As some of you know, my birthday is coming up. A little too quickly in my opinion. This time of year is usually a little depressing for me, because its just a reminder that I’ve achieved practically nothing since my previous birthday and the only person I have to blame is myself. Of course, recieving lots of presents helps me feel better, so for the convenience of my family and friends and anyone else who wants to get me something, I have a compiled a list of links to items that I won’t complain about receiving.
It would appear that I have been far to lax in keeping up with the site and with posting, but then I’ve been a bit busy in the real world. One day perhaps I can find a way to combine my passions with my employment, and believe me when I say that I’m getting closer every day. Currently though, I still have to work 40 to 50 hours a week in order that I have a place for my little dog to call home.
So what is in the news this week, well aside from one major issue that I have to wait a bit to post about regarding my place of going to 6 days a week in order to watch television, movies, and listen to music while assisting those less capable then myself? It would appear that management has decided that it would be in our shareholders best interest to sell the entire company and not just the ~50% owned by a very specific number of people. Over the past week management has been very forthright and communicative regarding this sale, and today decided to hold a company wide meeting to fill us all in. The part of this explanation that I found the most enjoyable was the bit about why we, the employees, should not run for the nearest career website. That reason it would seem, is that despite my personal experience in this matter, no one any employee actually has met has ever been laid off following a buyout. It only happens to your best friends, fathers, nephews, uncles, cousin or something. Technically, I would like to say this is true, but I knew several of my former co-workers who happened to be let go at the same time I was, this was when a company swept in and bought out a former employer of mine and forced the lay off of 33% of the remaining staff at the time.
The second reason given for us to not be very afraid is that this sale is in the best interest of the stock holders. You see, we, the employees again, need to worry about them, and what is right for them. The fact that the company is doing well, profits and revenue are up, sales are up, people are coming in our doors, and all, so of course they all need to sell. They need the money, times are tough all around, and you know, we have to look out for them…now that I write this out, you know, it seems even more drivel like then when I just thought it. I appreciate that these folks own stock in the company as much as the next employee, meaning, I could care less. My main focus is doing my job, trying to make sure things are done right, and seeing to it that I support the people I support in the best fashion that I can. I do this because I care about the quality of my work, and it directly impacts the customer base. When the company does well, and I am busy I don’t complain because…well I’ve watched two companies implode within a 6 month window, and I’ve ended up pounding the street looking for work. I have a mortgage, debt I’m clawing my way out of, and a wedding to pay for sometime in the near future I hope. I need my paycheck, so the shareholders, as far as I am concerned, can take a flying leap and ask for bigger dividends. Selling a strong business is stupid. Invest the profits back into the company and grow it, make it bigger, make more money, rinse, repeat.
So, in other news…Does anyone remember a show called Hardcore TV? It appeared on HBO back in 1993-94ish? Basically the show ran a number of recurring skits like “Spamby”, “Cindy’s Sex Talk”, “Bensonhurst 11210″, etc… One of the skits was about a toy called “The Miricle Stick” or something, and that is exactly what it was. They found something like 1000 uses for it. Anywho, we bought a Wii as many of you probably are aware, and now we have a Wii Fit. The Wii Fit is a platform that sits about 2in off the floor and well, it cost a lot of money. Here is the catch though. The damn thing is fun. They really did find 1000 things to do on it. The Wii Fit game has three different types of excersize to do, Yoga, Strength Training, and play. It also makes this ouch noise everytime you step on it just so that you know you are a Fat Bastard. Sheana had to kick me off of it after about 40 minutes. You can pick either a male or female trainer, and if I had been forced to listen to the guy, the Wii would have been proving that small and light objects can fly short distances. It then tells you how bad your balance, posture, and BMI are. Then, by doing various Yogo, Strength training, and fun excersizes it trys to help.
