Spring Sprung

Since moving here I have consistently been excited by my first winter. I haven't seen this much snow, well, ever, and, although I dislike some of what that brings (the bad driving conditions, shoveling, falling on head due to ice, etc.), I have really enjoyed watching it fall and coat the ground with a clean white slate.

However, this week is my first where I'm having difficulty. In Southern California, Spring ... springs! By the end of March and beginning of April, temperatures are rising, the winds start to die down, the rains come, and the entire area starts blooming and the animals and birds return. The world begins to look alive.

And, well, that is what I've been used to for 37 of my years.

So, to find it snowing after the first day of Spring has been a disappointment. Not that I don't like the snow -- as I said, I still enjoy watching it -- but more because my internal clock is set to "temps rise, things bloom, life returns" at this point of the year.

My wife tells me we may be running the stove into mid-April. We may have at or below freezing temps through April and into May. And, of course, Spring and Summer are very short seasons here because of it.

So, for the first time since moving here, I'm feeling a bit down and bit disconsolate due to the weather. I'm sure, once I get fully acclimated and my body has a chance to relearn its internal clock, this will fade. But right now, today, watching the violent wind throw fine powdery snow around, I'm feeling a bit blue.

Universal IM

I have a few friends or family on each of the big four IM clients; MSN, Yahoo, Google Chat, and AIM. Since these companies are, apparently, patently stupid and refuse to work together to come up with one universal IM protocol, I have been once again searching for a third-party universal chat client that I can use.

Pidgin is pretty good. It allows you to connect to all the main and a few of the smaller chat protocols pretty easily. However, some of them require a bit of effort. You don't have a lot of leeway in fonts, styles, windows, or emoticons, and the transfer files feature is a little hit or miss. However, I used the product from this group before they renamed it to Pidgin, and the Pidgin version is much better, easier, and simpler. Note that Adium is the Mac OS X client built on the same client as this app.

I like the Trillian IM client. It is fast, nice to look at, and fairly simple to set up. However, the free client doesn't allow Jabber, which is the protocol used to connect to Google Chat. That's a major disadvantage for me, and I'm not sure the $25 is worth it to gain this one client in the Pro edition. It has a variety of emoticons, allows for the system fonts to be used, and has an email checker for each of the services you sign up for.

Qnext is a Java IM client. It was quick to setup, had options to allow all the main protocols I need, and looks pretty good. However, it has the typical problems of any java app -- it displays things in windows that are too small, it makes a lot of assumptions, and the interface is not very user-friendly (when will Java programmers learn to actually listen to the client base?). In addition, I can see no way for it to check for emails on the clients I installed, there is limited to no individual sorting of the IM list (I like to put my most used IM partners at the top of the list), and font setup seems to be limited on a per-window/IM basis (and there are very, very few emoticons available). On the plus side, there is a client to allow you to access your PC from any other PC when both are running Qnext. Which I can see being an advantage.

I just installed Digsby. It has all the clients I want (and then some), has all the options I want (and then some), has all the features I want (and then some). It has a lot of customizability, allows for email and social networking clients, has a very small install, and is pleasant to use. I think we have a winner!

Through Rain and Snow... But Not Directly!

I ordered some items from ThinkGeek. The shipment was in prior to 1 pm EST, so the order was cleared that day and the next day it shipped. The warehouse the order shipped from is in Edison, NJ. I'm following the UPS Tracking on the order as it is being shipped to ME and I will need to run down to get it (plus some groceries and such).

Here is, so far, the route this one 3.7 lb package has taken:

• Departed Edison, NJ 3/14 and arrived in Parsippany, NJ 3/14 (about 40 miles).
  
• Departed Parsippany, NJ 3/14 and arrived in Hartford, CT 3/14 (about 145 miles).
• Departed Hartford, CT 3/16 and arrived in Chelmsford, MA 3/16 (about 105 miles).

The package still has about 330 miles to go from Chelmsford, MA to Calais, ME, and I expect it to make at least one more stop along the way. And, of course, the extra 75 miles that I get to drive (one way) to get it from there to here.

My question: is this the best route this package could take? There isn't a way to ship it straight to, say, Portland or Bangor and then drive it up to Calais in a "usual" shipment? It just seems odd that this one package is taking the scenic route and stopping so many places along the way.

It seems more efficient to me to have large city transports on a regular basis, and then drive from those large cities to the smaller ones as needed and as packages come in. These shipping companies have been doing this along time; I'm guessing they've worked out the kinks by now. Still surprises me to watch this package go through its paces.

Addendum 3/17:

Sure enough, the package finished with:

• Chelmsford, MA 3/16 to Brewer, ME 3/17.
• Brewer, ME 3/17 to Baileyville, ME 3/17.
• Baileyville, ME 3/17 to Calais, ME 3/17 (final destination).

What a way to go!

ER Closure

Here's what indicates to me that it is good that the once-great show ER is finally closing its doors after this season-- the episode this week with Noah Wyle, Eriq LaSalle, George Clooney, and Julianna Margulies had me caring more about the show than any time in the last 2-3 years. Having those characters back made me interested and involved in the show again.

Neela used to be a decent character, but now she's just the whore of the ER. The annoying prick from Australia is a waste of space. Angela Bassett's character is one-note at best (which is too bad for such a great actress), and John Stamos' character is just, well, a combo of Carter and Greene redux.

