Oh my, it's been a week!

Congrats to Jimmy for doing the good work and now beating his goal by over a grand for a total of $6,328 for Fair Havens!

I'll have other stuff to say later, just got to think of something to write.

iRock and Townfoolery!

iRock

I got a rock for my front yard and a tree or two. The dirt area will be filled with some fancy grass that they charge to much for, but looks good.

Townfoolery

Ok let me get this straight, The city council said YES to a settlement package for the City Manager to the tune of 481K, quite a bit more than his contract for getting fired. Last week after hearing from the citizens I'm sure they decided to not accept the offer, then today they voted YES AGAIN? I'm sure this will have the citizens of my fair city scratching their heads. The truth of it is, the cost of a lawsuit. The city doesn't want the expense of fighting it in the gray area of employment contracts. I think the city mgr. in question should do the right thing and accept what he signed the contract for and move on. At present, it looks like he is extorting the money out of the city which is not good for anybody concerned.

On a lighter note, the city council approved a Jack in the Box which I'm more thrilled with getting than the Cracker Barrel. I wonder if Jimmy will do building updates on Jack's as he does on the Barrel.

A busy week it has been!

So last week I decided it was finally time to upgrade the ole' PowerBook and get something bigger and faster.

I went with a 24" iMac and bluetooth keyboard and mighty mouse. Talk about fast compared to the ole G4, I love it. One thing I did discover, the iMac in the box wouldn't fit into the trunk of a Crossfire Roadster.

I also picked up Aperture, Apple's kinda sorta answer to Photoshop. It's iPhoto on steroids, RAW image processing, design your own photo books and the ultimate photo organizer. I can't wait to dig into its possibilities for the photoblog. 

My next big project is something very important to me, making a "documentary" of my Father-in-law's WWII stories. He was part of the 44th Infantry that pushed the Germans out of France, lots of interesting stories of found art, champaign and no showers for MONTHS. When its done maybe I can put it up on YouTube for all to see. 

If you are interested in documenting your family's vets the Library of Congress has a living history project, all the details and forms can be found here - History

Busy .... Busy ... Busy

If anybody out there reads this thing ..... I've been busy, so next week I have some interesting things to say and new stuff to review.
ps. AppleTV is fantastic ...

Live Earth Round-up

Best quote I read about the whole extravaganza ...
"This is what happens when you let hippies organise a big event,"
apparently the organizers in Sydney did not have enough refreshing beverages for the crowd.
The crowds were still light at all the venues, probably because the lack back to back big acts, there were a lot of filler bands.
Of the acts I saw ...
Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lenny Kravitz and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame were all fantastic.
The 12 girl band from China not ready for prime time..

Netflix Weekend Movie Review

Music and Lyrics - A nice sweet film, shows Drew Berrymore in a more mature role. Hugh does a great job at playing a washed up 80's pop star trying to get back into the game. Cora played by a new actress Haley Bennett seemed a little to stiff and fake, but maybe that was the role. It's a date movie that leaves you with a good feeling.

Pan's Labyrinth - A dark fairytale, a very very dark tale. Get ready for reading AGAIN, it's a subtitled movie. I'm beginning to think any Oscar movie, save The Departed, are just exercises in futility. In order to be oscar nominated it has to be perverse or long and boring or foreign and subtitled or all of the above. Anyway, it's worth watching if you like dark fairytales.

The Painted Veil - Chick Flick set in the most beautiful parts of China. It's set in the 20's and tells the tale of the difficult love between a Husband and Wife that really didn't know each other.

SOS - Live Earth - The Morning Review

Ummm, where are all the people? So far they have shown concerts in London, China, Hamburg and a review of highlights from Sydney ..... the stadiums are not full for a FREE concert, ouch. I guess the concern I had for all the carbon being burned to get to this event was no big deal.

After watching a couple of hours I had the mistaken idea that this was a "Concert" for a climate in crisis actually it's "short attention span theater". You get one song, maybe 2 short ones, a short film that preaches some devastation, but wait, they only show you PART of a SHORT film you have to go online to see the rest. They remind you every segment that you are watching SOS - Live Earth just in case you forgot. Then you have about 3 mins of commercials, you know the guy yelling at you to buy the non-environmental friendly KABOOM solvent for your shower.

BTW you can get all 22 hrs of this on Universal HD

Please have second thoughts about a Happy Fourth!