I’ve honestly never seen anything like this. The concept behind the Wii, and now this, is staggering. The Xbox 360 has a three core PowerPC processor by IBM that runs at 3.2Ghz. The Playstation 3 uses a custom chip called a Cell Processor that is also a 3.2Ghz PowerPC based chip but attached to that are Seven SPE cores. (Don’t ask me, I have no idea, but it is shiny) The Wii on the other hand uses a single core 729Mghz PowerPC, limited memory, no HD, and the little bugger works. It plays games, no movies, no bluray, no nothing, just games, and it does it well.
Anyways, more later. Enjoy a screenshot.
I’m posting this from my home desktop running Kubuntu with KDE 3.5.9. I’m streaming the 192Kbps Trance stream from DI.fm using Amarok.
I got an email about my last post. I wish they would have just commented on the site so everyone else (as if anyone else actually reads this) could have added to it. Here is the email I received:
“Regarding your post on the FLDS child seizure: I take issue with your statement “However, I do have strong feelings against this Yearning for Zion Ranch (and anyone else claiming to be part of the LDS church while practicing teachings contrary to the doctrines of the Church). All the articles refer to this group as being a polygamist sect. Polygamy is still illegial.” Besides the fact that you spelled illegal wrong (well, an extra “i” anyway), you should remember that the regular LDS church had polygamy as being ordained from God until Utah wanted to become a state, when it then conveniently learned that God apparently made a mistake and retracted the polygamy thing.”
It is true, I misspelled a word. I actually found 4 typos in my previous post, all of which have been fixed. My browser at home auto spell checks for me. The one at doesn’t. Now, concerning the polygamy stuff. By my imaginary math, I figured that if one person said it then 5.42 people are thinking it, so I will comment on that, too. Yes, I do not deny that the LDS faith practiced polygamy until 1890 when President Woodruff received the revelation to discontinue the practice. The Lord did not make a mistake. He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s perfect. The purpose for the plural marriages had passed and there was no longer a need. As far as the revelation being convenient for Utah to gain its statehood, I can only say that I’m sure that God has his reasons and who are we to argue with him.
It turns out that I did not gives Texas authorities as much credit as I should have. Warren Jeffs, the leader of the Yearning for Zion Ranch, is awaiting trial for abuse charges. This is a criminal case separate from the Texas Supreme Court case. Apparently he was married to four women, between 12 and 15 years old. I don’t quite understand why anyone would want to be with a girl that young and I honestly I don’t want to understand. I have trouble understanding why people even want girlfriend anyways. They take too much time away from playing video games.
I was in a little bit of a rush typing my last post and forgot the best part of our grass cutting adventure. Towards the end of the battle, I took a rack out of the shed to start cleaning up the clippings. As soon as the rack touched the ground, the handle broke. I threw away the end of the handle and tried to rake with what remained, but then the plastic holding the tines broke. At that point I gave up and threw it away. What else can you expect from a $2.99 rake that has been in a shed since probably before there was a jungle in our back yard? I still wish I had before and after pictures of the yard.
Japanese scientists have discovered the secret to losing weight. It’s called eating less. The help control the size of food portions, they have created a new ramen bowl with a diameter of one-twenty-five-thousandth of an inch. For those of you who are looking at a ruler to see how small that is, it is smaller than the lines on the ruler. Now I was joking about this being a new diet plan and portion sizes that are literally microscopic is not the best way to go. However, the ramen bowls do exist. Mechanical engineering students at the University of Tokyo did create a ramen bowl that size out of carbon nanotubes. You can read the article here.
In real news (or at least the stuff that might be featured in a reputable source), there has been the case in the Texas Supreme Court that I’ve been following. Two months ago, Child Protective Services rounded up some four hundred thirty children from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, an alleged polygamist community after an anonymous tip about the children being sexually abused. Last week an appellate court ruled in favor of the Ranch and ordered child services to return the children. CPS then appealed to the Texas Supreme Court in hopes of overturning the decision. The Texas Supreme Court ruled today affirming the appellate court’s decision. Apparently, Child Services could only prove the sexual abuse of five teenage girls. Also, officials had said thirty-one teenage girls were pregnant, but half of them turned out to be adults. Unless my math is off, that means there were fifteen pregnant teenagers, but I guess that wasn’t enough for the courts.
