultimate home entertainment center! If they equip the next-gens with Blu-Ray disc players, they already have digital audio out (I just have to find out how to hook it up), I could just plug it in to the TV and watch what I want when I want, and archive to HUGE BD discs. And if they ever get HD content on iTunes? We’re totally in business.
Dammit, someone transcribe this for me; I need to mail a letter to Mr. Jobs!
Peace.
Back early, Transformers, & My lastest endeavor
OK so I’m back earlyFor whatever reason I had my weeks mixed up. Looks like I can subject you to more blog torture earlier than expected. Hooray for me! Sucky for you.
OK, so what’s on the agenda? Ah yes:
Recently seen on TV
Barry Manilow being gay. Which is to say “Barry Manilow doing a Barry Manilow Impression.” I saw a commercial I think, for his new album or something. OK. George Michaels. Elton John. Both male. Both sex symbols. Both GAY. Both came out of the closet. So please, someone drop this guy a Post-It note or something and let him know it’s OK, it’s been done before, he too can come out of the closet.
Maybe spill the beans that “Mandy” is actually “Man D.”
Recently heard ‘round the house
Transformers dying violent deaths.
OK, now raise your hand if when you first read that you thought of humanoid robots that change shapes to resemble cars & such. Then put your hand down because I can’t really see you, nerd. No, I was talking about real transformers, i.e, the ones that transform transported energy into a form that we can use in our homes n’ such.
A few days ago (could be a week), I was up early and checking my email as I’m wont to do, when I hear what sounds like a very loud zap sound, followed by what sounded like an empty, echoed explosion. Funny, I thought, that sounded electrical. But then I heard it again, and I figured maybe the construction a few doors down was getting to be more intense than first I had thought. Turns out though, I should have stuck with my gut instinct: a look around a few minutes later, and I see no power on. Which meant no breakfast. Because everything in our house, save for water, is electrically powered.
Yeah, that’s as interesting as this story’s gonna get. I mainly wanted to see who would read transformers and think Autobots, then actually raise their hands. Because I really can see you. And now we know.
New work in progress
I’m currently working on what may be the most important text ever written in the history of the world. I got the idea when I realized I had gained a rather specific talent. This happened a few days ago during an IM session with a female friend from the southerly regions of CA.
She was asking me if my SO (Significant Other; ‘The Girl’) ever came home and told me about hot guys hitting on her, to which I answered yes, but sorta. Huh? Well as I explained, she tells me what the guys were like that were hitting on her, either if they were gross or HOT. I said that though she’s very specific in the specific sense about the gross ones, she’s not so specific about the un-gross ones; when she gets hit on by HOT GUYS, she tells me that they “were OK,” which is woman for “He was f*cking HOT.”
My IM buddy found this outrageously funny, because that’s exactly what she does too with her Hubby – “OK” is subsituted for “HOT.” Well no duh I was thinking, but it dawned on me that this was oddly funny to her because I had cracked the code.
So now obviously I have to write a translation book for men to understand woman-ese. “OK” = “HOT”. “It was good” = “I’ve had better”. You get it. There'll be more to follow, but those two are are rather important and topical I find, so you'll have a good base to start from until I finish my (the World's) masterpiece.
Peace.
Weight story, & my semi-forced hiatus
Workout Catastrophe: An injury sustainedOK, I didn’t want to say anything when it first happened, because I wasn’t sure if it was me or if it was the failure of the equipment, so I decided to wait & see. And, well, because if it was me, I might not have ever told anyone! But it wasn’t so we’re good to go.
OK so here’s the scenario. You may recall from a previous post that we opted to get our own home gym equipment on the cheap, rather than try to get a membership around here for a club that’s not as good as we’re used to anyways, and then have to actually find this club and drive there. Cool. Well we got a Smith Machine, and like most it uses Olympic-sized weights, meaning that the carrier hole is large (and possibly, in charge). Wanting to keep our weight collection as simple as possible, I searched out for Olympic Dumbells. I use dumbells for a lot of exercises, substituting Dumbell presses for bench presses to counter my chest deformity/imbalance, etc. So I was rather pleased when I found some olympic dumbells at The Sports Authority that looked to fit the bill; they looked as though they’d fit 4-5 10lb plates on each end, plus the locking collar. SWEET, I thought, I’d be in business and able to easily move up weights. The pickup date was July 5th, the infamous “move out of so cal” day. This was because the only place that had the home gym Smith Machine I wanted was halfway between so cal and “here cal.”