Checking the rounds of online newspapers as I usually do everyday I came across this little gem. (probably should read it after the 4th)
Fourth Reflects Hard Realities
Typical of a liberal reporter, all happiness comes from the government. I akin this article to a typical liberal "kick you in the balls, now go have a good time" for thinking about celebrating anything.
Jeffrey asks "But celebrate what?" and "So what's the party about?" That's easy lil Jeffy, you celebrate the freedom you have to print such tripe or like the rest of the world that doesn't believe their happiness is based totally on the state of affairs in the world, you throw a bar-b-que for you and your friends.
Look how far into the pit this guy had to dig ...
"July Fourth just means time with my friends and family and fireworks, steak and ribs," said Bryce Murphy, 18, of Waxahachie.
What about patriotism and a sense of history to be celebrated? Not so much, he said.
"Honestly, I think freedom in America is oppressed," he says. "True freedom of speech and expression is virtually nonexistent. I think what the soldiers fought for in the past doesn't exist anymore." hmmm .... What if he said that in Cuba? oh wait, he couldn't and probably the only freedom thats being oppressed is his ability to smoke weed.

Joanna Tatakis, 23 had this to say, "I don't think our generation really pays attention to current events," she said. "If a lot of people are saying something, they'll agree with it. Our generation is mixed up." No freedom lovers, just security followers ...

In Lakewood the reporter lets us know that Lakewood's theme of "Lakewood Saves the World" parade will be "... followed by sodas, watermelon and snow cones – traditions unaffected by bad news." How nice of him ...

It goes on throwing the kitchen sink in, Vietnam, Gallup Polls, blowing up post offices gotta have all the bases covered you know. I suggest reading this tripe tomorrow on the 5th after you have celebrated everything this guy got so wrong.

SOS - Live Earth, please excuse our mess (pollution)

7-7-7
First let me be the first to predict - Sometime during the 22 hr. show, probably between the hours 8 pm. - 11 pm. (NBC will be carrying the show at that time) the Goracle (AlGore) will announce a run for the Presidency.
Now on with the show - "Imagine" all the energy thats going into throwing this thing. Approx. 110 "artists" will be performing on 7 continents, in 8 cities. "Imagine" all the planes, trucks, buses and cars for "artists" and concert goers will be using to go to "The concerts for a climate in crisis". I know, I know they will pay for their "sins" by buying the Goracle's do as I say, not as I do carbon credits from Algore's company. So there you go, they are going to have a concert that preaches at you about wasting energy all the while wasting the most energy possible! I call that hypocritical...
BTW quit using the sun so much, you are all GREEDY! - Human Greed
Speaking of the earth, this is totally cool - Flickrvision 3d

Update - Who knew a Prius could go 100 mph? Al Gore III

Weekend Review

3 Netflix movies-
Good German - A movie made in the "Film noir" style, lacked the common feature of "over dramatic moments" so it made it pretty much a sleeper.
Bridge to Tarabithia - Pure Disney tripe to sell a soundtrack made for 11 yr old girls. The only thing missing was a kick to the crotch of a adult male actor (another Disney stand-by of a crap movie).
Fay Grim - Missed seeing it on HDnet, should have missed seeing it on DVD.

A Real Movie - Ratatouille - Once again Pixar pulls off a great movie. Ratat' is true to the culinary traditions of the kitchen and even explains each job in the kitchen. The story is delightful and leaves you with a smile and good feeling, if not hungry. Which leads to ....

Papa Murphy's - Think subway for pizza and take it home and bake it yourself. The pizza is EXCELLENT! The freshest ingredients and wonderful tasting crust. Try them out, they are just north of the Wal-mart on Loop 250.

iPhone - It seems to live up to the hype so far. Apple thought of everything by upgrading iTunes so that phones could be activated at home thus the only lines were to buy them. The iPhone is a huge step forward for Apple as it moves from computers to ilifestyle appliances. Apple has always been good at pushing the envelope and coming up with new devices ie. the first PDA - Newton, first "networked" video game system - Pippin, one of the first digital cameras - Apple Quiktake. But in the past Apple didn't have the marketing power and brand recognition as they do now. So expect alot more from Apple and hope they don't become a slow moving behemoth that kills innovation like Microsoft or IBM.

UK Hotzone - The bomb attempts remind us, there's people that still hate us and are willing to do us harm. I found this article VERY interesting The Guardian