As I said to my wife as we watched this week's episode, "It is like putting on a comfortable old pair of shoes" in reference to having Carter, Ross, Hathaway, and Benton back on the show. I want to know what they are doing and what has gone on since they all left the ER. As for the new cast, I had to struggle not to fast forward whenever they were on camera.

So, in the end, it is good that the ER is closing its doors.

De Pain!

Well over a week ago (probably closer to two weeks, now), I did something to cause my lower back to give me pain. Now, due to RA, I'm in pain a lot-- but usually low throbbing/swelling pain that I can handle, but which affects my desire to do certain activities. This was sharp, acute pain that became "gasp-worthy" if I leaned forward at about a 10% angle or more and jars me badly as I go up and down the stairs to the basement.

Since then, I have taken long, hot showers and baths. I have used a heating pad. I have alternated hot and cold. I have upped my prednisone intake and tried supplementing with Advil. Nothing has really helped it.

Yesterday, the pain was at manageable levels for the first time in a while. By the end of the day, it seemed like it was improving and the kink or whatever it was would be gone soon. I took another very hot bath in the mid-afternoon, and that also seemed to help relax things and bring the pain under control.

However, last night, wife and I watched some TV together, and the position I was in seemed to exacerbate the problem and now, today, my back hurts as much as it did when I first discovered the problem.

While my tailbone area is sore, too, the problem is not the spine-- there is a spot just to the right of the spine where the muscles feel hard as rocks and it hurts to press against those muscles. When I bend my back the least bit, this area sends spasms and lances of pain out from that region into my buttocks, back, and sides. The pain is enough that I tend to groan or gasp each time. I woke up every single time I moved last night while attempting to sleep-- the pain of moving was enough to wake me from a sound sleep.

Not sure what I can do about it. We have things that need to be done and nothing I do seems to help the pain. I'm obviously going to avoid that position on the couch for awhile and continue to use meds and/or heat and cold to alleviate the discomfort. Beyond that, nothing really helped for the last over a week, so I don't expect anything to really help me now.

Chicken or Egg?

A recent responder to one of my posts thought that the talent in a league getting 60% of the revenue for that league seemed low. His/her argument was that the talent brings in the audience and, without talent, the league fails.

Yet, without the league, there is no recourse for the talent to shine and bring in ad revenue and gate. Most of the professional leagues were created well before there was a "talent pool" from which to pull to increase the gate.

It becomes something of a chicken and egg argument-- if there is no league, the talent can't shine and without the talent, the league doesn't shine.

I fall on the side of the league. If you have a venue, a certain core audience is going to find you and pay attention. By doing this, the audience allows the league to make a certain amount of money. Now, if spent wisely, the league can go after talent (possibly from other sports or from college ranks, etc.) that may be unique and interesting enough to expand the audience, which brings in more money.

For example, the NBA survived for many years with little of what we would call super-stars today. People were not paid as well and they didn't make the news or onto sports shows (which were also in their infancy). However, it was popular enough that other people decided to compete against it and created the ABA. The ABA took a different economic model toward its product, hyping the excitement of the players and the talent pool more than the game or match ups. It then actively pursued talent like Dr. J, which then brought in more revenue. In the end, the NBA bought out the ABA, learned some lessons from it, and started hyping the talent as another means by which to bring in money.

Soon, it had the talent like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, Charles Barkley, et al, to market around, further increasing its ability to market, get on the TV and into sports news, and bringing in more revenue. Finally, it created the quintessential marketing person for the industry, Michael Jordan, and the money shot into the stratosphere. Players were able to demand more, every team needed a "super-star" in order to compete for gate, TV time, and ad revenues.

Now, all those who play in the NBA feel a sense of entitlement that they deserve that money, even though the gate is down, the ad money is drying up, and the league is losing money in many areas due to the current economic crisis. You have people making millions a year in the richest league (by average player salary) in the land feeling disrespected that they can't get a contract extension, can't get a new contract, or can't force a trade-- all during a time when the jobless rate is hitting highs never before seen and the people who ultimately pay those salaries cannot afford to go to see the product OR the talent any more.

So, while I respect my Anonymous responder's argument, I see it from the other side: without the league and the fans, there is no talent and that talent doesn't get paid. So that talent better be willing to make sacrifices and be careful of how he talks about his millions to those unfortunate people who are out of a job, lost their life's savings, and are desperate for help.

Ad Woes?

I was a bit surprised that Slumdog Millionaire had no previews at all. Then The Wrestler only had one.

One of the reasons that production companies show previews before movies is because they have a rapt audience. There is only one thing to do/look at and everyone's attention is focused. To have 1 total ad prior to two movies was... odd.

Note: Wife and I have discussed this, and we agree that there should be a small pamphlet with the previewed movies available at theaters. We watched one movie that had something like 8 previews (which is a bit excessive-- 3-4 at most, guys!), and we couldn't remember the first three by the time the last one was playing. However, a couple were intriguing to us but, since we couldn't remember the titles, we had to just move on. If there had been a pamphlet outside the theater that showed the previews shown for that movie, we could have picked it up and had the movie title and main relevant info for it right in hand.

Two Great Movies

I recently watched both Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler, and I have to say I was impressed by both of them.