Anyway. I liked the idea of the locking olympic dumbells because it meant I didn’t need to have two separate & incompatible sets of weight: Olympic for the Smith Machine, standard for just about everything else. Cool, no duplication!
Now if only it would have worked out. Fast forward to the first workout back for me, my chest. I go a little light because it’s been two weeks, but it doesn’t matter, because my left forearm is about to get a nice surprise, in the form of 70lbs in an awkward decent towards my face. I guess making it quite a surprise to my face as well, huh?
So I was putting the weight up to do some incline dumbell press. The “locking collar” on one of the dumbells didn’t lock so much as it faked it, and next thing you know as I get 70lbs over my head & face area, it’s calling its own bluff and the weights start to shift. Now this is bad for more than one reason. It’s not that the weights have to fall to cause catastrophe, but imagine straining to hold a certain amount of weight up, and suddenly the balance point – which you had in the middle of your grip – suddenly changes and you can’t really compensate fast enough, and next thing you know you have weight crashing towards the ground. This is made doubly worse if your face is between the ground & the weight.
So the weight shifts and I am no longer in a position to keep it up. It starts to cascade towards my face, which while not pretty, certainly wasn’t going to be bettered by 70 more pounds landing straight on it. So I arched my body to put the weight closer to the outside of me, which worked, and it grazed off of my side and landed on the padding below. Well that set was shot, I thought, guess I better set up the second. Only problem was, as I went to tighten the locking collar up fully, I felt a sharp pain in my left forearm. Ouch. I guess as the weights were headed down the side of my body, I tensed to try and soften their landing. Bad idea, because that meant that I was basically doing a negative one-armed curl of 70lbs with momentum! For those that don’t know, that’s a freaking lot of weight. So yeah, it’s way more weight than I could handle even on my best day, and something had to give. My forearm was the lucky winner! Ouch.
That was mid-July. It’s now late September. I’m beginning to lift lightly again, heavier on non-bicep-related exercises as that’s where the damage is most apparent. But I’m working that back in now too, and it’s getting better. I say it’s 70% now. 65-70%.
Which is the long way to say this:
Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT invest in olympic dumbell sets; they’re sure to be your downfall. The locking mechanisms can’t hold as much weight as they need to, especially considering the fast movements & angle shifts associated with dumbell exercises. Let’s see, what else to say about my weightlifting saga up here?
Oh yeah. Though I bought it thinking it’d be cool as sh*t, I must say that the Gold’s Gym GR7000 could use some serious improvement. It’s hard to know these things in the store because it’s not like you can load it with 500lbs and test it out. But yeah, it kinda has its flaws, some of them serious enough I’m contemplating writing them about it. The seat base on one side is plastic. Plastic, y’all. Do you know how stable that feels when you have your own body weight plus an additional 100+ pounds? Yeah. Could use a little revision there, guys. Then there’s the thoughtful way they cut costs by supplying the Smith Guides as hollow tubing instead of, say, solid tubing? So when I’m doing squats on it, the bars flex and bend, which isn’t too confidence-inspiring. And this is a problem kinda, because the safety catches are attached to the poles and then rotate onto some locks to stay in place. Well, if you try to rack the weight near the safeties (say, to do calves), the latches flare out and can (and have on one occasion) come off what holds them in place at a specified height, meaning no more safeties. That’s bad.
On the “Not going to kill anyone” front, I can still pick a few flaws out. The damn bearings they used don’t actually exist. Which sucks, because it means that teamed with the fact that the bars bend, friction increases non-linearly. What? Why so technical? OK OK, what it means is that if you put on 100lbs and you gauge that you could do twice as much, think again. The friction created by adding that much more weight doesn’t double it, it freaking quadruples it. Yeah, So maybe it achieve this phantom 200lb goal weight you have to trial & error by 10’s or something, maybe ending up at 140 or something to “double” the weight of 100lbs.
The short of it? Take a browse by a gym equipment store, take pictures, come up with ideas to make it better, then have someone build you the thing with your improvements. That’s what I should have done.
