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As a follow up post to Preston’s excellent White Trash Wednesday post regarding Nashville middle earth fighting geeks, we offer a post we found over a Wedding Heckler. Wedding Postponed after dual arrest No matter the situation, you can’t get all the trash out.
Preston Taylor Holmes of Six Meat Buffet has a White Trash Wednesday post - post here today that is classic. PTH points the WTW lance at the Nashville Dur-Demarion group that re-enacts and plays out epic middle earth and tolkenesque battles. This post ties in perfectly with our geek ranking post - here - from a few weeks ago. I guess we need to change number #1 to not just include SCA, but Dur-Demarion as well. Give PTH’s post a read and see if you do not want to go out and picket the geeks in the park this weekend yourself.
The last two mornings on the Today show have been classic examples of why people not think that the mainstream media really reports news anymore.
Yesterday they lead the show off with a report about the CBS reporter, and her camera crew, getting attacked. This attack resulted in the death of a camera man and a sound guy. First of all my prayers go out for the reporters healing and I am praying as well for the families of the two men that were killed, but this is not the biggest news in the US. This is the press making themselves news. People, real average people, die everyday tragically. Just because the person is on TV does not make their death or injury headline news. Should it be reported and covered - YES, defiantly. Should it be the lead off story on the morning news - NO!!
A further example of that happened again this AM on Today. Today is Katie C’s last day on the show. That should be celebrated for several reasons, but the 10 minute retrospective should not launch 5 or 6 minutes into the show. Show it at the end, work it in bit by bit over the entire show, which I am sure they did and will as I left home about 7:20, but it is not worthy of being in such a key position on the AM news. Reporters / journalist / anchors, etc moving or retiring is not headline news. Immigration, terrorism, nature disasters, taxes, congressional / presidential / judicial moves, health findings, stock / interest changes, etc are headline news. Stories about changes or events within media are not headline news.
Not to only pick on NBC. ABC has a report this AM titled - Will Brangelina Save African Nation. It basically is about how the Jolie-Pitts going to Namibia may put the nation on the map, help it improve, etc. THEY ARE MOVIE STARS, THEY CAN NOT SAVE A NATION. If people worldwide go to Namibia, focus on Namibia’s problems, etc because of the Jolie-Pitts then will be short lived, and short term. Actually I doubt the impact will even be worldwide, it will likely be in America only. Brad Pitt is still no Hasselhoff in Germany.
Simply, Namibia - it’s citizens and it’s government - are who can save Namibia. Other nations / individuals may aid in that in various ways, but two stars can not save a nation. Doubt me, look at Live AID. Did it solve hunger in Africa? No it did not and there were far more then 2 stars involved there. In that case, food and aid went in, much of the food and aid was hoarded by warlords and the actual people that were starving saw little improvement. Namibian’s, and those that run the nation, must want and allow change if it is to occur. International pressure and attention does not solve issues unless there is a will of the people within the nation / area to change. Two stars, and their now three kids, can not save a nation.
The fact that media thinks entertainers carry that much power is scary. Stories like this show how far the media as strayed from being about news. News broadcast today are as much, if not more, about entertainment as it is about news. Until that changes most people will not see broadcast news as being a real source of news.
I have worked in and around computers for over 20 years and in that time I have gotten A LOT of stupid questions and comments made toward me. Honestly, it comes with the territory, so they rarely phase me. Sometimes though, even now, the questions and statements are so stupid that they even shock me.
One I got yesterday from a guy from a band whose web site I do, was just that way. The question - Where is my blog? The answer - under the blog link on your website. His response - how do I find that link I do no see it on the menu ? Answer - scroll down the menu. Response - Ah ok
The day before that I got the question from another site owner about making changes to their site. They want me to change the content online because it is wrong. No problem. The issue was when they said I put up incorrect content. I showed them the email they sent me with the content. Their response - Well you are not suppose to put up what we send you, you are suppose to fix our content before putting it up. Really, that is news to me. Since I am volunteering my time and services to your site the least you can do is send me what you want online, instead of stuff I have to fix. Anyway, how am I to know what to fix since I do not have the understanding and skill in your speciality. This is simple stuff people - send me what you want and I will put it online.
The situation at work is no different. The voice mail card in the phone system died. The owner’s response - “How did you break it?” I guess the fact it was working when I left Saturday and that we lost power 5 times Sunday and it was DOA Monday AM all points to me being a fault. Same way that it is my fault that the exchange database on our 8 YEAR OLD NT 4.0 SERVER died last Friday. I guess I broke that by actually keeping it RUNNING for the last 2 years when it should have been a boat anchor on Lake Loudon by now.
Stuff like this happens EVERY STUPID DAY. Just this AM the following statement was made to me - Can you scan these for me and send them? Response by me - I don’t have a scanner. Their response - Well can you scan them or not?
Seriously people just because it has a keyboard and a drive does not mean it has to be hard, or that you can not figure it out / find the answer by yourself. Most stuff with computers today is about the same program to program, system to system. Printing, sending, making font changes, etc - it is about the same regardless of the program. Look at the menu, read the prompts, and DON’T BOTHER THE IT GUY / GAL FOR EVER LITTLE PROBLEM. We are trying to keep the company from going belly up, don’t bother us about changing Arial to Times New Roman on your kids graduation announcement.
