Thursday, July 29, 2010

Supernatural - Season Four

I just finished watching season four of Supernatural.  Dylan W. and I started watching Supernatural about halfway through season one.  Santa bought me season 3 on DVD.  I never managed to have the time to catch episodes of season four.  I had some Amazon reward dollars to spend, so I purchased the fourth season through Amazon Video on Demand and have spent the past dozen or so evenings watching all the episodes.

I'm not very knowledgeable about the other internet video services.  I see the commercials but haven't felt the need to try them.  I've been very satisfied with Amazon's services.  And I am also satisfied with the fourth season of Supernatural.



The season starts with Dean returning/escaping from Hell.  Quickly, we are introduced to Angels, which is surprising.  The first three seasons presented a world with no intervention from heaven and gave the impression that demons were unchallenged by anyone other than hunters.  About half of the episodes deal directly with the season's over-all story arc.  The rest of the episodes are diversions from that plot and provide some levity and novelty to the season.

Episode 5 - Monster Movie - is shot in black-and-white and is an offbeat tribute to the classic creatures of the night - Count Dracula, The Werewolf, and The Mummy.  Episode 12 - Criss Angel is a Douche Bag - Title says it all.

My favorite new character is Castiel, an angel played by Misha Collins.  The introduction of Angels to the scheme of things has really increased my interest.  I've enjoyed movies like "The Prophecy", "Constantine", and "The Seventh Seal" that have angels and divine intervention involved.  There is a lot of involvement, for good and ill, in this season.

And, did I mention Sam becomes a demon blood sucker (as opposed to a blood sucking demon?)?



  

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Why is Butch not the CEO of a Fortune 500?

Butch has got to be the king of die hard summer campers.  Timothy Noah, according to  his article "You Are How You Camped", would classify Butch (and myself I suppose) as someone who Really, really, really enjoys camp.  He titles such campers as Camp Cultists and writes that they are likely to grow up to be CEOs of major corporations.  What happened to Butch (and I)?

Timothy defines 5 groups of campers in his article and I kinda see where he is coming from.  I thought it would be interesting to take a poll and see if anyone would divulge what kind of camper they were and verify Timothy's predictions.

I can't promise the polls will work.  First principle for my blog - it is an experiment and poll widget is new.


What kind of camper are you?

What are you like today?


Sunday, July 25, 2010

Brains . . . must eat BRAAAAAINS!


While in Boston, Tony and I did some game shopping.  Since we seem to be stuck in a Zombie mode, Steve Jackson's "Zombie Dice" seemed like a good pick.  A little more complicated then "LRC" and more complicated than Yatzee, this novel game can be mastered in under a minute.  We have played it on several different informal occasions.  Zombie Dice does not have the depth to be a stand-alone game for a game night, but would be fun as a filler between games or for casual play while shooting the camel turd.  No previous experience with undead required.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Who is the Bully?

You may recall that this past January there was a troublesome suicide in which a 15-year-old ninth grader hanged herself because, as the media portrayed it at the time, she had been the subject of terrible bullying and abuse at the hands of a half-dozen of her peers - The Hadley Six.  The young girl, Phoebe Prince, had recently moved from Ireland to South Hadley Massachusetts.  Immediately after her suicide, several students were the focus of accusations claiming their bullying had directly led to Phoebe taking her life.  A(n over) zealous District Attorney, Elizabeth Scheibel, decided to charge six students with various charges relating to the tragic incident.

I clearly remember discussing this with my co-workers at school.  The consensus was that this was a witch hunt. The DA was trying to win points with the community by sacrificing teenagers who may have bullied Phoebe.  The first indication to me that the whole story was not being told was that rarely enforced statutory rape laws were being used to charge the two young men involved.  In Massachusetts any sex under 16 is statutory rape.  A 17 year old and an 18 year old have been charged for allegedly having sex with the 15 year old Phoebe.  The law here was not the focus.  If it were, there would be a lot more students in trouble.  Instead, the DA is citing an infrequently used statute for leverage in her campaign.  The DA's attempt to prosecute the students for criminal homicide in Phoebe's death is also rarely used because it is rarely successful.