More to come. Eventually. I swear
Yeah there’s been a hiatus. I haven’t had time, OK? And my usual two-day off routine for Monday & Tuesday has been done in, so probably not until.. Let’s check the calendar… OK, Thursday good for you? We’ll tentatively schedule a Thursday blog, but be prepared to have it pushed back to Saturday, OK? Much to talk about, but so little time to write it all up and post it. But we’ll get there eventually, huh?
Peace.
Alive & well – the blog, too
Fear not! Random bob lives! Long Live random bob!This may or may not be great news, depending on your perspective.
Yeah, so sorry for the absence. Nothing special, just a few minor issues that have taken up my time, ultimately the time I’d have used to blog. I’ll update later, but for now suffice to say that I’m making a list and checking it twice. To blog about, that is.
Peace.
Hiking the river; looking for dogs
Adventures in hikingNote to self: Don’t bring the dumb dog on the next hiking journey. I have no idea why it is that Zoey (that’s the dumb one) did this, but for some odd reason she decided to find herself in a world of potential disaster today.
We went hiking on a local BLM trailhead. It clings to a river (that’s more like a stream in most parts. At least right now in Fall), and in a few spots it gets deep enough that a dog (say, like a Black Labrador – hey, I have one of those!) could go and swim in. Cool. Well every time we go, my Lab does go and swim at a particularly deep and easy-to-reach spot. I stand on the trail, and huck small logs to the river/water hole below for him to retrieve. Retrievers are funny like that, huh? Anyway. If you didn’t get it from the previous sentence or two, the river is below the trail. Down an embankment.
After a while, the dogs became more interested in checking out the surrounding area. This may have been due to my lack of want to through the damn stick anymore, but it was what it was. Well Zoey (that’s the dumb one) decides she’s going to be brave and go off investigating something. I was trying to get my backpack off so I could hang out without it clinging to me, and the next thing I know is I hear a quick ruffle and Zoey’s out of sight. No problem, I don’t mind the dogs exploring, so long as the come when I call them. Well, out of sight or not, after some moments pass and I hear no more ruffling, and where I expected to see a small white dog running around sniffing, I saw none. So I call.
Nothing. So I call again. Nothing. I didn’t figure she was in trouble at first because I hadn’t heard any yelping, nor even so much as a whimper. But now I was a little worried, because she was between me and the river, so there’s no way she could have gotten too far out of range without crossing my line of sight. So I go to investigate the area. And as I get there, I see…
Zoey. Looking at me with this face of complete embarrassment, shame, and surprise. She looked at me as though to say “dad! Wow, um, glad to see you… um, not sure how to explain this, but um… help? I love you! Don't tell anyone about this though, OK? Love you!” She had walked out on brush. Brush. Not ground. Brush. I’m not sure what had possessed her to do this, other than dumb-ness, but there she was, having fallen through a level of brush and now sitting on another level of brush below that, too far down to get back up to where she was yet too high to make it to ground below without a substantial fall. I threw a rock to see, because I thought the water was just that close, but nay, it was an illusion, as the rock continued down through brush and air until hitting ground much further below.
Now, Zoey (that’s the dumb one) is a mere 35-40lbs. I’m closer to 200. I’m not quite sure how she expected me to rescue her, but I could tell from those sad puppy-dog eyes that this was indeed her expectation of me. Having just stripped my shirt to get some sun on my skin (and by extension, a tan), I now had to go and put it back on, as all this brush was blackberry bushes, which are quite thorny. Ouch.
This lead to some questioning. How the hell do I rescue a dog from a platform that couldn’t hold her weight, much less mine at 5x the amount? I broke out my knife and started cutting the brush down, mostly to rid the area of thorns, but found that it was making the top level of brush lay down closer to her chest. So I did that some to kind of break it up, then I noosed her with one of the leashes around her neck, and pulled while she climbed, so she could make it up the embankment she had fallen down. It worked, I don’t think she particularly cared for the solution (being noosed and all), but it was that or I jump down to grab her and we both go crashing down the embankment to whatever lie below. And all’s well that ends well, right? Needless to say, I kept a good eye on her the rest of the trip, and I don’t think I can trust her next to any embankments anymore; damn dog.
