Random posting

I have been a bit too busy to post lately. I fought a bout with food poisoning and does that ever suck. Beware the ground beef :(

Saw plasticized human bodies at the Gulf Coast Exploreum. It was quite cool but I couldn't help but think 'where did the bodies come from and how were they obtained?' Anyway, no matter how it went down it was an educational trip. Now we want to plan another trip down to Museum of Mobile to see the World War II photo exhibit.

We missed seeing Doug and the rest of 'robbing Peter' perform during the Azalea Trail run. I was saddened by this but alas, sometimes a groupie cannot make every single gig.

I was working on planning a viewing of some Doctor Who for the weekend to get ready for the new series starting Saturday. But one of the invitees said he probably would not make it to watch Battlestar Galactica. So this sent my creative juices flowing. While possible not everyone will enjoy this, I had quite a long laugh with this. This is most of an email I sent to all of the invitees.

I'm going to spoil the last season of BSG for all of you. On top of that, I will even give you something from the future (I feel the shock and awe coming from the screen).

The Doctor and his companion is going to be battling the Sontarans but this rag-tag fleet of ships with one remaining battlestar is going to cross paths with them.

After much fighting between the humans and the cylons (or are they cybermen?) the Doctor, with the aid of his sonic screwdriver, will destroy the cylon robots (cybermen maybe) and base stars. Then in an act of compassion he will show that the humans can live with the 'skin-jobs' since they are a new race of beings (and he will point out how brilliant that is). But sadly, they cannot continue on to Earth since their civilization is too advanced and would upset Earths balance. So they will be sent back home, Earth will remain oblivious to the 12 colonies, and the Doctor will fly off, through time and space, to yet another exciting adventure.

Then in about two or three years time, Ron (creative mind behind BSG) will not have any luck with any other television (Caprica will flop) or movie ideas and will pitch a 'reinvention' of Battlestar Galactica 1980 as a new series for SciFi (with a funny bearded Almos just like the funny bearded Lorne Green).

Since the Earth is not at technologically advanced as the 12 colonies are, they will take it upon themselves to help to advance them to help fight the cylons (or cybermen). **Side note: doesn't this sound like Dalek's wanting to advance them to a higher advancement? Just maybe? End Side note**

This will lead to yet another visit from The Doctor and a different companion with a little help from U.N.I.T. to set the Earth straight again and protect its inhabitants from the evil cylons (probably called the cybermen...very close to cylon don't you think) and the 12 colonies (dalek's anyone?). Oh, don't forget the sonic screwdriver and maybe, just maybe, a tin dog.

Enjoy!

Knight Rider Revived

The photo is an image of the original Knight Rider tv series. It was a show I used to watch as a kid growing up. I had the K.I.T.T. toy car that would talk. I had a lot of cool adventures with that car. But I just watched the new TV Movie that picks up 25 years after the first series. K.I.T.T of old has been dismantled and a new K.I.T.T. has been built. Instead of a Trans Am it is now a Cobra Mustang (to be accurate its a Ford Mustang Cobra GT500 KR image below). I liked how the story was not a replacement or remake of the original but rather a continuation. The story was pretty good and seeing a Mustang in action always has my attention. If you have not seen it, I believe it is worth watching. Thus I will not spoil anything but it was nice to see 'The Hoff' make a cameo.

Iranian speedboats, primaries, and FISA....oh my!

Yeah, 'Oh my' is my reaction because if anyone has watched the video you have to have some doubt about it. The supposed Iranian voices do not have a very good accent. On top of that, it sounds like an amateur phone prank. It was on the level of calling up your neighbor across the street, while peeking through your blinds, and asking them if their refrigerator is running and then advising them that they had better go catch it. I strike it up to FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) by the pentagon trying to let us bomb Iran.

But after the pentagon and the press has reported on the initial video about 'the speedboaters threatening our warships' they are quietly saying that....maybe, just maybe the voices on the recording may not have been from the Iranian speedboats. This comes from ABC News which is linked here.

I recently saw a very good video about Frank Luntz and his polls for Fox (faux) News. He twists the questions in such a way that he can get whatever answer he wants then pick and choose what he wants to use to support whatever he wants.

On the topic of Faux News, their snubbing of Ron Paul in New Hampshire hasn't looked very good for them. The 'not enough room' argument was obviously not the case. Gretta Van Susteren actually supported the idea of having Paul at the debate (if she truely felt this way or if it was a way for them to use the 'not enough room' argument I don't know).

