Star Trek Memorial

Like an old dog who is suffering, I was relieved to see Star Trek has finally been put to sleep.

The finale was as boring as the previous episodes. I don't blame the actors for Star Trek's demise. I blame the producers. The producers took a cash cow, a golden goose, and made it boring as hell. Isn't it interesting that the first Star Trek series was interesting but had an extremely small budget and none of the special effects modern studios have at their fingertips. And yet, Star Trek: Enterprise was boring with a bigger budget and all the special effects available to a modern studio.

Rest in peace Star Trek.

Moderation Needed in the Kingdom Of Heaven

Because of his movies "Blackhawk Down" and "Gladiator," director Ridley Scott has proven that he is a skillful storyteller of the struggles men go through to find themselves and the right path while defending king, country and, now let's add, religion.

Balian, the main character of Scott's new movie"Kingdom of Heaven," is a blacksmith who loses his wife but then gains a father, Lord Godfrey. Lord Godfrey is a Crusader passing through on his way to the Holy Land and offers to take his new found son, Balian, with him.

During his journey to the Holy Land, Balian has to learn how to fight, to love again, and to find the courage within himself to do the right thing, regardless of the cost to him personally.

There were many things I liked about "Kingdom of Heaven." Ridley Scott is a great general who knows how to direct his troops ( the actors, the extras, the camera operators, and the studio executives) so that you get an entertaining movie.

But unlike "Gladiator" and "Blackhawk Down," Scott's new movie "Kingdom of Heaven" is a MESSAGE movie. Some people will like the MESSAGE and some won't.

The MESSAGE in this movie is not that religion is evil but that good people are good and bad people are bad, regardless of whichever religious symbol they may wear on their chests. Another message in this movie is that fanaticism leads to corruption of the spirit which leads to acts of evil.

The tactics of war may have changed over the last 10, 000 years but the reasons for going to war remain the same: politics, religion, and resources. Recently, in the theater of war, religion has taken the center stage.

The Crusades occurred during the Dark Ages: a time when people were slaughtered without thought or regret, war touched every citizen every day, and people struggled to find the courage to do the right thing. Sound familiar?

This movie is rated R.

CompUSA had a huge sale today. 90% of the items were free with a rebate. As you can see in this photo, I shopped until I dropped. 

Bernice Update

Bernice has returned from her trip and is safe and sound.

Aloha

Wendy and I will be traveling to Hawaii in little over a week.
(Liz if you're reading this, make plans to meet us there.)

To prepare for the trip, we are tanning. (Yes, it's strange for us old fogies to go to the tanning place. But we don't want to spend our vacation as lobsters.)

Why Hawaii?
Wendy got to pick the spring vacation (Hawaii) this year and I get to pick the fall or August vacation.

We are bringing enough gear with us to stock a camera store and a computer store. If we really like it there, we could probably open a camera/computer store combo and stay there.

My plan is to take my laptop with us and post photos here at this web site from the hotel room. That will depend of course on if we don't fall into a volcano or have too many tropical drinks and can still see the keyboard. If the internet connection at the hotel is very slow, I won't be posting too many photos but I'll keep you up to date.

Waltzing Matilda Down Under

Our friend Liz married a gentleman named Peter and moved to Australia. And ever since then, we are always interested in movies, books, and news stories about Australia.

I just finished a book about Australia: "In a Sunburned Country" by Bill Bryson. I had seen, but not read, other books by Bryson at the bookstore and he is a well known travel writer.

The Bad News: The book is incredibly long: 335 pages. Bryson really needed a good editor to streamline this book. Many, many passages are something like this: I took a walk. I drank some beer. I walked back to the hotel. This doesn't mean that Bryson is a bad writer. I enjoyed his descriptions of the Australian landscape, the people, and the attractions. But when he was bored, the reader was taken along for the ride and became bored too.

The Good News: Australia is a large and fascinating country with some wonderful places to visit and learn about. Bryson writes again and again about how friendly the people are there. And there are some natural wonders well worth traveling to.

I hope to see Australia some day.

Comment Feature Fixed

I've fixed the comments feature for this web site. So, now you can leave comments, especially James.

TIVO Has Arrived

Tivo was installed yesterday. This is a TV box with a computer hard drive built into it so that one can record TV shows on it.

The advantages of Tivo are:
You don't have to put in a video tape.

You have a built in TV guide on your TV screen.

You can tape a whole series like "Survivor" with one setting. So, even if the show changes nights or times, Tivo will tape every episode at the right time.

No matter what you are watching, if your viewing is interrupted, you can handle the disruption and then rewind back to the spot where you left off. For example, I was watching a movie "Heaven's Gate" this morning when Lisa B. called. After our conversation ended, I rewound Tivo back to the spot when Lisa called and watched the movie until the end. So, I didn't miss anything.

When you play a recorded program, you can skip the commercials.

Why did we get Tivo? Wendy and I were constantly switching video tapes and VCRs in order to record our programs. We were also double taping programs that we didn't want to miss. And when I took a tape from another VCR, it commonly didn't work well in the living room VCR. And with our old cable box, if you didn't set it for the right channel, the TV show you wanted wasn't recorded.

Do I think that we will be spending even more time watching TV? No, actually, I think that we will watch the same amount but the shows we really want to see will be available with little or no effort.

The Tivo box records about 42 hours of TV. The cost is $9.95 per month, which we pay to Charter.

Here is a list of TV shows that Wendy and I have Tivoed.
CSI Miami
Survivor
The Apprentice
Any show about Hawaii. (We will be in Hawaii in June.)
Scrapbooking (on DIY)
And Rob and Amber's wedding. Rob and Amber were on "Survivor" and fell in love and got married. Their marriage ceremony is being televised on May 24, 2005. They were also recently on "Amazing Race" but didn't win.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Bernice Update

Per Wendy, Bernice is now in Pensacola, FL.