In lighter news though, Miles (He's the smart one) is becoming quite a strong swimmer. Yes he’s a Lab, but you have to understand that he’s 75-80lbs of pure muscle, and floating isn’t his strong-suit. He loves it terribly, swimming, but he’s just never really been that great at it. But with going to the beach and fighting the waves for a couple hours every other day or so, plus all the hiking and swimming there too, he’s gotten to be better, despite the lower fat-to-muscle ratio that comes with constant workouts like his. Instead of just a pair of eyes & a nose above water, his whole back is above stream-level, not even getting wet anymore. Still slow as shit, but he’s pushing enough force now to keep himself damn near out of the water!
Me? Well, I ran a little today. Because running a lot – obviously – was out of the question. Yeah. Guess I’ll have to practice that one some more. I had mentioned to The Girl that on our beach outings, we ought to dress for the occasion and go jogging along the shore.
You know that look you get when you have a great idea that makes total sense but the woman doesn’t want to play along because it means work? Yeah, I got that look.
Peace.
New "Articles" up (One is old), & "Review" vs. "Overview"
New Articles PostedOK, so here’s the deal: I recently downloaded Adobe’s Lightroom version 1.2 for trial, and as I had been thinking for some time, it proved to be more in line with my photo editing needs than Aperture from Apple. I have blogged about it before, but this time I decided that it was more of an “article” than a blog post, so I put them both over there.
I’m also going to try and begin each article & Mac Tip with a date. Sometimes when I search something online, I find an article about what I’m looking for but there’s no date, and it makes me wonder how up-to-date the info really is. So since it pisses me off when there isn’t one, I figured I better put them on my own! However, since I have no idea when I actually created my articles (with the exception of the transferred blog), it’ll be a “from here on out” type of thing. Enjoy.
Movie Reviews not so!
OK, so it was brought to my attention that my ‘reviews’ of movies are less reviews and more overviews. It’s not that I can’t review a movie properly folks, it’s that I really don’t want to give it away if you’re going to go and see it. I am trying to give you a teaser for the flicks that may direct you as to what you can and cannot reasonably expect, without giving away plot elements and/or super-sexy nude scenes (yes!). They're overviews to help the like-minded avoid garbage filmmaking is all, and it's really what I intended to do from the outset.
So from now on, I’ll refer to them as Movie “overviews,” but without the quotes. Everyone happy? Well let’s kill that buzz: Republicans run the White House. Yeah, sorry to bring you crashing back down to earth like that, but I could see the excitement was getting to be too much for you.
Peace.
Cameras & #23: The Movie. Also, cheaters they be
Computers & Digital Cameras, oh my!It would seem that in large part, my decision to buy a new computer (or rather, which one) kinda sorta hinges on what I do in the realm of photography. If I keep at the pace I am, I need power, so I’d probably get either a new, powerful iMac, or wait a few for the MacBook Pro 17” to jump the specs of the iMacs. Yeah it’s pricier, but it’s also a laptop – which is cool and useful!
Should however, I decide not to continue down the “I really want to be a good/semi-pro/pro photographer” path, I may consider – gasp – a regular ol’ MacBook. Because quite honestly, if I’m not huffing through hella-large photo files on occasion, the new MacBooks are quite a bit more powerful than my current 3 year-old rig is anyway, so I’d really just be losing some screen real estate, but I’d gain extra portability & a lower cost. Sheesh, I could probably sell mine and get the MacBook for about a straight exchange.
But as The Girl pointed out recently, I didn’t delve into the DSLR world because I thought I could make money or something, I did it because my desire to take better photographs was not being met by the Point-and-Shoot tier of cameras – I wanted more control. It just happened that I had a decent eye and people said I should sell my photography – that is, until they were asked if they wanted to buy!
So I’m weighing my options. Can a P-S camera get me what I want? Any more, it seems that I am just sharing online, and a P-S camera can do that with room to spare. But they can’t offer the fine control I crave, what with me being a control freak. So once I figure that out, I’ve answered the computer question, I guess.