Slumdog has a great soundtrack, an inspiring story, and a fine ensemble cast that makes the story work. While I do not generally like flashbacks, this story used them to great effect and as what they are meant to be-- a storytelling device (rather than what so many movies try to use them for-- a device to create tension). You see the "slumdog," a poor boy from the dregs of society, answering questions posed to him by the host of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire show in India. After each question, but usually prior to his giving an answer, you flash back to his hard life and how he learned the answers. The story is about what motivates him to do everything he does.

The direction on this is fast, frenetic, and colorful, but avoids the usual pitfalls of "shaky cam" and too many quick cuts. The movie's silent costar is India itself; the locations, colors, sounds, and spirit of the land pervade the movie and I have a hard time believing that the same film made in another region would reverberate as well.

The Wrestler, on the other hand, is about a broken down man who is holding onto his fame twenty years after his heyday. His body is failing him, his mind is going, but he cannot give up the adoration of the fans or the rush he gets when they cheer him on or chant his name. He has deluded himself into thinking he has a relationship with an aging stripper, he wants to try a fresh start with his estranged daughter, and prove that he matters. After a heart attack, he finds the shock of the "real world" too much and he would rather risk his life by going back to the ring to hear the fans shout his name than be a no one with the stripper.

The documentary style shoot helps to impress upon the viewer the stark realities of this man's life. However, the exclusive one-camera style sometimes made me a little nauseated when the camera would swing 180 from one person to the other and back. I especially liked the fact that they didn't have great exposition into why these people are the way they are; too many films explain every character trait and nuance away, and leave nothing to the imagination of the viewer. In this film, you don't know the back story of the stripper, you don't know what happened to cause Randy to leave his daughter and become estranged. You just pick it up in the middle, learn what you can, and move on.

Mickey Rourke is fabulous in it. I'm not a big fan, thinking he peaked about 9 1/2 Weeks and has been going downhill since. But this role was practically written for him and it is great that he went into it full bore and balls out. I think this would have been a great choice for the Academy Award for best male performance and would have been an awesome counterpoint to Heath Ledger's supporting Oscar; one role (The Ram) allowed the actor (Rourke) to take so much of his actual life and use it to make a role feel even more real, while the other (The Joker) allowed the actor (Ledger) to create a fictional character from whole cloth and make it so totally real and frightening. Each shows the opposite end of the acting spectrum but both were extraordinary performances that deserved awards.

I agree with those who thought Bruce Springsteen's end credits song should have been nominated for an Academy Award. It was a powerful, stripped down, bare bones song that fit perfectly with the movie. I'm not saying it was better than the three songs nominated (or the Slumdog song that won), but it was certainly a worthy effort for nomination. It actually would have been a stark contrast to the upbeat, driving force of the songs from Slumdog, and would have given Academy voters something different to consider.

All in all, two great movies that deserved the accolades they received.

Comic Book Movies

As all my friends and family know, I'm a huge comic book/super hero fan. I love super heroes. I've been playing City of Heroes for nearly 5 years now (57 months and counting), I read comics, and am passionate about them. I love comic book movies, even the bad ones, because it brings one of my passions to another medium I love-- movies. I have blogged at great length and with great frequency about various aspects of comic books and super heroes.

With those caveats out of the way, I have a startling thing to say: I wish there were fewer comic book movies on the way.

I'll let you catch your breath.

Yes, that's right-- I'd like to see fewer super hero movies on film slates in the coming years. And here's why-- too many properties are either not handled right (i.e., Catwoman, Elektra, first Hulk, etc.), many are produced just to jump on a bandwagon (i.e., Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four, et al), and too few are handled in a serious manner that is both faithful to the source and excitingly new (i.e., current Batman movies, Iron Man, Spider-man 1&2, etc).

At this point, producers and directors have a blueprint for what works and what doesn't. However, you still have crap being made and people going so far from the source material that fans wonder why the filmmakers bothered. Both The Dark Knight and Iron Man show what can happen when you treat the source fairly, have excited people trying to make a good "movie" as opposed to simply a faithful "comic book/super hero movie," and get good talent on both sides of the camera to usher the movie to completion.

Also, the fans primarily want the big, recognizable names up on film. They want to see some of the seminal classics of the genre filmed, or something entirely new. Fans want to see Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash. They don't necessarily want to see Aquaman, Green Arrow (unless it is a film of Longbow Hunter), Red Tornado, or Apache Chief. Fans want to see Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Wolverine, Spider-Man. They don't really want to see the lesser names like Ghost Rider, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and others.

Fans are finicky, too. Watchmen, for example, I expect to have a lot of wildly excited reviews and a lot of absolutely hate-filled reviews and very little in between. Fans of the source will be disappointed that this part or that part didn't make it into the film, while others will know that you have to cut a lot out and gloss over a lot to make a 12-issue maxi-series fit into a 2 hour film.

You have filmmakers hiring the exact right people to do a film (Joss Whedon doing Wonder Woman, for example) and then absolutely hamstringing what he is allowed to do with the property to the point where he has to leave due to "creative differences." You have film studios saying "The Dark Knight was successful, and it was dark, so all of our upcoming super hero films have to be dark" rather than acknowledging that Batman is a darker property and was done "right," and similarly the other properties should be done "right" -- whatever right is for that property (Superman, hope and light. Captain Marvel, innocence and wonder. Etc.).