In her three part article "What Really Happened to Phoebe Prince?", Emily Bazelon masterfully accomplishes what rarely happens in journalism today.  She has spent the time and put forth the effort to dig into the facts of this under reported travesty.  Emily Bazelon presents a much truer explanation of what led up to Phoebe Prince's untimely death and examines how the over use of the legal system can freeze a community and prevent any effectual recovery from a tragedy like Phoebe's.  It is a longer piece then most people surfing the internet would take the time to read, but it is worth the extra time.  There are also a few links to other media or information that break up the reading.

Of interest beyond the article is the comments section.  Posts a-plenty and with extra hot sauce - flaming!  People have strong opinions about this article and the case it covers.  I must say though, I doubt more than half the people commenting actually read the whole article and did a little extra research on their own.

My favorite quote from the article is from Alan Dershowitz with regards to trying to charge the defendants with a civil rights violation with bodily injury - "That's a real stretch.  People want to think that there's always legal accountability where there should be moral accountability.  But in the criminal context, you should always err against overextending the law."

Friday, July 23, 2010

Fooled Again



Read the Article at HuffingtonPost


This kind of deceit seems to be the standard in journalism today. Sometimes deliberate, sometimes through ignorance, "facts" are misrepresented. Even in this article/post by Bob Cesca, information is distorted. In the second paragraph "The videos turned out to be misleading at best, and the fake pimp character went on to plead guilty to charges of entering federal property under false pretense." seems to imply the charges are a result of the ACORN videos. They are not. The charges involved a separate stunt played out by James O'Keefe and others and were not related to the Pimp and Prostitute videos investigating ACORN.

See how easy it is to mis-represent the facts. Certainly, I agree that both sides of the media are failing at being journalists. Where's Walter Cronkite when you need him? (please, no flames about Cronkite - tis a joke)

"Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society." - Attributed to John Adams.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Droid wins - IMHO


From "MASHABLE" after being spotted on "I Love Charts".

I, as you may know, own the Droid (not Droid X) and think it is superior to the I-phones.  Sorry Heather and the rest of you apple fans.  My screen is bigger, battery is replaceable, I have more memory (and can change mini-sd chips), and open market apps (most of which are free).  You get video chat and a bigger price tag.  Oh - and only one type of phone will use your OS.  Android OS works on lots of phones.

As far as the Droid X is concerned, if I decide to give up my Droid for a Droid X, I could transfer just about everything to the new phone.  Can you change to a different phone with Apple?  For now, I'll stick with my Droid.  It lacks a bit in the camera department (takes good video, but photos are often blurry.  Does not take good pictures of moving targets) but makes up for that with a super GPS package that is FREE!   


Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Another Peanut Butter Cup Moment

Sometimes two good thing go great together (this may not be one of them).  I'm not a guitar player.  My brother is.  And we are both Star Wars geeks.  We had all the Star Wars figures (first generation).  For some reason he always got the good guys.  I remember the first Easter after Star Wars came out.  I got Darth Vader.  He got Luke.  I got C3PO.  He got R2D2.

I never got the vehicles.  He did.  Hands down, the best ship was (is) the Falcon.  He had it and it was awesome.  I can see it flying through the living room in our house in Avis.  Rear legs retracted.  Front leg down so it could serve as a handle for the person "flying" it.  You needed the handle because it was huge (for a ten year old).

Now, someone has turned one into an electric guitar.















Details are at http://www.boingboing.net/2010/07/21/millennium-falcon-gu.html via Boing Boing.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Addie, Sam, and Socrates



Just a few pictures of my niece, nephew, and my son's dog.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

19 Facts You May Not Have Known About The 'Star Wars' Universe


For true Star Wars geeks, nothing new here (except I thought it was Darth Vader, not Radar? jk).