Movie Review: The Number 23
OK, the good news first: The story’s pretty interesting. It’s more a mystery than I anticipated it would be, and with only a few holes to fill, it could’ve been a really good story. Maybe a more ominous beginning, and just fix a few small timeline issues (like, how’d the wife know the whole book when she had it in her possession for like 10 minutes before her husband showed up and she gave it to him for his birthday? SHE HASN’T READ IT YET, SHE SHOULDN’T KNOW WHAT’S IN THE NEXT CHAPTER), and they’d have a really good script for the ages. It can be weak in parts, and there’s a major hiccup in the whole big picture that needed fixing that no one caught (not even I until the second day – and I’m not sharing). There’s also some explaining and characters that are introduced that are not fleshed out or explained as they should be. It’s not perfect is what I’m saying, but it has a strong premise for a semi-scary thriller mystery movie.
Now the bad news: Jim Carrey couldn’t sell food to the starving. He couldn’t give it away, actually. Look, I ‘m glad for him that he came so far in his life (from nothing stand-up comic to rich movie star), but as I see it, he’s always Ace Ventura playing some random character, and there seems to be zero believability in his portrayals. I keep expecting a fart joke or something, even though it’s a serious flick. Look, if it’s a slap-stick physical comedy you’re shooting, give the guy a call. If it’s anything other than that, then get someone else. Shit, you could cast a cardboard cutout of Jim Carrey and it’d be a better fit for about any project.
So, the verdict: If you can look past bad acting and still enjoy a decent story, it’s worth seeing. If (like me) you can’t see the forest through the trees with regards to movies, acting, and stories, then skip it. Grade: C
And in other News….
Patriots of New England are Cheaters.
Some people I know of vaguely (through the internet) were reacting as though it’s no big deal, anyone can see the calls, like the other 70,000 people in attendance. And yeah, that’s true, but…
They don’t have cameras. So they can’t record it either, for later analysis, to be able to make cheat sheets on what the other team is calling during the game (a later game, of course). I’m pretty sure that video cameras are all but outlawed at the event, right? Right? Maybe wrong, but even so.
There should be no focus on the other team whatsoever; the winner should be who prepared their team the best, not who prepared to pre-empt the other team’s play calls the best. Use your guile and knowledge of the other guy to beat him, not secret codes you stole.
That’s cheating. You cheating cheaters.
Peace.
Sign Logic & Laptop goodness
Strange sightingI noticed on the drive home from the Mall today a video rental place named “name removed to save the innocent Video Movie Rentals.”
Um, isn’t it kinda redundant… I mean, is there a reason to mention twice that… doesn’t a movie have to be… Is there another kind of video that I didn’t know… doesn’t..? Doesn’t…? I mean, isn’t a movie a video kinda by definition? Is there reason to say “Video Movie”? Wouldn’t that be like saying “Audio Music” or something?
Not that it’s that important or anything, but it just sorta struck me. How about one or the other? People will still know what you’re about. Trust me.
Laptops: Best when put to use
Today after work, I got home and decided I needed to get new, more comfortable work shoes. I came this close to packing up the laptop and taking it with me (I have a custom backpack), then decided not. However, as I found out, I no longer have any idea what days are what or what important distinctions may come with that. Such as, Malls close early on Sundays. Which today happens to be.
So. After a quick drive to the mall so I could turn right around, I decided to go to The Girl’s work for a burger. Great for me, as it’s just about free. Sucky for me, because they have free wi-fi, and I could have had something to do. Rather, I sat alone, with nothing to do between the Girl’s visits & the food arriving. Worse yet, I had a sore reminder of my dumbness in leaving my most prized possession @ home, as a nice older gentleman a table next to me had the same exact computer as me. Meaning that as I was twiddling my tumbs, he was happily browsing the free wi-fi, taking in all the porn the internet had to offer.
I really need to force myself to start bringing the thing along. I mean, there’s already been so many times that it’d come in handy around town that I missed out on by not having it. And it is portable, so there’s really no excuse for not taking it, other than being lazy.
So starting today: taking the laptop with me when I go out (always a few exceptions, such as hiking). I’m practicing right now: I put my laptop in the bag and hauled it with me out of the office and into the living room. So I could pull it out and type while I watched some NFL. Go INDIANAPOLIS!
Peace.
Dog vs. Seal, Dog vs. Flowerbed, & Apple Haters
Who would win in a fight: two dogs, or a seal?Now I only ask in jest of course, not because my dogs went and sniffed up a seal or anything. I swear, I wasn’t out walking along the beach the other day, and caught a glimpse of a seal not 20-ft from the shoreline. And I also swear that my dogs did not, I repeat did not also see the seal that I didn’t see that wasn’t at the beach that I wasn’t at, and thusly did not go out and meet the seal in the shallows and have a sniff session.
