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Written by Admin in: Supporting Our Troops |

Jun
29
2006

Superman Returns

Very few movies truly take you away anymore (as in have you so riveted that you loose your sense of time and surroundings), that when Superman Returns ended I hadn’t realized how long I’d been sitting there.

It’s more than two hours (two hours thirty-seven minutes according to Fandango), but the movie keeps your interest well enough that you hardly notice.

The special effects are top notch and they did a fantastic job of Superman’s flying. In the original movies I felt that they didn’t show the real capabilities of Superman’s flying ability. If he’s “faster than a speeding bullet” then how come you never see him reach Mach speeds (like Neo did in the Matrix Reloaded)? Things like that.

I know that technology had a lot to do with it, but I also feel that the writers/director of those movies didn’t really understand the genre/character. Not quite missing the point, but not really working at it.

Like the Spiderman movies, this movie’s director (Bryan Singer) is a big fan so we see lots of the classic poses from the comics and we again see the “spirit” of the comics as well as a big homage to the movies (the music, titles and marquee is the same as well as a great use of integration from the original movies using the voice and visage of Marlon Brando as Jorel). You also get a better sense of Superman’s true capabilities and power as a superhero as you see the sonic boom as Superman flies off to save people, his deflecting bullets, etc. You also get some real glimpses to his psyche both as Superman and Clark.

Brandon Routh and Kevin Spacey are spectacular as Superman and Lex Luthor. Brandon is a great successor to Christopher Reeve, having the same boyish quality that Christopher Reeve had in the role and Kevin Spacey did for Lex Luthor what Jack Nicholson did for the Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman in making the criminal mastermind a truly evil villain…and someone to be afraid of (unlike Gene Hackman’s portrayal of a selfish, childish buffoon of a criminal).

I’d like to say though that there are many other actors out there that could play a better Lois Lane than Kate Bosworth. Simply, she was just “ho hum” in the role.

The supporting cast was also very good, most notably Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olsen (a definite step up from his role as Ox in Not Another Teen Movie).

The plot was a bit more relaxed than I hoped, but still pretty good and still good enough to see on the big screen one more time.

All in all, this will be in the DVD collection when it comes out.

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Written by Admin in: Entertainment |

Jun
26
2006

Photo gallery is back!

Had to do some MAJOR tweaking, however I have the gallery back online once
more. The pictures are definitely outdated (sue me), but at least they’re online
for a change!

Can’t see the gallery? That’s because only registered users can access it – so, register now
to see it <smile>!

I’ll work on new pictures as I am working out the other things.
(more…)

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Proposed ordinance aims to ban smoking in bars in Anchorage, Alaska.

Written by Admin in: Admin Says! |

Jun
23
2006

Another chunk of liberty down damn the toilet!

On local TV and radio there has been this add where a nice looking (sounding on radio) lady is telling us that she smokes a pack a day due to second had smoke at the bar where she works. She also tells us she "needs this job" so it’s a problem that people smoke in her workplace.

Smoking in her workplace is not the problem. She is the problem since she will
not take responsibility for her choices.

All people have the right of choice in America. She does not "need" the job, she CHOOSES to continue to work there. She has a choice to look for other employment if she does not like the conditions of her work environment. She is the very epitome of the biggest problem in America – lack of personal responsibility. Lack of personal and parental responsibility is what is eating away the fabric of our society. Why is it that it’s always someone else’s fault that your life went wrong (parents, teachers, who ever fits).

I know someone who blames the government for the fact he is broke instead of
himself, his EXCESSIVE credit card debt, second mortgage and credit lines (three of them).

It seem that today, nobody wants to accept the consequences of their actions.

My theory is that so many modern parents are super permissive and lack healthy
ideals of personal responsibility because they were raised by a combination of
absent and/or authoritarian parents. It is a reaction to people growing up with
poor parenting.

And for Pete’s FUCKIN’ sake don’t think it’s some issue relating to
liberal/conservative values either!

We (as in society) propagate this by celebrating the idiots everywhere who
document their (often criminal) stupidity on any technological medium
available (just check out all the "caught on tape" shows for stupidity, criminality, negligence, or simple shock value).

The road to hell is paved with good intentions and so often our “well-meaning” legislation (or as I like to call it for you own good laws) has a host of unintended consequences.

America, is no one is to blame for anything? Are we so eager (with the help of
the wonderful legal community) continue to relieve citizens,
government or companies of any blame for any action? If so, we will be promoting
a very scary future, yet one, which seem to be looming over the horizon.

Hopefully you are not on-board with this new paradigm of the right to be
irresponsible.
(more…)

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A 14-year-old
girl is suing MySpace.com claiming it does not take sufficient steps to protect
underage members.

Written by Admin in: America |

Jun
23
2006

Parental responsibility is just that…

We’re doing it again. We are allowing a child to sue a company for her
parent’s failure.

The suit actually claims that "…since parents can’t monitor a child 24 hours a
day, companies must have responsibility in protecting children."

You’ve GOT TO BE KIDDING right?!?!? Where were the parent’s when she was on the
computer? In front of the TV? At the local watering hole? Till this happened did
they have any real clue what their daughter was doing?