Lastly, the proliferation of super hero movies means that the audience gets bored. It's like with the Western; there are only so many tales to tell using that genre, so it has always waxed and waned. It was big in the past, then died away. It came back with a surge in the late 80s and 90s, then died out again. You don't hear about too many westerns on the slate right now. Comic books have ridden high for a while now, and there is going to be a backlash. I'd rather the movie producers realize this, only produce the big ones (and fully commit to them), and put the smaller titles on the back burner for some other time.

I look at the upcoming slate of super hero movies and I, as a fan of this genre and of the source material, am not overly excited about them. I wonder what a non-fan is thinking about having all these films with properties and names they don't even recognize coming out?

Enough is enough. Scale back. Make what you make good, first and foremost, and don't burn out your audience with crap.

Recession, What Recession?

The NFL head office released about 200 staff and the Commissioner and others at the top all took a 25% decrease. They fixed their salaries for this year at last year's rates, too. The NBA, NHL, and MLB all are axing jobs, salaries, and scrambling around, as the poor economy hits the main revenue streams for the sports-- those who advertise with them. The NFL even voted to keep ticket prices at 2008 levels (which any fan can tell you is way over what the average American can or wants to spend in the first place, but it is a start).

But I'm reading about Albert Haynesworth getting a $100 million contract from the Redskins in the NFL. I'm reading how Manny Ramirez, a 37 year old player, is rejecting a $25 million one-year deal and a $25+20 million two-year deal.

If the respective clubs can afford to offer one player on their roster this much money, how can we be in a recession? Or, why not keep that $25 million and save approximately 625 jobs in the MLB instead? Or 2,500 jobs in the NFL with the $100 million (I can't find a consensus average American income figure, but most I find are between $35k and $45k, so I'll use a median number of $40k/year).

The NBA is gearing up for 2010 and beyond, as it may wind up running without a collective bargaining agreement. Currently, the NBA players command 60% of the revenue that the NBA brings in, and it is likely they will ask for more.

Average Salaries
NBA, 2007-2008 - $5.3 million
NFL, 2007 - $770,000 (of course, top-tier players are much higher, the lower tier players balance this out)
NHL, 2007-2008 - $1.9 million
MLB, 2008 - $3.15 million

At the low end, the average salary of an NFL player per year is the equivalent of 19 average Americans' salary (assuming, again, the $40k/yearly income). The other main sports leagues pay their players progressively more. NBA players have absolutely no room to complain about the wages they receive.

It is hard to care when the players complain of being "disrespected" or needing to "feed their families." Not with a recession on and the rest of us truly having to make do with less.

Mini or Series?

My wife and I have discussed this a few times recently. It seems like a lot of TV shows and ideas suffer from being continuing series. We lament the loss of the '80s style mini-series.

Take Heroes, for example. Tim Kring had an awesome and inspired idea for a show. He crafted it and honed it over years and finally was able to sell it to a network with the huge super-heroes tide. And season one was just that: awesome. It had a great villain, it had a great cast, and the storyline had a strong beginning, middle, and end. It was like seeing a favorite comic book literally come alive week to week.

But the problem was, it had a season two. And now a chapter three and four (season three). None of these new chapters/seasons has come close to living up to the first, because Tim Kring didn't have years to write a good plot, story, work out the problems, and then shop it.

If the networks weren't so greedy and stupid, they would have done season one as a maxi-series and then told Tim that they wanted first crack at the next one, should he develop it. And Tim should have then gone off and worked on it as he did the first and get it right.

Lost is another example. How many "crappy" seasons have fans had to go through after the first season? You read blogs and boards dedicated to the show and, while there have been bright spots and resurgences, the show has never been as good as in the first season.

It could be argued that 24 suffers the same way. Season one was so good (well, minus the incredibly crappy female characters who were written to be dumber than doors), and nearly every season has suffered in comparison. Some have edged up the ratings and kept it going, while others have been lamented by its fans as racist, biased, claptrap.

Desperate Housewives could be included. The first season was campy and funny and did well. But then subsequent seasons have struggled and gone in different directions and been much less successful. They had to resort to rebooting the entire seasons "5 years later" (or however long it is) and basically go back and do the same stories from season one again in order to gain back viewers and regain their ratings.

Another example that shows this effect clearly is the recent attempt at reviving Knight Rider. The two-hour premiere movie that aired wasn't too bad; it had most of the elements from the TV show we liked, the new car was interesting, and it did well in the ratings. But, when they turned it into a regular series, they ignored the original show's working premise, they ignored what worked in the premiere, and they went off in a different direction. And it tanked hard and fast. They tried to fix it by going back to that original premise, but by then it was too late-- they had killed their promising new show. Bionic Woman did nearly the same thing.

One reason that the cable networks have been so successful at drawing audiences away from the networks is because of a) when the shows run and b) how long they run. Most cable shows have 7-11 shows in a season, go on hiatus for longer periods of time (often only running over the summer, so they have the longest hiatus in which to write really good episodes). They take the time, generally, to write a complete storyline for the season and have the time to edit it and knock it around and get it right. Another thing they do is try not to compete too directly with other cable networks; in that way, they don't loose audience to those that like both shows and won't switch if the two shows are on concurrently.

Now, imagine if the shows above had been conceived as mini-series or maxi-series. Imagine if the networks had just shown the one season as a special event and then allowed the creators to work on it for a year before coming back with a new special event. Imagine if, instead of having 22 weeks interrupted regularly by sporting events and things like the awards shows, we got 52 weeks of new programming? Imagine having new material of your favorite shows less often, but with higher quality, and with other shows to try and hopefully like while that first show is off? Imagine if the networks got wise to the fact that the 60s-80s way of doing things no longer applied and actually tried hard to give the audiences what they wanted, rather than shooting themselves in the foot on a seasonal and, these days, weekly, basis.