Keep this trash up, and someday you will call the IT guy / gal and say something like - “Well I see that you broke - fill in the blank” or “Can you come up here and show me how to do - fill in the blank” Their response will be - “Nope, but I can promise you that it will never work again and that you will never get the change made” When this day comes, remember they will not only mean it, but be able to deliver on his / her promise.”
One more thing, if your sisters son Cletus is / was a smart with computers as you say he is /was he would be WORKING in the IT field, not at home watching Springer and playing his XBOX 24/7 due to “Nobody being smart enough to see his genius”. I can see his genius, he has you fools conned. Dude is living rent free, sitting home all day doing nothing, talking on his cell phone, and setting high scores daily online. He is doing all of this while you work to feed and cloth a 27 year old. He is a genius, but not with computers.
Yesterday I lost 6.5 lbs. Forget Billy Blanks, forget the gym, forget hoodia, forget whatever. Send me $20 and I will let you in on the secret. …. Well actully don’t as I am a nice guy and I will give my secret to weight loss away.
Here it is - have the AC in your office break / fail- thus causing your office to reach 87 degrees (no joke seriously my office was 87 degrees from 2 to 5:30 yesterday), continue working in the office while wearing pants and a polo - instead of going to the car and getting the gym shorts, and then go home and mow the yard in the heat of the evening. BAM - 6.5lbs GONE!!! It may not be fun, but it works and it happened to me.
They hope to fix the AC today. I hope they do too, but I brought the shorts in today just in case.
The beautiful wife and I went and saw the new XMEN movie last night at the Pinnacle 16. I only mention the theater because we so it in the digital theater with HD sound. It is not the first time we have seen a movie in that theater, but it is the first time I think the movie was better due to the theater. Chronicles of Narnia and End Of The Spear were both good movies, but the theater did not make the experience better as the movies did not lend themselves to enhancement via technology. XMEN III did.
A bit of background. I did NOT grow up watching XMEN, in fact I never followed it until I graduated college and moved in with a guy that LIVED XMEN. In the end I learned a lot about XMEN from him and I am better off for it. I do not read the comics, I do not own any back issues, I have some XMEN trading cards he gave me and a 12″ Beast action figure in a box. NO I am not going to sell it too you or put it on EBAY so do not ask. I only give you this background to say that though I am a XMEN fan - i.e. I know a bit of the background and know roughly what is going on and what mutants are who and what their powers are usually - I am not a XMEN fantic and I think that allows me to be a fairly good judge of the movies.
Ok now to the movie. Beast as FINALLY in a XMEN movie, or at least for more then a second like he was in X2 in the background. Kelsey Grammer does a surprisingly good job as a mutant and I hope when X4 comes out, and it will I am sure, that Hank McCoy / Beast makes a strong return. Beast made the movie for me, I was happy to finally see one of the original XMEN given his due, and I loved to see the role of educated mutant played out well on screen. I also liked it when he decided it was time to fight and showed the world why they call him Beast, or Furball to Wolverine.
Moving on, many have knocked the movie for being predictable…well yeah…it is a based on a cartoon I am not expecting Shakespeare here people. Is it as strong as The XMEN, the first movie, well probably not, but the CGI was smooth, the special effects great, and the writing was descent. I liked the Stan Lee cameo early in this one as well, better then the other Stan cameo’s in the past movies.
Jean Gray / Phoenix is well done, but from the beginning you know how it has to end in the end and it builds nicely to that. Hugh Jackman / Wolverine does a good job, Halley Berry / Storm is the same - average and forced. Rogue…well she has always been too young to be Rogue and she does a good job considering. The Rogue twist in the movie is unfortunate for the future, but I will not give it away. Magneto..well lets just say that it is a well played role and the future is wide open for him. Professor X well just not a bright of a future and we will leave it at that. Mystic’s “change” in viewpoint and intention toward Magneto is classic. I was glad to see Cyclopes move on as I always thought the role was badly written. Juggernaut is well played and the “I don’t swim” line is great. The background mutants are good. The Ice vs Fire is classic. Good to see Angel finally in a movie too.
Simply it is a good movie, not a great one, but I think you should go see it in a theater with good / great sound as it will be better out then no matter how good your home theater system is. Was it worth $7, for me yes - due to Beast, but probably not for everyone. Get a matinee or get it at the $2 theater. Definitely rent it / buy it for the home and watch it a few times to get all the background. I would say X4 comes out winter 2008, but that is just a guess.
Found this site on the web and wanted to share it. It is called Nation Master and it lets you look at demographic, economic, cultural, etc stats and data from nations around the world. Very neat stuff for the geo poltical stat geek in all of us. Site here
From Nation Master -
Welcome to NationMaster.com, a massive central data source and a handy way to graphically compare nations. NationMaster is a vast compilation of data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD. Using the form above, you can generate maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics with ease.
We want to be the web’s one-stop resource for country statistics on everything from soldiers to wall plug voltages.
You can also view profiles of individual countries including their maps and flags, use correlation reports and scatterplots to find relationships between variables, and refer to fully integrated encyclopedia with over 800,000 articles.