The fact of the matter is that there is no shortage of avenues out there in
cyberspace for children and adults alike to post their personal information
online for free: from the personal networking sites (Myspace.com, Friendster.com, Makeoutclub.com) to the online diary/blog sites (Blogger.com, Livejournal.com, Moveabletype.com) to any of the millions of bulletin boards out there and right down to the good old fashioned free website (tripod, geocities, etc.). Posting your address and other personal details on the internet is no different than essentially posting a billboard with the information on the off ramp of your nearest highway (which is a lot cheaper and more easily seen).

I am from a single parent home. I lived in a tough neighborhood in New York City
(it didn’t start out that way, but things change over a couple of decades). My
mother fought for me in a neighborhood deteriorating amidst the alienation,
rootlessness, and despair of violent streets. She did this while working to make
ends meet. Sacrificing her love life so I didn’t have to contend with "uncles"
or stepfathers.

My mother taught me what responsibility means. Her lessons dictate that now I
couldn’t walk away from responsibility even if I wanted to. Her example has
driven me in raising her grandchildren to be responsible and be the wonderful
people they have become.

It takes responsibility to raise a child. Too often there is now a circle of
blame instead of responsibility for children – parents blame the community for
the child’s problems while communities blame the schools and the schools, too
frequently, blames both communities and parents Parents are more than their
children’s "first teachers"- they are lifelong examples bearing witness to
social norms and expectations, to the values that give meaning, texture, and a
sense of purpose to life.

While I have never been the perfect "Ozzie
Nelson" neither of my children have done anything that children don’t do to
themselves (or parents for that matter) and the trust of child and parent is
strong with us. Are there things I don’t know about them? Of
course there are…just like there are things my 80 year old mother still does
not know about her son.

All this being said I trust my children to be responsible using my example as a
guide for them now and in the future. I talk to them and work (and believe me it
IS WORK) to know where they are and what is going on in they’re lives while they
are still in my care.

To say that companies need to do my job is simply ridiculous! What will be the
consequences of this? More freedoms removed for the "safety of our children?"

Sorry…but that’s my responsibility as a parent not yours as a
corporation/government.
(more…)

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Written by Admin in: America |

Jun
21
2006

Finally….a new theme!

Were you one of the many who were tired of the reverse contrast? Well BULLY FOR YOU!

I’ve decided to change to a new theme based upon the xFlex theme for postnuke. I’ll be doing some tweaking (as in getting the topic icons to show up again, fiddling with colors, etc.) but this will be the new theme.

Enjoy!
(more…)

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Written by Admin in: Admin Says! |

Jun
02
2006

Greatest sports play in American history!

When Rick Monday saves old glory!

It’s a never too early (planned on posting it for the July 4th holiday) to talk
about this event or watch this

video – Greatest sports play in American history!

The following is an excerpt taken from an original article
written by Larry Henry and published in the 6/14/1998 Sunday edition of The
Herald Newspaper in Everett, Washington.

The day was April 25, 1976. The Cubs were playing the Dodgers in Los
Angeles. Patrolling center field for the Cubs was 30-year-old Rick Monday, who
was embarking upon what would be the best season of his career, with 32 home
runs and 77 runs batted in. On this spring day in ’76, he was on a Cubs team
that was headed for a fourth place finish in the National League East. It was
the fourth inning with the Dodgers batting.

The Vietnam War had ended a year before, but people didn’t need a war in order
to protest. What these two ding-a-lings who had just dashed onto the field of
Dodger Stadium were all about nobody knew, but here they were, and where was
security? They had come from the left-field corner and had just run past Cubs
left fielder Jose Cardenal. One carried something under his arm but Monday
couldn’t distinguish what it was. Once they reached shallow left-center, they
stopped and brought out the object. Monday could see; it was the U.S. flag.

He recalled that they laid it on the ground almost as if they were about to have
a picnic. Then one of them dug into his pocket and brought out something shiny
and metallic. "I figured having gone to college two and two is sometimes four,"
Monday said. "They were dousing it with lighter fluid." Then they lit a match.
Which flared momentarily and died. By now, Monday was in full stride, running
towards them. "To this day, I don’t know what I was thinking,"he said. "Except
bowl them over." He was also thinking they were trying to commit a terrible act.

"What they were doing was extremely wrong as far as I was concerned," said
Monday, who served six years in the Marine Reserves. He reached them about the
time they got the second match lit and were about to torch the flag. "There’s a
picture that I think won the Pulitzer Prize and it showed me reaching down and
grabbing the flag," he said. Monday got the flag and handed it to Doug Rau, a
Dodger’s pitcher. That was the last Monday saw of it until a month later. The
Dodgers came to Wrigley Field and Al Campanis, a Dodgers executive, presented
the flag to Monday. "It’s displayed very proudly in my home," he said.

Monday got a hero’s welcome wherever the Cubs played the rest of that season. It
was the last thing he wanted. He had simply done what he thought was the right
and honorable thing to do. He had visited a veterans hospital when he played for
Oakland and had seen how people’s lives had been shattered fighting for what
that flag represents. "It’s the way I was brought up," he said. "You would have
done the same thing had you been as close geographically as I was, I get the
idiots stopped."
(more…)

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