I can dream, can't I?

Snow Pics

We have a winter storm here. It arrived about the same time as the Oscars last night and continued to dump superfluous snow on us long after the Oscars stopped doing the same.

Here's the mound-o-snow that is on our deck. I have actually hit the right side of this mound twice in an attempt to minimize the weight and area of snow. You can't tell I've done anything.


This is out the front door. I've highlighted the top of a three-foot tall driveway marker. It is the only one of the many driveway markers that can be seen. Now, I'm not implying we have had three feet dropped; just that we've had enough snow drop and drift and not melt that we are to the point of having a solid three foot base available for skiing. also note that the snow is right up to the top of the stairs on our front porch. Anyone who has been here knows how tall that is.


Note: The snow is still falling. We've got around 35 cm (not quite 14 inches) so far.

Er... What?

A cartoonist recently drew a political cartoon making reference to two high-profile news items, the escape and rampage of a chimpanzee from a zoo and the fact that the stimulus plan was poorly written. The cartoon showed two policemen (or game wardens) shooting a chimpanzee and one of them saying, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

My first thought when seeing this cartoon had a couple of components:

1. Good tie together of recent news.
2. Funny reference to the fact that many politicians act like monkeys.
3. Slight reference to the old adage that if you put a million monkeys in a room with a million typewriters, sooner or later one of them will write Shakespeare.

However, someone, somewhere, decided this was a racially pointed attack on President Obama. Someone decided that the cartoonist was referencing the fact that blacks were often compared to monkeys and apes by those who wanted the continued segregation of the races. Someone decided that the cartoonist was using imagery from early film and TV (especially black and white cartoons) where blacks were often portrayed looking very chimp-like.

Now, of course, many blacks (and quite a few whites) have jumped on this bandwagon. Having been shown something that they did not see at first, and apparently strongly persuaded to agree with that position, the NAACP, among other groups and a strong minority of voices, are calling for the termination of employment of the cartoonist. the NY Post has issued an apology after initially defending the cartoon and the cartoonist.

I find it reprehensible that people can take this so out of context, be so uneducated as to not get the references, turn this into something racial when that was not the intent, and, finally, push a newspaper around to the point where it apologizes.

This reminds me a lot of the supposed "gaffe" that President Obama made during the campaign trailer when he used an extremely common phrase, "put lipstick on a pig," to mean even if you dress up something it remains what it is at its core. A phrase that was shown to have been used by McCain just a few weeks prior, and yet did not promote outrage.

Here we have a case of a vocal minority of people being offended by something that they simply misunderstood. However, because this minority of people misunderstood it and decided it was racist, it has become national news. And, frankly, whenever Rev. Al Sharpton gets involved, doesn't that show how stupid it is? When was the last time he was relevant? He only makes the news if he shouts "Racism!" so that is what he does-- regardless of the content, meaning, or implications. All he has in his toolbox is the hammer named "racism," so the only solution he sees are nails named "the man," "whitey," and "oppression." He and those who follow him have done more harm to race relations in this country in the past 30 years than any other group or person.

My hope is that someone in the black community, preferably President Obama, will come out and say something on this cartoon that shows that he/she understood the intent, didn't find it racist at all, and tells this vocal minority to shut up and go home. Political cartoons are supposed to invoke thought, and even controversy. However, in this case, the controversy was about the chimpanzees who work in government, regardless of race, who can't understand what it will take to improve the economic situation in America (and the world). It was not motivated by racism and those who say it was must have their own agenda for saying so.

Too Trusting

It's a good thing I try hard not to be Evil. Since moving to Canada I have seen a variety of ways in which Canada does things that just wouldn't fly where I'm from.

For example, my doctor called in a prescription to the Meditrust down the road. Jennifer from the pharmacy called to confirm some things, as I was not in their system yet. When she got to the "Do you have prescription insurance" I answered affirmatively and she responded with, "Is it under Melissa's name?" and I again said yes.

When I just now stopped by the pharmacy to pick up the meds, the woman ringing me out did not even ask to confirm who I was with a photo ID or the pharmacy insurance card.

Now, let's say I was Melissa's ex-husband and we had a very bitter divorce. I would now be getting drugs on her account at a great reduction of cost.

While I agree with my Canadian friends and family that Canada is a nicer place to live in regards to how people generally treat one another, I think there is nice and then doing things that could hurt your business. The pharmacy really SHOULD check a photo ID and/or ask for the pharmacy card before selling a person medications. Yes, it slows down the check out process slightly, but they lower their chances of being sued, being ripped off, and over medicating someone who is playing the system. Just makes good business sense, to me.

Harry

I recently watched all five Harry Potter movies in a marathon (well, not a true marathon-- I watched four one day and the fifth the next morning-- misjudged how long it would take).

These are really good movies that show what can happen when you stick relatively close to the source material. While staring child actors predominantly and with special effects so prevalent, they could have easily gotten out of hand or had such poor acting that they were laughable. Which leads me to...