The Movie Plague

Last Monday, I went to see the movie "Kingdom of Heaven" at the theater. (I will review that soon.) While waiting for the movie to start, I sat through a bunch of movie trailers. And it didn't take me long to figure why national movie ticket sales are down this quarter.

Here are some of the movies coming out this summer:
The Longest Yard (remake)
The Mask of Zorro: the Legend (sequel)
The Dukes of Hazzard (remake)
Mr and Mrs. Smith (Two assassins find out they are married to each other. Similar to that old movie "Undercover Blues" with Kathleen Turner and Dennis Quaid.
And later this year, they are going to release a new movie based on the TV show, "Bewitched." (remake)

This is the worst lineup of movies I've seen in years. And this is at a time when movies are competing with network TV, Cable TV, video games, vacation time, and everything else in the world.

The Hollywood studio process of producing movies, usually by committee, is killing the movie industry. No wonder independent films are winning rave reviews: they're willing to take a chance on something new and creative. And kids are spending more time playing video games than any other activity.

The Assassination of My Personal Time

I rented the movie "Assassination of Richard Nixon" last week. Since I lived during the time Nixon was president, I thought the movie had potential. But I was wrong.

I've liked Sean Penn in other movie roles, but he seemed wooden this time as a disgruntled furniture salesman who eventually plots to kill President Nixon.

But I can't blame Sean Penn. This was a really boring, long movie. The '70s were an exciting time in which a lot of exciting events happened. But little of those events were injected into the plot. After an hour and a half, the viewer completely understands that the furniture salesman was unhappy with his life and that's why he went off the deep end. By the end of the movie, I felt the same way about this movie.

Don't waste your money or time on this loser.

Mileage Tax Instead of per Gallon

If you haven't thought about how much your car is costing you, now maybe the time.

Gas prices continue to go up but that's not all. Because people will eventually drive less because of rising gas prices, our government is considering taxing our mileage instead of or in addition to our per gallon tax. Oregon is considering doing this as a test. (Darlene will have to let us know how that works out.)

So, either way, you can expect the cost of driving your car to go up even if you cut back on how much gas you purchase.

In addition, our government is thinking about using a tracking device to guarantee your mileage is reported accurately. I for one don't want the government knowing how many times I go to Blockbuster Video.

Bernice Update

Bernice is in Orlando, FL, staying with Sam & Kathy. Her next two stops are Tampa, FL, and Pensacola, FL.

Bernice Update

Bernice is on vacation. Her first stop was Kingsport, Tennessee. Then she stayed overnight at Deb & Dave's in Virginia Beach. Wendy talked with Bernice today. She was in Nag's Head, North Carolina, this morning. Her next stop is Kathy and Sam's in Orlando, Florida. She sounds like she's having a great time.

Trapped at Blockbuster

The construction on East Washington is making it very challenging to get to Blockbuster Video. After climbing over mountains, swimming across rivers, and fighting off tigers and lions, I arrived at Blockbuster this morning.

I selected two movies and then prepared to leave. But the side driveway back was blocked by a UPS truck. I've always thought being marooned at Blockbuster would be great. But the reality was I had two movies in my hand and no way to get home to watch them. The wait wasn't very long but I'm beginning to think that pretty soon I'm going to need a helicopter in order to get and return movies at Blockbuster.

Snow Returns

To our faraway friends, I'd like you to know that it snowed briefly yesterday and today. We are having a very cool (cold?) spring. With my allergies, this makes me happy but everyone else grumpy.

Octavian's Dedication

Wendy and I attended Octavian's dedication yesterday morning at Life Church in Gurnee, IL. We enjoyed the ceremony, the singing, the music, and the service.

Lead pastor Mark Roggensack's energetic sermon about boxing and spiritual struggle was presented well, thought provoking, and imaginative.

There are some very gifted and smart people running this church. There was free coffee and Panera's bread before and after the service. Free child care. The service had a good mix of music, sermon, ceremony, and fellowship.

It was a pleasure to attend Octavian's dedication and it's been a pleasure to watch James and Carmen's family grow. They announced at the service that they are possibly moving. They have applied for positions in Indiana and Minnesota. Nothing is definite yet, but change seems to be in their future.

Lunch at Austin's gave us the opportunity to spend time with family. (I recommend the pulled pork pita sandwich.) We had some one on one time with Merranda and John. They answered my questions about New Mexico. Wendy and I have thought about going there. Where Merranda and John live is about 8 hours south of Las Vegas. So sometime, we'd like to visit them and then drive up to Las Vegas. Merranda and John are very close to buying a new house. They hope to complete the paperwork this week. Nate is a cute and smart little boy.

After lunch, we drove to Ken & Sue's in Kenosha for cake, which was delicious. Ken and I had a further discussion about my attic fan, which died recently. Funeral arrangements will be announced.

We then headed home. As usual, we stopped at Compusa and Sam's club in Milwaukee. When we arrived home, the dogs were happy to see us, and I had a new software program and photos to play with.

Group photo #2. 

Group photo # 1. 

Lisa, Ted, William & Chas were at the dedication. 

James, Carmen, & the kids enjoying the day. 

Ekaterina is as cute as ever. 

Aunt Wendy thought it would be cute to give Octavian blue frosting. Grandma Sue is the cleanup crew. 

When Chas and Jerry abandoned the Xbox machine to eat cake, Nate thought he would give it a try. This is one smart little guy. 

At Octavian's dedication yesterday, everyone thought Jerry's new blonde hair was very cool. Jerry you are awesome!