So clearly, I’m only asking in a generally curious sort of way.
Damn! How’d you know I was lying?
OK, that did happen the other day. Yesterday in fact. I saw the damn seal out there and was like, wow, I’ve never seen a seal that close up before! How cool! Followed shortly after by He’s going to go swimming away now that the dogs are headed his direction, right? Followed by Holy fuck, he’s arching his back like a cat. That’s not good, right? Right? Where’s a Seal Almanac when you need one? Followed by Crap I hope the dogs don’t get eaten. Followed by my yelling “Hey! Get away from the seal!” Because as we all know, dogs innately know what a seal is by name, in english, and with no prior training.
The good news is nothing happened. It looked to be about 120 pounds, maybe 1.5x Miles’ size (about 75-80 pounds) visually. He didn’t seem out for a fight, but he didn’t seem too terribly pleased to have two dogs sniffing him like he was a new toy. Not too terribly bothered either, mind you. But I didn’t know off the top of my head at the time whether seals are vicious attack creatures with razor-sharp teeth or dopey, friendly Dolphin-like sea animals. And I didn’t know if I could run out to the spot, then swim out to sea and catch a seal carrying one of my dogs with him. I imagine a dog would add quite a drag, but I didn’t want to find out.
Thankfully, nothing of note happened. The dogs eventually turned to look and see what the wild man was yelling for, and the seal just sort of jumped off and went away into the waves. Saving me from having to go swimming, too.
I could actually still be lying
Inadvertently, though. I’m not sure if it was a seal or a sea lion. It looked grey, didn’t appear to be furred, and had the “classic” seal look to it. You know, that pose on the Thompson’s Water Seal products? The classic “look I’m balancing a ball on my nose!’ stance. Yeah, that’s what it looked like. But in reading to try and figure it out, seals seem to be larger & heavier & clumsier than this thing was. So I am just not sure. Next time I see him, I’ll ask. ARP ARP! ARP ARP ARP! That’s seal for “hey, you’re a seal right?” If I don’t get an answer, I’ll assume that it’s because it’s a sea lion and has no idea what I said.
Dog digs up garden. Dog finds secret burial spot for said dog.
So the dogs had what could have been a near-death experience at the beach. Of course for all we know, it could have been a near lotto-winning experience, too. But anyway. We get home. I lock the dogs outside because they’re wet & sandy, and I wanted them to dry so I could take a towel and make them un-sandy before letting them in (before I went to work). I have lunch, clean the kitchen a little, and start getting ready. I figure I’ll let the dogs in, and you know what I found? A doggy digging our flower garden outside. MY dog. The good one. Yeah. Not sure what it was he was looking for, but I know what he found. He inadvertently found my secret burial grave for his ass should he ever dig it up again.
I say “again” because this is now twice in the last 3 weeks. He makes it 3? I make a fur coat. That’s the deal.
People still bitching about price-cut on iPhone
Can you believe it? People complaining that a company cut its prices. Take a look here for more. And if you were curious, yes the “randombob” on consumerist.com is the random bob here.
So it’s official: I’ve seen everything. Goodbye cruel world, I’ve nothing left to give. Whining over a lower price...
Peace.
New iPods, iPhone Price cut, iWork '08, & M$ Word
Apple finally releases iPod that satisfies masses; masses not satisfiedI posted in an online forum (Mac-related, of course) that we should all mark our calendars: September 5th, 2007 — the day that Apple realized it’s iPod/iTunes empire; the day they released the products all their followers asked for; the day they came full-circle, allowing iTunes wirelessly, syncing both directions, completing the iTunes/iPod ecosystem. Truly a Momentus day.
No sooner did I post that, than like the whole damn world chimed in that they were not satisfied, not satisfied at all. I mean, what? Only 16GB of space? Screw the fact that there’s never been an iPod Touch before, thereby destroying any chance of comparison to previous models’ offerings. Screw the fact that despite the “paltry” space allowance, it’s got everything that everyone ever wanted: Wi-Fi enabled, widescreen, touchscreen, Mac OS X running it, full web support, download songs directly to it, sync back to the Mac, and everything else including pretty nice battery life considering.