Chris Columbus was an absolutely inspired choice for the Sorcerer's Stone. I know many people find his direction of this movie a little pedestrian, given the content, I think that is exactly what was needed here. In the first film, you are introducing everyone to the visual world of the cinematic Harry Potter universe. You have a ton of effects, creatures, people, and story lines to get people into and used to. By having someone like Columbus directing it, the audience is not additionally burdened with odd, hectic, unusual, or bad direction. No "shaky-cam" to jar you out of the world during the action scenes. No odd camera angles or weird color palette to confuse the audience during the dramatic scenes. Everything was laid out, the majority of the book's central themes, characters, and plots managed to make it into the movie, and it is clear and clean to watch for just about all ages.

Of special note in this movie is the strong adult cast, headed by Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, and Robbie Coltrane. Without the strong adult cast to help the child actors with their parts, but also let the children shine in their roles, this movie may have been sunk before it began. But the adults were able to help coax better performances by being foils to the young actors.

All that being said, I think Chris Columbus was a poor choice for Chamber of Secrets. This movie starts moving the HP characters into dire circumstances, begins to show that the world of HP is not all light and fun, and has some dark and moody sets that could have been really explored. Columbus is not the director to do any of that. So, we get a staid, bland, and no sign of the moody, eerie, almost horrifying areas of the forest and the Chamber.

Unfortunately, this is the last of the series starring Richard Harris, who died shortly after making it. While I do not mind his replacement, I thought Harris brought a little extra something to the table and really took on Dumbledore. When I read the books now, it is his face and voice I hear for this character.

For Prisoner of Azkaban, the production crew hired Alfonso Cuaron. This is the most visually interesting and most unusually directed movie in the series, and it makes me wish Cuaron had done more than one (and especially Chamber). In this film, the children are growing up fast, the world is becoming more deadly around them, and the plots are more nefarious. Harry is under siege from his classmates, the Ministry, and, it seems, even his teachers.

Cuaron uses his sense of style to move the color palette into a darker, richer arena, which befits this story. He also uses some interesting camera shots and angles. One of my favorites is when Harry is trying to defend Sirius on the shore of the lake. As Harry falls unconscious, the camera stays locked on Harry's face, so it looks more like the world around Harry is moving, rather than him falling unconscious to the ground. His style manages to emphasize the shifting allegiances and unstable ground on which Harry walks in this story, without being overly jarring or overdone.

This movie is the first with Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. Gambon does a wonderful job, and doesn't try to be the same Dumbledore as Harris. However, I just don't believe him in the role in the same way as I did Harris. I know others who think Gambon is a better Dumbledore, and I accept that. To each their own. I also cannot imagine a better person for Sirius than Gary Oldman, who brings the right amount of passion and fatherly love to the role.

Goblet of Fire sees Mike Newell step in as director. This is the darkest Harry story yet, and includes the first big death in the Harry Potter, so it could have really kept the momentum going from Cuaron's direction. However, instead, Newell goes back to a more staid style and straight camerawork. While the palette remains dark, everything else comes across a little blandly.

The good thing is that the children really start to blossom with their acting here. In the first two films, the adults really helped the children to give great performances and ensure the movie a strong rudder. In Azkaban, the main children start to break free and become stronger performers on their own. In this movie, those performances start to be nuanced, adult, and interesting. Their emotes seems genuine and they don't seem to be "acting" so much. This is good, because the adults really take a step back in this one and become much more secondary characters, allowing the main three children in particular to step into their lead roles in the series.

David Yates takes on the directing chores for Order of the Phoenix. His style is a little looser and more interesting than Newell or Columbus, but not as stunning as Cuaron. We get Harry out in the "real world" more, and a lot more danger for everyone. This story continues the darkening trend of the story as a whole, and Yates adds a lot of nice touches to the dream sequences and action scenes. He also uses a richer color palette to show the differences between the dreams and reality; the dreams are almost all in a cool blues, greens, and blacks, while the real world has bright, warm, but deep reds, yellows, and browns. Which makes the climax that much more interesting -- it slides from the cools to the rich warm colors and back frequently, and the combat between Dumbledore and Voldemort uses both palettes in the same scenes.

Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in particular show a lot of growth as actors in this film. Daniel appears to become the leader of the actors that Harry has become of the students in this story. Evanna Lynch is incredibly spot-on as Luna Lovegood, and hits all the right notes as the dreamy, strange, misunderstood good who becomes a valuable ally to Harry. Imelda Staunton is the adult stand out in this film; her Delores Umbridge is perfect in her pink outfits, with her high-pitched laugh, and her oily, unctuous smile.

My biggest complaint about the second through fifth films is how they felt they must cut a lot of the side stories out and focus entirely on Harry's tale for the movies. While this makes sense and I don't mind them doing it, I would have liked to see some of those side stories brought to life. For example, I think the entire story of Hermione trying to free the house elves that live in Hogwarts would have been a nice, light side story to have in an otherwise darker story. But, again, I understand the reasons why they did it.

It was fun revisiting these films and watching them all together. As the primary actors, crew, and writers are virtually the same on all of the films, the direction is really the only difference between them (of note, Steve Cloves wrote the screenplay for all the films except Order). It is too bad they couldn't get Cuaron to do more than one film, and that the direction choices since then have been more staid than energetic. However, Yates did a nice job on the last one and should do a nice job on Half-Blood Prince.

Mmmm... yuck?

I have often been noted as saying that everything tastes better with either chocolate or Italian dressing. Well, I have found at least one thing about which that statement is wrong.

