Looking glass

Silver Screen

I’ve been reading bits and pieces every now and then about the movie industry, and how copyright is killing it because they have to make back the millions upon millions of dollars that they invest in a movie, not to mention the star salaries and so on.

I’ve got a problem with that. My problem is the millions of dollars that they pay for the movie. I mean, do you remember anyone who did any of the voices in “Finding Nemo”? That film made amazing profits. Star drawing power? Raise your hand if you went to see “Snakes on a Plane” with Samuel L. Motherfucking Jackson? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Great movies do NOT depend on stars. They depend on a good script, good acting and good luck. People like Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves are not good actors. They play the same characters no matter what movie they’re in.


It’s been a while since I’ve posted, mostly because the little one is keeping us pretty busy. We’re tired, but happy 🙂

Anywho, I’ve just been hearing a lot about our first “African-American” President in the news, and had to say something about it. He’s NOT an African-American. He’s an American, and if you really want to bring his skin tone into it, a black American. He was born in Hawaii, which last time I heard was a state in 1961. Barack Obama’s father is the only person I would say can claim the “African-American” designation rightly. He migrated over from Kenya, and as such, was African before he was American, and can claim both.

If you don’t agree with this, I would have to demand that you show me the same respect as you do our new President, and only refer to me as an “English-American” or “Russian-American”. Or are you a racist?

Bailout and friends

You know, I’ve been meaning to type something up about the bailout for a while, but the idea just really hasn’t gelled properly until now. I know I disliked the idea of it, but putting it to words was slightly harder.

It really cheeses me off that my tax money is going to bail out banks who didn’t care enough about their own finances to pay attention to what they’re buying. Wasn’t Sarbanes-Oxley supposed to fix some of that lack of openness and prevent financial scandals? And then on top of the banks that are “too big to fail”, the President goes and unilaterally allocates funds for the automaker bailout, with absolutely no accountability brought into the deal. Why in the hell is my tax money going to pay for lazy union workers getting paid insanely more than I am for running a damned air wrench or forklift? It’s not rocket science… I could learn any job they do in a week, and probably do it better. But the union structure doesn’t reward hard work… it rewards time served, as long as you don’t do anything that’s a termination-worthy offense (such as show up late). A Mr. Knox of Knox Machinery actually summed it up fairly succinctly.

We’ve been riding a social wave since the 80’s (and possibly earlier) of decreased personal responsibility, and more dependence on the government. Socialism, if you will. No Child Left Behind, asinine lawsuits, a culture of fear and distrust, child abusers… the world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket. But if you look at the actual data, violent crime has taken a severe downturn since the early 90’s.

On top of that, we have a nationalistic fervor sweeping the nation, never questioning what the government does as it enacted The USA PATRIOT Act, or when Bush seized sweeping new executive powers to fight against terrorism, the FBI’s (ab)use of national security letters, and other things, all in the name of national security.

So we have a great combination of rising socialism with expanding nationalism. I have an idea… let’s call it nationalist socialism. I’ll bet we could abbreviate that… I know! Let’s call the movement Nazism!

New toys

Just picked up a pretty slick Canon HF100 on a Black Friday deal (yeah, so “just” is a bit of an understatement). Now I just need a proper SDHC reader and I can see if I can get the AVCHD file format working under Linux.

Gotta figure that out before Charlie gets here 🙂



Holy crap

I’m gonna be a daddy. Like, some short guy will be thinking of me as “father”, and depending on me. That’s just trippy, and a little bit scary, but frickin’ awesome at the same time. Still trying to wrap my head around it. We’ve done a ton of work around the house to get ready for him; painted his room, installed a humidifier onto the furnace, and so on. And then all the classes… lots of stuff to learn about. Makes you wonder how kids survived up until now. Oh well.  It’ll be an adventure, and I’ll have someone to watch cartoons with 🙂

Writing a story around a punny word…

Deeper into the bowels of the mad scientist’s lair they crept, various eerie glows emanating from otherwise darkened rooms, small shadows of rats in various stages of mutation skittered about in the halls and forgotten corners.
“Be quiet!” hissed Darren
“I’m trying!  I can’t see anything is this gloom!” whispered back Fenton.
Darren issued an exasperated sigh… Fenton was one of those science geeks who was really helpful to have around when trying to figure out how to turn off one of the mad doctor’s creations, but he couldn’t take two steps without tripping over himself.
“Awww crap” said Fenton
“I told you to be quiet!”
“Now isn’t the time… those bloblike shadows on the wall ahead? They’re phlegm bots” replied Fenton.
“Fembots? Sounds like my kinda party”
“No you idiot… PHLEGM bots. You know, like mucous? The stuff in your nose, and apparently your head as well?”
The shadows loomed larger on the wall, and Fenton tugged on Darren’s jacket to get him moving back the way they came.
“Who the hell makes a phlegm bot? That’s seriously messed up.” asked Darren, as they were jogging back to the exit
“Is it the “Mad” in “Mad Scientist” that’s confusing you, Darren?  It doesn’t mean just angry…” huffed Fenton, trying to keep up.

Why I’m an Atheist





First Post!

Had to do it.