However, asylum.com was a cool site to peruse.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Thursday, July 15, 2010

the Y - after a day to think about the re-branding

After having some time to consider everything that was presented over the past several days to the media/public, I have decided that changing the YMCA logo and "identity" or "brand" is a minor part of a larger plan.  The shame is, the new logo is where the attention is going.  Of more importance is the study conducted by YMCA of the USA.  In the remarks given at the press conference and in the press release, the real change in the Y (more accurately a refocusing of what the Y has always been good at) is the focus of mission.

The Y Community Snapshot Study - which I have not seen in its entirety - is the report being held in clenched fists to prove the urgency and need for change.  Numbers abound.  66 percent of people think the current quality of life in their communities is worse than last year.  Respondents reported that they were concerned the most about chronic issues involving crime, violence, and public safety.  They also identified access to quality healthcare, poverty, negative youth behaviors, and declining values as concerns.  (They apparently don't care about or were not polled about global warming, terrorism, or American troops serving in foreign countries)

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

YMCA re-brands itself (kinda like Radio Shack is now "The Shack")

Described by Neil Nicoll, president and CEO of YMCA of the USA, as Bold, Vibrant, Welcoming, Inspirational, and capturing the personality of the Y, I present to you one of five color schemes being introduced by the YMCA of the USA.

My first impressions - rolling on floor laughing . . . oops. I mean ROFL.  Initial thought - why don't we start calling The Red Cross "red" and the Girls and Boys Clubs of America "the clubs".  Come on now . . . Radio Shack tried this.  Did it work? (More after the jump!)

Pop Quiz 7-14-10

Do you know who this guy is?  I'll even give you his name - Daniel Louis "DanCastellaneta.  What is he famous for?


















Answer is after the jump.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

BONESHAKER

Great summer read.  Wil Wheaton recommended "boneshaker" (probably on a tweet) and I found the book in a bookstore in Boston the same day.  Karma.  Had to purchase it.  Was a quick read.  Steam Punk and zombies - couldn't be to bad?  Turned out to be good.  Nothing high brow here and nothing earthshaking (pardon poor humor) or extremely novel.  Just a good solid story about a young man trying to find out about the father he never knew and a mom trying to protect same child.  Throw in a fictitious steam-punk version of Seattle, zombies, airships, and a diverse set of characters and you get some fun.

Shelfari Page for BONESHAKER 

Friday, July 09, 2010

(Boston) New England Aquarium - Part the Third

I mentioned before how the center of the aquarium is this huge (I'm guessing a bit, because the walkway spiraled around it) 4 story tank.  It had lots of cool sea life.  The sharks were . . sharks!  There was an eel that was a bit of a camera snob, stingrays that seemed content to just swim around and around and around, blowfish, and lots of others.  But my favorite were the sea turtles.  I think I want to go swim with them someday.

Tony and the SHARK! -

And Tony with the Sea Turtle.  Plus more after the break.


(Boston) New England Aquarium - Part the Second

The aquarium has several rehab facilities.  There is a whole section that is like an ER and hospital/rehab for sea turtles.  No pictures allowed :-(

I did get some pictures from the "fish hospital".  This poor guy has a bubble over his eye.  He is in the "Critical Care Ward".  He doesn't look very happy.

Thursday, July 08, 2010

(Boston) New England Aquarium - Part the First

The New England Aquarium was our first stop on our first full day in Boston.  As with most of the attractions we visited, I could have spent a whole day here.  Sea Lions have an external wall on their tank and are the first critters to welcome you to the aquarium.  If you look real close, you can see them in the photo just left of center. (click on pictures - they are stored in hi-res and you can blow them up big!)



The facility has a four(?) story walk around tank in the middle of the building with large (think Sharks!) sea life in it.  The bottom "floor" of the building is a gigantic penguin pool with hundreds of penguins.


Picture taking was a problem.  People using flashes kept getting nice pictures of themselves.  The flash turns the glass walls into mirrors.  I had my best success shooting in video mode.  First video clip has Seahorses, a crab, an urchin, and these strange 5 armed creepers that look like something from a SciFi movie.  There are three more videos after the jump (click the "read more")