While out doing some shopping on Valentines, my wife and I went by the Laura Secord shop. We stopped to get some chocolates, because we both were craving a little. And wife had an old card with some credit still on it.

I noted both milk and dark chocolate ginger treats. My mind immediately did a "what the fuck?" when it thought of ginger and chocolate together. My hesitancy prompted some questions to the assistant manager (who claimed she didn't like chocolate-- which makes me less likely to buy from them in the future) and she provided me with a sample.

One small bite of the gooey ginger center and the dark chocolate coating was enough to turn me off of this "treat" forever. I like ginger in many asian foods. I love chocolate. The two together were a horrible assault on my senses! The ginger was spicy, and the flavor kept rising and gaining in strength. The dark chocolate was sweet and subtle, and totally lost in the ginger.

As most know, I like almost anything in chocolate except coconut, nuts (except peanuts), and marzipan. I love fruit filled chocolates, which a lot of people don't care for. But this ginger infused jelly was almost enough to put me off chocolates for a good while! I was, and I mean this literally (wife can verify) still tasting it LONG after the treat was done, and we had moved on to eating other things. The way the ginger reacted, I was starting to think I might have an allergy to it (I know I don't because, again, I have enjoyed ginger in other things). My first reaction was that it tasted like really strong mint toothpaste and chocolate. NOT a good combination.

My guess is that you would have to really, really like ginger to find these treats to be tasty in the least. And, even then, I'm not so sure. Ugh.

A Little Rest

One of my favorite shows is South Park. I now own many seasons (but not all) of the show, and I look forward to new episodes on Comedy Central.

Lately I have undergone watching each of the seasons I have in order. What I have found is that I can make it through two, sometimes three, before falling asleep. I have fallen asleep while watching South Park the last four times I have attempted to watch it!

M and I have joked that maybe this is the cure to my frequent insomnia. Head out to the couch, put on some South Park, and fall gently asleep until the morning (or the DVD ends). I have yet to try it with any seriousness, but it seems like a solution in the offing.

Awhile back, when I first got the original Godzilla, I had the same problem. Every time I put it on I didn't make it more than 10 or 15 minutes into it before falling asleep. It took me three weeks to finish the film. Again, a case of something I enjoyed yet couldn't stay awake for.

Luckily, M has her own Achilles' heel-- Law and Order. She enjoys that show quite a bit, yet gets sleep and often falls asleep while watching it.

What is it about these types of situations that causes a stupor? It seems odd to fall asleep during a favorite show or movie. Could it be familiarity? The known is so reassuring that we feel okay in drifting off while watching it? Whatever it is, I'm seriously considering using this the next time it hits 2am and I haven't fallen asleep yet; I'll pop on some South Park and drift off to sleep. I'll let you know if it works.

Rain

I like the rain. It has always been a comfort to me, and a sound and weather that I love to experience.

This was, of course, while I lived in the desert. The rain there is sparse, short, sometimes powerful and angry, and always welcomed, even in too-great a quantity. Here, however, the rain is not such a happy event, I'm finding.

Our house is at the end of a cul-de-sac. Directly in front of our house is a storm drain. However, our position on the block means two things in relation to that all-important storm drain-- a) most of our property is at or below the level of the storm drain so, if water gets past it, our house gets it and b) the snow plows pile up the majority of the snow right at the drain-- clogging it with layer upon layer of ice.

I've been out trying to break up the inches-thick layers of ice around where I believe the drain to be. I'm wading out into inch to two inch deep pools of water. I have dug now four holes in areas I believe the drain to be in, one about 6" deep and then I struck concrete-- too close. Another about the same depth and a foot away-- nothing but more ice, so hard-packed I couldn't break through it any farther. Another about a foot past the second and about 4 inches deep-- nothing. The last way too far out into the road area, but just to try it and about 3 inches deep-- nada. I then put a bunch of salt down on the area, hoping it can worm its way through the ice and find the drain. Once a hole is made, the water will do the rest of the work for me.

We have water all around our house. Most of our driveway is an ice rink covered in a solid inch of water now and rising. Most of the water is finding its way to the path to the porch and front door, following that to the stairs, then going under the porch to the side yard. With luck, the majority of the water continues all the way to the bottom of the property where there is a water drainage ditch dug to a different storm drain.

Our sump pump has started going off regularly and for large quantities when it does. Which is good, as that means vast sums of water are not pooling under the house and threatening to come inside, as has happened to M two seasons in a row until her dad (with very little help but a lot of kibbitzing from me) installed last year. I do the rounds each time I feed the fire and I see no signs of water in any of the usual suspect areas. But the fact that so much is pooled all around us, and moving past us, has me concerned.

I see the maintenance people working on the roads around us. I'm hopeful they will soon reach our cul-de-sac and realize the issue and work on it. I may even go out and talk with them if they don't seem to.

Physics in Action

I was driving home from an enjoyable day spent with Stew and decided to take the "back way" home. The road (don't ask me the name of it-- has the Martello Tower and the school on it) is narrow to begin with, but with the ice and snow piled up on one side was even narrower.

As I drove up the road, around the bend came... a public bus. Large, square, many-ton piece of steel, rubber, and glass. A quick mental calculation of the amount of room it needed and the amount of room I needed and the amount of street available indicated that there was not enough room by far for the two of us.