Even though Child Protective Services has to return the children to their parents, they can still take numerous actions to protect the children once reunited with their parents.
I have to concede that the Supreme Court probably knows more about this case than I do. However, I do have strong feelings against this Yearning for Zion Ranch (and anyone else claiming to be part of the LDS church while practicing teachings contrary to the doctrines of the Church). All the articles refer to this group as being a polygamist sect. Polygamy is still illegal. If there is evidence that this group is really practicing polygamy, then why don’t they arrest these people and then they will have to put the children is foster homes.
Allow me to just state that in general, I am not in favor of taking children away from their parents, I am just against children being raised by criminals and sexual predators (five sexually abused teenagers is five too many in my opinion).
In other news, a UFO exploded in the air over Southern Vietnam on Wednesday. Shards of grey metal were recovered, some of them measuring a meter and a half long. Authorities are currently unsure of what it was that exploded. They have contacted airlines in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, but no one has said they are missing any aircrafts. They still have not ruled out that it was a flying saucer. You can read the full story here.
Monday was some sort of holiday and my roommates had the day off work, so we decided to have a cook out especially since we have a grill out back. Unfortunately out back is like a jungle. I don’t know how long the house was empty before we moved in, but the weeds were chest high. Josh and I took weapons of destruction and leveled the back yard. I was using my saber and Josh brought out a ka-bar (a marine survival knife), an axe, and a weed whacker. The back yard is about ten feet by ten feet and has a small concret path to the gate. When we were done, we had four garbage bags full of cuttings. Then we got the food ready to grill and it started raining.
Over the last couple days, I made some progress in Overlord. I beat the greedy dwarf kings and now I’m chasing after the Jewel, the thief. I’ve also amassed more gold. Here is my treasury now.
I also started playing Guild Wars again. I went back to the beginning with Prophecies and started a new character. I have a bunch of level 20s laying around, but I wanted to try something new. I have a necromancer/monk. I’m thinking about going minion master, we’ll see how that goes. I’m hoping to get Guild Wars: Eyes of the North soon and I’m hoping to get a beta invite for Guild Wars 2.
I put off watching part 1 of the season finale of Lost so I could watch both parts together. Over the weekend, I went to ABC’s website and watched part 1. Then I noticed that part 2 wasn’t up. If having a two part season finale wasn’t bad enough, they took a week off between parts. But, it was good. They might finally get off the island, but I’m sure that something is going to happen to stop them.
In my previous post, I think I forgot to mention a synopsis of the movie Death Note so that anyone unfamiliar with it better understands my mad ramblings. Death Note is about a guy named Light Yagumi who is a criminal justice student who has become disillusioned with the current system because too many criminals, in his opinion, are getting away with their crimes. He stumbles across a notebook called the Death Note. Anyone whose name is written in the notebook will die. So, like any good intentioned person, he uses the notebook to kill criminals in order to create a utopia. However, the police and then an internation task force begin investigating these mysterious deaths. A superdetective named L cames in to lead the investigation. Soon the old saying comes true, power corrupts. Light starts using the notebook to kill people that aren’t criminals. And I won’t spoil the story anymore.
I have finally caught up on Doctor Who. They have had a really good season so far. They brought back Martha Jones (the companion from the previous season) for three episodes. So it was the Doctor, Donna Noble (his current companion) and Martha. And then in the episode the Doctor’s Daughter, they introduced Jenny (short for Genetic Anomaly). Jenny was portrayed by Georgia Moffett, the daughter of Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor. There is a lot of buzz about her coming back for future episodes and I can only hope that’s true. Some people are saying that she might even get her own spin off, but I think there are enough Doctor Who spin offs already. I just want her to come back as his companion in the next season. I mean, she’s a wonderful character. Smart, funny, and good looking. And she is a Time Lord and we always need more of those. Especially with the Master supposedly being dead and who knows if they are going to bring any of the other Time Lords like Rani or Susan Foreman (I liked her, they should bring her back, too. Then Jenny would have niece and a dad).