In the New Hampshire primaries there have been some grumblings about odd vote counts and missing votes. Mr. Kucinich has sent a letter to the New Hampshire Secretary of State asking for a recount in what he says, "unexplained disparities between hand-counted ballots and machine-counted ballots." There have been testimony from a person who worked on some of the software used on these electronic voting machines about how he was asked to make a back door way to make someone win. I am not alleging fraud but there must be checks and balances to ensure a completely fair process. I applaud Mr. Kucinich and hope that NH will conduct a recount.

Now my last bit of news I want to write about has to do with FISA and the phone companies. I have voiced my opinion about warrantless wiretaps and the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Survellance Act) courts. Then I ran across this article. It appears that telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps that have been used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because they have repeatedly failed to pay their phone bills on time. I have not heard this mentioned on television or in the main stream media but I saw this on Yahoo news after checking my email. Its funny if you ask me.

Here is a question that was not part of the re-airing of the South Carolina debates for some odd reason:


Also another link to a site with a video.

The War in review

There have been countless documentaries, movies and games produced covering World War II but none that I have seen are quite as good as Ken Burns 'The War'. He stated that he did not want to do another war documentary after completing 'The Civil War'. However he changed his stance after many years of people asking him to cover this war. But the deciding factors were two statistics: 1) Every day we are losing 1,000 World War II veterans in the United States every day 2) an unbelievably high number of high school students across the nation believe that the United States fought along side the Germans AGAINST Russia.

This has been an excellent documentary highlighting some of the people involved in the war without focusing on the generals or even the equipment used. The people highlighted were from four small towns in America that were changed forever by the war. One of those towns was Mobile, Alabama. But it wasn't only limited to people who served, it included family members who were affected by their friends and family serving in the armed forces.

The documentary, broken up into a seven part series aired its last episode last night. However they announced it will be reairing on Wednesday nights later this year, so if you missed it the first time around check it out, you will not regret it.

Ken Burns, The War

I attended the free preview of Ken Burns latest documentary entitled 'The War'. They focus on four towns (including Mobile) and how they changed during the course of World War II. But the main focus is the people from those towns. They interviewed many people for the documentary.

It was a very stunning mix of clips that was very touching. At times you had the audience clapping at something in the film, then other times you could see people shaking their heads or drying their eyes. It will be a very poignant series to watch as it airs on PBS. It is a 14.5 hour documentary that will be aired on Sunday nights starting September 23rd. For the schedule you can visit PBS here. For more information about 'The War' at the PBS website, visit the link here.

The DVD of this documentary will be available October 2nd, presumably at Books-A-Million. It will contain 15.5hrs of film plus some extras such as deleted scenes and interview outtakes. You can pre-order it from PBS here which is good because a portion of the proceeds goes to help fund public television.

Hazy, smokey day...

So, I went to take Thor outside and it was hazy and smells of smoke. But there are no fires around here. Nope, this smoke is from the fires in Georgia. I heard this morning that the smoke and haze is from at least Huntsville down to Cullman. I do not know how far west it extends beyond here.

Mom has a stomach infection when I got up here on Friday. Its starting to get better now that she is on broad spectrum antibiotics. She will have to take them for two weeks then go back for a check-up.

Heroes season finale was pretty good. I did not like how it ended really. It inferred some things but it did leave things open for a couple characters.

I saw the highlights of the second Republican candidate debate and Ron Paul was great. He is really growing a strong base in the online community and hopefully this will grow outside of the online community as he gets more exposure.

There's nothing more serious....

There's nothing more serious than a Rhino charging your @$$!!!


Well, the best show on television has returned with a new series of Doctor Who. The first episode of the series introduces a new race called the Judoon. They are a police like race (Think peacekeepers sorta) who come to earth to apprehend a non-human criminal.

This series introduces a new companion for The Doctor, Martha Jones, portrayed by Freema Agyeman (whom is extremely hot, might I say). Martha is going to be a very good companion for The Doctor since she is smart and witty. As usual with Doctor Who, the cinematography is great and the story is told very well. Certain things that you think are weird or maybe irrelevant in the episode is explained towards the end and it makes you think, 'Why didn't I recognize that' or 'why didn't I figure that out'.

No new battlestar until 2008...

Yeah thats right, no new Battlestar until 2008. But guess what, I don't care. So far every story in season 3 has pretty much sucked. What started out as a great series in seasons 1 and 2 has turned into crap. I think season 4 will be its last and by the look at its current writing level...none too soon. I think the only thing that was worse was 'who wants to be a superhero'. I also hate to say it but maybe something similar is happening to Lost. With some of the writers/producers being tapped for new stuff, the original vision for the show is being lost and its appeal is faltering.