Can’t please everyone, huh? I’m pleased. I’m also not buying, but that’s because I have no need. I’m pleased with what they released, however. Not too shabby.
iPhone Price Cut
Many around the www were not thrilled that Apple went ahead and axed the 4GB version of their new iPhone. Less were pleased by the $200 price cut in the 8GB version. Why? Because they feel like Apple ripped them off. I have no idea why. It was released. It was priced. You weighed the price versus its usefulness to you. You decided it was worth it. Now suddenly it costs less, most likely due to component price drops, and you feel that your purchase of a few months ago was now suddenly not worth it? Because you could have waited 3 months and saved $200, right?
OK, but you do realize that you wouldn’t have had an iPhone for 3 entire months, right? Yes, you paid more. But, you also got to play with the world’s newest, coolest tech toy for an additional 3 months. People who waited & saved that $200 will not ever, ever be able to say that. So get over it.
This Blog Entry typed up on the NEW iWork ’08
I downloaded the newest version of Apple’s iWork suite of productivity apps. Not too bad. Not too much new & different from the last revision either, though. With student discount it’s only like $60, but quite honestly I think I’m probably going to pass. Even though the format bar that changes with the focus is pretty nice, as is the one-button styles drawer, it’s not nice enough to actually get me to fork over that $60. Nice try, Apple, but on this one, I’m not satisfied.
Yesterday’s Blogs typed up in M$ Word. Almost.
OK, don’t ask why, but for whatever reason I had a dream the night before last about discovering that Word would be the better platform from which to type up my website entries. As you may have gathered, I compose in a different program than I post with. Reason being is that a Word Processor allows me to get the Headings and text the way I want with presets, so that each time I switch between It’s not a 12-step program like I’m getting off alcohol or something. Quick, simple, efficient.
Anyway. The dream had me converting to Word to do my typing. I figured, what the heck, maybe my subconscious is on to something, and gave it a whirl. Set up the template, got the presets going, got typing…
And quickly got back to using Pages. I don’t know quite what it is, but Word – despite its pros – has too many cons in important areas to get over, most notably usability. And the thing is, I can’t quite put my finger on it. For whatever reason, with all its power, it just mucks up the simplest stuff, which unfortunately is where most of my use for it comes in.
The absolute clincher? I highlighted all the text, went to drag it into the web program I use, and it wouldn’t go. Yep. M$ Office allows you to drag text into it, but it won’t allow you to drag anything out of it. How nice, break some good ol’ Mac Drag n’ Drop functionality, one of the main reasons I use the Mac in the first place – intuitive design.
So of course that go me thinking about using the NEW version of Pages. And while THIS blog post was done in it, I think that soon enough my website posts will be done in the older, already-owned version.
Because I loathe almost everything Microsoft. And because I’m cheap. As if you didn’t know.
Peace.
Consumers beware
The trouble with codified materialOK, so recently we decided to go and get cable or something or other. We don’t watch much TV, but what little we DO like is either specialty stuff (Discovery Channel, National Geographic, etc), or just not available in HD over-the-air(OTA) here. Oh yeah, forgot to mention: It’s got to be in HD. Kinda important, forgot to mention that.
So now, after years of not having cable or satellite, we sort of feel forced into it because we get poor, poor reception, and the local channels around these parts do not broadcast in HD OTA (over-the-air) anyways.
Late last week, we got a mailer touting a Dish Network package for $19.99. Now, we don’t figure that we’re actually going to get what we want for this price mind you, but we figure that it’s a good building block. We don’t want much, just ABC's Lost & the likes in HD, and if we can get Discovery & National Geographic, more power to us. So we call. This is where things sort of fell apart for us.
You see, that $19.99 deal is not eligible to add any of the HD packages to it. So if you want HD, you have to opt for the $29.99 “America’s Top 100 plan.” Who say’s it’s America’s Top 100, BTW. Did anyone ask you? I never got asked. Because I would not have put CSPAN on that list is what I’m sayin’. CSPAN2? C'mon. But I digress…
So now we’re up an extra $10. Then of course, if we DO opt for the HD, we have to get the DVR receiver (Which we were gonna anyway), but the use of this machine costs an additional $5 a month. So yeah. We had priced ourselves into $44.99 a month and felt it reasonable, but now we’re looking at $60 a month. For the pleasure of one or two shows we actually plan to watch in HD. $45 was an easy choice, $60? Not so much. I mean, $15 isn’t all that much, but in context, it’s 33% more than what we had priced ourselves into. Mind you, this $45 figure we arrived at originally was with assistance of the first person we talked to about it. The second person was the one to really let us in on the secret that it wasn’t gonna happen. Right before he hung up on me.