Last night I went to the theater with some friends and saw Death Note. It was a live action version of the hit anime and manga series. It was a pretty good movie in my opinion. I’m usually prefer dubs over subtitles (mostly because I find it to be too much work to read the screen while watching a show). I haven’t seen the subtitled version of the movie, but I’ll check it out to see which is better. The dubbing wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t the best. They used the same voice actors as they did in the anime and it was interesting hearing the normal voices coming out of different people.
The movie was based on the manga and anime series, but there were some major differences due to the time constraint. They rewrote a couple scenes to move the story along quicker, but overall it was very close to the series.
Ken’ichi Matsuyama did a really good job as L and was my favorite character is the movie. He did a very good job as an immature super genius. And they kept his habit of eating sweets. I want to try one of his cake skewers, but it wouldn’t be good for my diet.
The movie was the first of two. I’m hoping that the second one is released soon, but I haven’t found a date for it yet. They had a good cliff hanger ending. I’m probably going to buy the DVD when it comes out in September.
I also found out that June 11 and 12th they are showing Bleach: Memories of Nobody. I wonder if they are going to do a movie like this every month.
In addition to watching Death Note, I have also found my old copy of Overlord. This month I’m all about evil. For those that don’t remember, in Overlord you play an evil overlord with an army of goblin-like minions and you go around looting and killing sheep (as well as dwarves, halflings or hobbits, and unicorns). I’m about halfway through the game and wanted to show off my little pile of gold. I would have more, but I spent some.
I’ve been keeping an eye out for the new Alice movie, based on American McGee’s twisted video game by the same name. For those of you who are not familiar with the game, here is an old trailer for it.
There have been rumors going around for a while about the movie. Supposedly they have been trying to make it for about 10 years now. It was supposed to come out in July of this year, but I don’t see that happening any more. As it stand now (according to the rumors) Sarah Michelle Gellar is playing Alice, Jean Marsh is playing the Queen of Hearts, and Marcus Nispel is directing. However, I cannot find any thing to confirm this. All the sites I have found cite other websites as their source which go on to cite other websites. I followed on chain back to a excert of a supposed interview with Gellar, but I could not find the original interview anywhere. I even tried to use my own connections. I know a guy who knows a guy that works for Universal Studios (which is the studio supposedly making Alice), but he’s out of time.
If anyone actually knows anything about this movie, let me know.
I decided to do something stupid today and read the news. Actually, not just today but I’ve been looking at the headlines a few days this week. Allow me to mention a few of the articles that caught my eye.
First off is McCain’s vision of the future. By 2013 he sees a greatly reduced amount of violence in Iraq and Afghanistan and Bin Laden either dead or in government custody. He also sees years of robust economic growth in the US, an end to the genocide in Danfur, reduced government spending, a simple flat tax, and illegal immigrants living in work camps. You can read the entire article here.
In Athens, Greece, a nine year old girl was admitted to the hospital for stomach pains. The doctors found a tumor on the side of the girls stomach and removed it. Afterwards, they discovered that it was a 2 inch long embryonic fetus of the girl’s unborn twin sister. The article said that the number of cases where one of a set of twins absorbs the other in the womb occurs is 1 in 500,000 live births. You can read the entire article here.
A Girl Scout in Detroit, Michigan sold 17,328 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this year. She had set up a shop on a street corner and ran it every day with the help of her mom and troop leader. Now when are they going to sell Girl Scout cookies in my area? I want some thin mints. You can read the entire article here.
Apparently little green men have been visiting England for years. The British government is releasing top secret documents about UFO sightings and close encounters. The files include about 11,000 such sightings since the 1950s of which 90% have mundane explanations. The remaining 10% are still unexplained. These sightings come from people in all walks of life, farmers, fishermen, Air Force pilots, civil aircraft pilots, and aircraft control tower personnel. Interestingly enough, the amount of sightings seemed to double after the release of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977. You can read the entire article here.