But, The Riches is still going strong. Andy Barker PI seemed quite funny from the first episode. Raines also seems pretty good from the first episode. Jeff Goldblum was very good and the premise is somewhat funny. We'll have to see how the series goes from there.

Its been a while

Hey, sorry its been so long since I last posted but I had some stuff to share. Monday, Kc, Vicki, Jeremy and myself worked on cleaning up the back yard. It looks much better and kc has spruced it up with some plants in one corner of the yard. A bunch of bricks are going to be hauled off along with plastic lattice and about dozen bags of leaves and other junk.

I have to hand it to Frank Miller, while I didn't get to go see the movie with the group on Saturday and have yet to see it. I am very eager to watch it. On a $70 million dollar budget they produced this beautiful looking movie. Hopefully, more of his visions will be make it to the screen with him directing. So, if anyone has not seen 300 or would like to see it again, let me know.

A new show premiered on FX that I watched. Its called 'The Riches' and from the first episode it looks very good. The show stars Eddie Izzard, Minnie Driver and Shannon Marie Woodward (which I know in a roundabout way). I am not going to post the synopsis here but I will definitely link to it. All three cast I named above do a wonderful job in the pilot episode and it really has me wanting more so far. I have never seen anything of Eddie Izzard but he was great. The entire family cast was great and I would recommend it.

Also, here is an article about 'The Riches'. Enjoy!

First Post of 2007

Well, I rang in the new year last night in a rather quiet and humble way. I merely sat in my room watching an episode of Robin Hood. Nothing spectacular I admit, but it wasn't bad nonetheless.

So, now its time for my Bowl review of the games I have seen and a preview of the ones yet to come.

Lets start with Alabama. It hasn't gone under the radar that Shula was fired several weeks ago. Since he was calling the offensive plays, that job fell to Dave Radar the offensive coordinator. Joe Kines served as head coach and defensive coordinator. The team came out and played pretty well, although they fell behind by halftime they didn't roll over and give up (a la the Shula era). They did come back to tie the game at 31. Unfortunately, the defense couldn't get a turnover when they needed it most. I was a little confused at the poor time management Kines exerted near the end of the game. With three time outs left and OSU clearly in field goal range, he opted not to conserve time for the offense to try and run a play or two. Rather, he opted to call all three time outs consecutively to try and ice the kicker. This didn't work and only left a few seconds to try and run back the kickoff with some laterals which didn't work. Thus 'bama fell 34-31 to Oklahoma State.

Kentucky vs. Clemson in the Music City bowl was a big surprise to me. Kentucky is not a power house by any means and Clemson is good team. Which is why I was so surprised to tune in and see Kentucky leading Clemson 28-6. While Clemson came back to make it a closer game, it would still should be an embarrassment to Tommy Bowden that he lost to Kentucky 28-20.

I didn't watch Oregon State but I saw the recap and I am impressed by the gutsy call by their coach going for the 2-point conversion at the end of the game to win instead of playing it safe and kicking the extra point to tie and force overtime. Maybe if Shula didn't coach so utterly conservative he just might have kept his job.....maybe not.

Again, I didn't watch Insight bowl with Texas Tech vs. Minnesota, I again watched the recap. I saw the score at 38-7 and wrote the game off and went to bed. Boy, was I surprised the next day when I learned that TT actually won the game 44-41. This is the largest Bowl comeback in history to win and I applaud TT. They took on one of the more traditional teams 'good teams', fell way behind but showed the heart of a champion in coming back to win.

I did watch Texas vs Iowa and was surprised when Iowa jumped on them early with a 14-0 start on their first two drives. Unfortunatly, they couldn't keep the momentum going and fell to Texas.

Miami vs Nevada last night up in Boise Idaho on the blue turf wasn't much of a surprise. Miami won a close one, I was rooting for Nevada.

I didn't watch or even see the recap for the South Carolina vs Houston game but I felt that USC was going to pull out the win.

Then came a series of good games that I watched on Saturday. Navy vs Boston College was a good game. Paul Johnson's team was ready to play. They took the lead and held it most of the game with a great running and option attack that utilized enough pass to keep the BC defense honest at times. They ripped of some big 20+ yard runs. But when the game was in hand, a fumbled option pitch became a turnover giving life back to BC. BC then moved the ball down into field goal range for their kicker who, before this season, had never played football (only soccer). BC made the FG and on the ensuing kickoff, Navy tried the lateral game but didn't make it and falls 25-24.

