Review of SPIDER-MAN 3

I enjoyed Spider-Man 3. There, I said it.

Spider-Man 3 is a good entry into the series and an all-around entertaining superhero "popcorn" flick. And with just a little bit more thought, it could have been an all-time truly classic movie.

There was simply way too much that was shoehorned into this one movie to make it overwhelmingly superb. I worried a year ago that Sam Raimi and gang were trying to put so many elements of the Spider-Man comics into this third film, that it couldn't be anything but unwieldy. Unfortunately, those fears were well-grounded.

But in spite of whatever problems this movie has... and they are myriad... I just can't bring myself to do anything but love Spider-Man 3. I had too good a time watching it. Yes, there are things that could have been better. But those are out-shined by what does work in this movie. And on the way home Lisa posed a really strong argument to me about why Spider-Man 3 has some pretty timely lessons for the day and age that we're living in.

Maybe I'm seeing things through rose-colored glasses. I mean, for as long as I live the original Spider-Man from 2002 will be one of my most favorite movie experiences ever. It was the last movie that Lisa and I saw at the Beechwood in Athens, on the night before she graduated from University of Georgia. We had seen so many great movies at that theater during almost two years of dating and to go out on top with Spider-Man, it was like a peak experience. And then the next day she graduated and that was the last time we've been to Athens after spending most of our dating relationship there and two months later we got married. So seeing a Spider-Man movie isn't something that I want to have a bad memory about, for fear that it'll sully that wonderful last time at the Beechwood. And Spider-Man 2 was one of the very few sequels that I thought was better than the original.

Okay, about the movie...

It picks up a year (maybe not even that long) after Spider-Man 2. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) finally has the balance he's sought between being an ace student, a boyfriend to the beautiful Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), and a costumed hero that's become a much-beloved New York City icon. Unfortunately there are still some issues (and that's putting it lightly) from the first two movies between Peter and his former best friend Harry Osborne (James Franco). It's not long after the film is rolling that the first action sequence of Spider-Man 3 happens when Harry – as the lamely-named "New Goblin" (is that the best they could come up with?) – attacks Peter, just as Peter is coming home from telling Aunt May (Rosemary Harris, as wonderful as ever) that he's going to ask Mary Jane to marry him.

Meanwhile a small-time hood named Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) is fleeing the cops. Not wanting to be sent back to prison, he runs smack into the middle of a high-energy physics lab that's doing something crazy involving sand. Because this is a Spider-Man movie, you just know that having a criminal running through a physics experiment is going to mean trouble. Marko's body is taken apart by a particle accelerator thingy, but he gains the properties of the sand that he fell in and after he rebuilds himself, starts learning how to use his new powers as the Sandman.

And I'm almost forgetting to mention how, toward the very beginning of the movie, Peter and Mary Jane are in Central Park one night watching a meteor shower when a meteorite crashes just a few dozen yards away from them and brings with it a gooey black living alien substance that hitches a ride on Peter's scooter. Yup, of all the billions of people living on Earth, this thing just happens to land right next to the web-slinging superhero.

So began one of the "bad" things for me about Spider-Man 3: the all-too-numerous coincidences. This was the first and worst of them. Even if you've been in a cave for the past year and haven't seen the trailers, you've probably figured out that the "black goo" is the alien symbiote that attaches to Peter and becomes his black costume. I didn't like the "outer space" origin of the suit at all in Spider-Man 3. That was fine for the original comics line but in the context of a motion picture, it seems way too wacky. It would have been much better, if the symbiote was used at all, to give it the origin from the Ultimate Spider-Man comic series (where the symbiote is a home-grown cancer cure that goes completely awry). Well, the symbiote finds its way into Peter's life just as he and Aunt May are getting news from Police Captain Stacy (played by James Cromwell) that this Flint Marko guy had something to do with Uncle Ben's death in the original Spider-Man. Now Peter wants revenge in the worst way and the symbiote homes in on that desire. One night, it "smothers" Peter as he's asleep on the bed and becomes the black costume.

Now, the ad campaign will have you believe that the black costume somehow makes Peter more powerful. Don't believe it. That black goop does nothing for Peter except give him a honked-off 'tude, a bad haircut, and making him impersonate John Travolta's dancing... badly. That was one part of the movie that was genuinely painful to watch: when it feels like the whole film has jumped the track and has become a horridly bad Seventies movie. It's like Sam Raimi took off that day and let Quentin Tarantino shoot some B-roll for Grindhouse with Tobey Maguire. Come to think of it, there was too much singing and dancing in this movie... except for that very last scene of the movie, which was perfect.