Magdalena Rouco Hernandez, the niece of Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, the head of the Catholic Church is Spain, posed nude for Spain’s top selling dirty magazine, Interviu. She told the magazine “I wanted to lay bare the hypocrisy of my uncle.” I’m not sure how the two are connected, but I have been accused of being a little slow before. Apparently, Cardinal Varela did not call the family to weeks after Magdalena’s mother died and also refused to help them when her husband lost his job. It sounds to me like they have a lot of personal problems they need to work out. You can read the entire story here.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School have discovered that playing a few hours of videos games will not cause children to go out and start stealing cars, driving wrecklessly, and getting into gun fights. They have released their findings in a new book Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do. In the book, they discuss the relationship between violent video games and children’s behavior. They refute the assumption that playing video games makes kids violent. They also advise parents to pay attention to lots of different factors such as their kids’ grades, excessive amounts of gaming, getting into fights, etc. You can read the entire story here.
The Japanese Live Action film of Death Notes is finally going to hit select American theaters on May 20th. This is one of two live action movies that were based on the hit anime. I have heard, but cannot verify yet, that this will be dubbed using the same voice actors as the anime. That should prove interesting if true. I’ll be going to see it. Let me know if you are in the area and want to go.
Also coming soon to the theaters:
The Chronicles of Narnai: Prince Caspian will be released on May 16th, 2008. Starring William Moseley and Ben Barnes.
May 22nd, 2008 will give us the long awaited Indiana Jones movie. Finally the eternal question will be answered, can Harrison Ford pull it off?.
On Friday, June 13th M. Night Shyamalan’s new film The Happening will be released.
Also coming out on June 13th is The Incredible Hulk staring Edward Norton as Bruce Banner. The previews of this movie look better then the previous one, so I will hold my breath.
June 27th, 2008 Angelina Jolie tries to be a comic book character in Wanted. Also starring James MacAvoy and Morgan Freeman. The movie is loosely based on a comic book miniseries by the same name.
July 11th, 2008 is the release date for Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.
July 18th, 2008 is the slated release date for The Dark Knight staring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger. I can’t wait to see this. The previews of course look great.
July 25, 2008: X-Files: I want to Believe. No one knows what its going to be about, but it will have Mulder and Scully and they might kiss.
Sometime in July, 2008 Alice will be released, based on American McGee’s macabe video game. Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as Alice and Jean Marsh as the Queen of Hearts.
August 1st, 2008: It’s not over, but that goodness Brendon Frasier is here to save us from the mummy again in the Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Dragonball returns to torture the world on August 15th. This will be the live action version of the painful anime. You have been warned.
Criminals beware, on September 12th Frank Castle is back in Punisher: War Zone.
November 7th, 2008 Daniel Craig returns as James Bond in Bond 22.
On November 21st, 2008 Harry Potter returns to the big screen in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
April 3, 2009: Benicio Del Toro is the Wolfman in the remake of the Wolfman. Also starring Anthony Hostkins, Hugo Weaving, and Emily blunt.
May 1st, 2009: X-men Origins: Wolverine starring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in a prequel to the X-men movies.
July 17, 2009: Land of the Lost starring Will Ferrell, Danny Mcbride, Anna Friel, and Jorma Taccone.
April 30, 2010: Iron Man 2, the sequel of the Iron Man movie currently in the theaters with the awesome Robert Downy, Jr. returning as Tony Stark. With Thor making a cameo.
June 4, 2010: Thor, part of the Avengers movie project (along with the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man).
2011: The Avengers. I don’t know much about this yet, except that it will have Samuel L. Jackson, Edward Norton, and Robert Downy, Jr.
Speaking of movies, I came across this clip this morning from Fox News. I found the full clip on youtube and have it here now for your viewing. As far as if it is real or not, I don’t know. I believe that spirits do exist. It might be possible to catch them on film. It is also possible that someone could have faked it. I just don’t know.