Thinking fast, I cautiously applied the brakes and drove up onto the snow/ice bank, which happened to (luckily) be wider and flatter in that area. By doing so, the bus driver had just enough room to squeeze by on the other side of the road, and I cautiously drove back down onto the part of street that was clear. I'm not sure what we would have done had I not thought fast enough and determined I could do that maneuver safely enough. The bus was going way too fast around the bend to have stopped in time; guess he didn't expect oncoming traffic on that bend or on that road. I might have stopped, but I'm not sure what that would have accomplished if the bus couldn't stop. Glad neither of us had to find out.

As I drove down Westgate toward our house, the same basic situation applied to the street (not wide enough due to ice/snow buildup on the sides). However, in this instance, a person had decided to park his SUV on one side of the narrowed street and another parked his car on the opposite side. And, of course, they didn't park as close to the ice/snow as they could, because they each must have had passengers who needed to disembark. So what is a narrow two lane road normally was now an ice-slick hazardous slalom course between two parked cars. Not sure what the drivers were thinking. Had there been a car coming, there is no doubt at all that only one of us could have gone through at a time. As it was, a car came up as I cleared the obstacle and I slid on the ice trying to get back from the center of the lane onto "my side" of the road, which, of course, is the side with the most ice build up. Luckily the oncoming traffic recognized the situation, slowed and got to his right, and gave me the room I needed to maneuver the slide and get out of his way.

And I won't even mention the ice/snow build up on Gaelic, which I am a little worried that M's car won't be able to power through on her way home. My truck had trouble with it.

Talking with Alex the other day, he was mentioning that our neighbors thanked him the other day for his plowing. They recognize how lucky they are that he comes to plow out our driveway on snowy days. Doing so frequently means he is the first and, sometimes, only, plow that Gaelic and Erin Court sees. Without him plowing his way in to us and plowing his way out again, many of them wouldn't be able to go to work in the morning.

I also helped Stew with the spreading of salt on his driveway, and he taught me how to spread the salt so I can do a better job on our own. Maybe, now that I understand the quantity and purpose of it, I can do a better job on our ice rink... er, I mean "driveway" in the future.

Evolution

When human beings were ignorant of the world, fearful of nearly everything around them, and had no way to explain what was going on, man had many gods. There were gods in the lightning, in the trees, in the streams and oceans. Gods were the wind, the sun, the moon, and the stars. When gods were angry, fires raged, eclipses happened, floods occurred, and people died. When gods were happy, man caught fish, had a clear, sunny days, and did not get eaten by predators. During this time, man's fears and greatest threats came from all sides-- food, shelter, and procreation were the main focus of life and there was not time to worry about the future or how the world worked or man's place in it.

As human beings advanced, a little bit of understanding of the world crept into the mix and man's gods coalesced into defined pantheons. These pantheons had gods in charge of specific areas of influence; Thor was the god of thunder and the storms, Ares was the god of war, Ra was the god of knowledge and understanding, Shiva was the god of death. Each pantheon had basically the same set of gods performing the same set of tasks-- tasks that were still for the most part out of the understanding of the common man and beyond man's ability. However, much more was left to man's ability and the idea of free-will and man's ability to overcome nature and other obstacles started to form and be discussed. Man's fears shifted from everything in the natural world to more esoteric and undefinable vagaries like death, man's place in the world, and the future.

Human beings progressed some more, and the idea of a smaller pantheon or singular god crept into the world. First with the Jews, who had an angry god and a bunch of angels and archangels to perform specific tasks, and the prophet Moses to bring the word; then with Christianity and its concept of "one god" (however, Christianity also paid homage to the pantheons by having that god in three incarnations -- a mini-pantheon -- of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost), plus angels of many types, and a variety of prophets and saints; and in Islam, with Allah and his prophets, in order, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, plus good and evil djinn. During this evolution of thought, man "conquered" much of nature, his understanding of the world and how it worked grew by leaps and bounds, and people's fears about the future, nature, and man's place in the world all dissipated. Man's last fear, of what happens after death, becomes the primary area in which his gods provide guidance and insight. The idea of man's free-will becomes the foundation of many faiths and belief systems.

Currently, there is a surge by many human beings, a groundswell, toward a truly singular god and even no god at all. People are unifying churches and religions into a streamlined and universal concept. Many are turning from the idea of a god toward philosophies and concepts that are more universally accepted by humanity as a whole, and which do not carry the baggage of previous religious concepts. The purview of this god is as a watcher and unseen force behind that which man understands and accepts, and the retribution behind those things man does not accept or understand. Science, as it helps to explain all things and demystify the world in which man lives, has almost become a religion unto itself. Man's greatest fears have turned full-circle back to Nature and his own survival, but now it is from a position of stewardship. He fears nature not because of ignorance but from knowledge-- he has broken it and must figure out a way to live in harmony with and to fix it. He still fears death, but primarily only from other men and his own bad decisions. Man's biggest issues involve cultural clashes and his inability to see himself as one part of an entire species with global diversity. Ironically, many of these conflicts stem from localized belief systems and concepts of god and religion.

If this evolution of thought continues, soon man will have no gods or religion, per se, but a concept of fair play, acceptance, and harmony that allows him to live in peace with himself, his fellow men, and with his world. He will give back as much as he takes. He will accept the wild diversity that nature provides and will revel in harmony with nature and philosophies. He will no longer seek to destroy that which is different from him, but will embrace the diversity those differences bring to the whole and the growth that diversity can create. He will no longer feel as a steward to the world, but its custodian.