Well, after being nickel-and-dimed 33% above & beyond what we had originally settled on, then hung up on, I decided that I wasn’t going to call back for more of the same. So I went to their website to check it out without being hung up on. Now, before you go to visit www.godish.com, be aware that the website is sort of like my phone call; you’ll going to get hung up on anyway more than likely. First thing I see on the page I end up at is “$19.99… our Everyday low Family Pack Price!”, followed a few pages later by a declaration on their HD Channels page that it is $20 “…added to any existing package.” So one would assume that you can indeed opt to add it to the $19.99 package, right? Cool! They advertise the cheaper deal online, and they advertise the HD package (which gets you the local channels in HD, too) as an add-on to any package. Off to order.
Except that when you go online to order, there’s no option to actually order the $19.99 plan. Isn’t that peachy. So I’ve got a complaint in via email, but I don’t have high aspirations. I’ve also got an email away to The Consumerist. Let’s see who gives me the better response, huh?
This is why – as I said in my email to The Consumerist – we need to get back to laymen’s contracts. There’s so much fine print and wiggle-room in today’s contracts, that the consumer is f*cked from day one. Because tie never goes to the runner anymore, it always goes to the baseman in Big Business.
Peace.
Marmalade: Good on Toast! Not so much on sandwiches
Photography Q's (Still), business plan, & Repub Bashing
Another reason I question my commitment to photography in-depth: it takes time. Having “good” equipment means having it in a good bag so as to make sure it stays good equipment. The stuff is big (at least bigger), lots of switches, dials, etc.
I cut my finger pretty gnarly today at work. I had intended to show you a picture of it here, but I’m too damn lazy and it’s not a big enough deal to go to the office, break out the bag, get the camera, put the right lens on, get the settings correct (lighting, shutter speed, ISO ratings, white balance), etc. So instead I’m just not going to show you. Take that, fellow readers. Random bob cares about you.
The Girl often takes pictures of small scenes with her phone camera. I cringe at the sight of her breaking it out to do that, because to me it’s only good enough for emergency purposes, taking pictures of a scene after a car accident (which we did, actually), things of that nature. But of our garden? Our Kids? Are you freakin’ kidding me?
Yeah well she may have the right idea. If I gave up the big flashy 10 gajillion megapixel camera for a pocketable Canon Elf or something, I could take a quick pic and load it no problem to the computer to put on the web. Shit, maybe even get one with Bluetooth (it’s a wireless connection type) and make the process REAL simple. Sure I’d be giving up quality, adjustment options, & coolness points. But I’d probably use it more. I’d be like a Japanese tourist or something.
Shit. Maybe I should stick with my photo hobby then, huh?
Have idea, need funding
OK, so I’ve got a crazy idea to get into the Republican Bashing bumper sticker business. I’ve got a great idea for it, but I don’t want to give it away right now. Let’s just say that a certain political party will not like me even less than they probably currently do. Which is fine. I like thinking for myself, and doing so critically.
So who wants to donate? You always here about those venture capitalists, right? Lots of money and stuff? Hey, now’s your chance! Hop on this bandwagon before the wheels break off!
That hardly sounded enticing, huh? Maybe I’ll re-word that when I send out the flyers.
More Republican Bashing? What now?
So bush (capitalization meaningful) isn’t only dumb, he’s also one of those guys that likes to take credit for things that he had nothing to do with. You know the type, you’re at a party, they mention that they’re an architect, then start to talk about some huge span of Bridge in France, in such a fashion as to insinuate they had anything to do with it. Like it was their idea.
Yeah well, recently bush (capitalization meaningful) spilled the beans that the US is the only industrialized nation to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Except everyone but him pretty much agrees that HE had nothing to do with it, it was more a factor of an unseasonably warm Winter (read article). Even his administration dances around the absurdity of the comment.
Unless of course he wants to take credit for Global Warming, him and his Oil Buddies. Then maybe yeah, I&