The Chick-fil-a (Peach) bowl pitted Georgia vs Virginia Tech. While Tech was the ranked team, Georgia is a good team with a freshman quarterback. The inexperience at QB lead to a few deceptive losses during the season. Georgia scored first with a field goal but Tech lit it up in the second quarter scoring 21 points in about a 10 minute span. At the half, it looked like Tech with its offense moving the ball pretty well and defense which was shutting down the Georgia offense looked like they had the game in hand. The second half was totally different from the first. Georgia came out with a fire under their rears and played some smash mouth SEC football. Exploding for 28 second half points and their defense only allowing 3 second half points and forcing turnover after turnover. Georgia really showed how good they can be.

Now, my predictions for some of the games today.

Georgia Tech vs West Virginia in the Gator Bowl. My edge goes to WV, they have bowl experience with a win in the Sugar Bowl last year and GT just not playing very consistent. Plus, their experienced QB is suspended so I think it will be close to begin with and WV pulls away for the win.

The cotton bowl pits Nebraska vs Auburn. While I don't have much love for the cow college, this game is a pretty good match. Nebraska has overhauled its offense under their new coach to the spread offense from the option wishbone of old (which I still like btw). The Nebraska defense is pretty good year in and year out. If they can stop the Auburn run game and force them to pass, its going to be a long day. Georgia did this and came up with four interception. Additionally, Auburn has a couple linebackers out for different reasons, so the defensive rush will depend on Groves up front to get pressure on the QB. The secondary will have to come up and help the inexperienced linebacker cover the short to intermediate routes, which the Nebraska QB is very accurate with. I think this will be a close game but I give the edge to the Cornhuskers in a close game.

The outback bowl has Penn State vs Tennessee. Again, I have no love for the Vols but this could prove to be a one sided game in the Vols favor. Paterno is going to try to be on the sidelines for the game but his knee may prevent him from being there the whole game. The nittany lions will have to come out ready to play with lots of pressure on the Vol offense and ball control. Unfortunately, I think the Vols win by 10 or more.

The capital one bowl has Wisconsin (11-1) and Arkansas (10-3). While Wisconsin hasn't really played anyone of note other than Michigan, their record speaks for itself. Arkansas lost to early to USC, which I think made them a better team this season. Then late losses to LSU in the final season game and a loss to Florida in the SEC championship. I think Arkansas will come out with something to prove and win a close game.

Boise State vs Oklahoma in the Fiesta bowl. Boise State plays in a weak conference but could be the little engine that could for all those non-BCS schools. Oklahoma has had problem after problem this year, but still proved that Stoops is a great coach and the team has heart (and talent). Before the season they dismissed their star QB then later lost their Heisman caliber running back to a broken collar bone. Watch out for a possible upset here, but I give Oklahoma the edge in a close game.

So, now the 'granddaddy of them all' with USC vs Michigan. Many believe that Michigan and Ohio State should have played in the National Championship game in a rematch. My feelings is, too bad. You had your chance and couldn't win. You didn't win your conference championship. Back to this game, USC needs to protect their QB and defend against the Michigan keep pass. Pete Carroll is great at getting his team up for big games. I give USC the edge.

Tune in tomorrow for my Orange Bowl pick.

'New Show' and 'Mooooving'

'New Show'

Well, since there was no new episodes of shows that I routinely watch tonight, so I was flipping through the stations and found what seems to be a funny show. 'Big Day' is a 30 minute serial about the day leading up to a wedding. It has a funny actor named Josh Cooke, which I first saw in a very funny show called 'Committed'.

So, after that I did not change the channel and my interest was peaked when William Shatner started talking. It was Boston Legal, it seems to be very funny at times between the dramatic points.

'Mooooving'

Here we go again. Its time to move again. This time though maybe its for more than this last stint. I have most of my packed up now. All I have left is a few things to pack up in the morning like my awesome new monitors and the rest of my computer setup. The router and the rest of the network cables etc. A few bathroom hygene items. My pots and pans. Then the disassembly of my desk.

UGH!

The Doctor appears in Heroes...

'According to the latest issue of TV Guide magazine, Christopher Eccleston will play Claude, an invisible man, and will first appear on Heroes January 22. According to series creator Tim Kring: "He's been living with his invisablility for many years and has come to grips with it, so he'll give us a different veiw into this hero world."'

SWEET!!!