Well, the symbiote starts to bring out the absolute worst in Peter, and he eventually frees himself from it inside a church. Which it just so happens that Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) is inside that same church. He's praying to God to kill Peter Parker ('cuz Parker wrecked Brock's career, among other things). Oh wow... another coincidence! And so the symbiote latches onto Brock and becomes – ta-da! – Venom.

More bad advertising: Venom is barely in this movie. I think he's on-screen for less than five minutes total. There's not even enough time to properly call him "Venom". Yet too much time was spent building up to him. If I had been in charge of the Spider-Man movie franchise, I would have made Sandman the primary villain and have the Harry storyline a very strong "Plot B". I would still give Peter the symbiote/black costume, but tear it off of him before the movie's end and have it waiting out there for a Spider-Man 4, when that entire film could be devoted to Venom. Putting Sandman and Venom in Spider-Man 3 was the most obvious example of too much story.

There were other things too that were crammed-into this movie that didn't need to be there, like Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy. Now if you know Spider-Man comics then you know that Gwen Stacy is a huge part of Spidey lore. In Spider-Man 3 she seemed as tacked-on as (Lord forgive me for saying this) Alicia Silverstone was in Batman and Robin. Yes I absolutely hate drawing that analogy, but that's what it felt most like. They could have said that Howard was playing Deb Whitman and it wouldn't have made any more difference to me.

Thomas Hayden Church as Flint Marko/Sandman was one of the real surprises of Spider-Man 3. Church's Sandman is a criminal, but I don't know if it's fair to call him a "bad" guy. He's a man who's made some mistakes and he's got a crisis that he's trying to deal with as best he can... and then he gains and struggles to deal with his new super-abilities. The more time that passes since yesterday afternoon (we saw the movie at the Grande in Greensboro), the more I'm wishing that Sandman had been the only major villain of the film. Church was a pleasure to watch in the role and I really wanted to see a lot more of him in this movie. And I wanted to see more of the plot involving his daughter, which also seemed a little "rushed".

Sandman worked for me. So did the story between Peter and Harry, and its eventual resolution (which I will not spoil for you here). J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson has been a sheer hoot to watch since the original Spider-Man and he was just as much fun to watch this time (but again, if some fat had been trimmed off of this film then I would have loved to have seen him get more screen time). There is a lot of nice consistency between this and the previous movies, like the return of Dr. Connors (Dylan Baker, who still hasn't gotten his turn at bat as The Lizard!) and even Peter's landlord Mr. Ditkovitch ("Rent?!") and his daughter Ursula. And it being a Sam Raimi movie, it wouldn't be complete without a cameo appearance by Bruce Campbell. Look for him playing a hilarious French waiter at a restaurant that Peter is meeting Mary Jane at. I even liked Harry's butler a lot, including the scene where he comes in and explains something to Harry. I'm hearing some refer to that bit as a deus ex machina, but it made sense to me... and again, it was a nice touch of consistency.

This movie isn't entirely good. But it's definitely not the "bad" movie that a lot of critics are making it out to be, at least in my book. It's certainly not like Batman and Robin (can you believe it's almost ten years since that cinematic travesty? I still cringe whenever I think back on the night that "Weird" Ed and I saw that turkey). But I can't see comparing it to X-Men: The Last Stand either. I do think that Sam Raimi should have been trusted more to make the Spider-Man movie he wanted to see made, instead of the suits at Sony or wherever making production decisions from the board room. Instead... and this is much the same problem that X-Men: The Last Stand had last year... executive producer Avi Arad was too insistent about sticking Venom in this movie. Venom in Spider-Man 3 feels more like a professional obligation than a work of creative passion. Raimi didn't want Venom in this at all... heck he didn't even like the character.

Where Raimi really shines for me and why I believe he really has been the best director for this series is that for all of its problems, Spider-Man 3 is a much-needed parable in the series about revenge and forgiveness. If this entire series is about "with great power comes great responsibility" as has always been part of the Spider-Man saga, then Spider-Man 3 is about learning how to have discipline over that power, lest it take control of you. Lisa and I were talking about this on the way home from the theater and I think she's right about this: that with the whole world around us so obsessed with hurting others and having control over them and being unwilling to forgive, Spider-Man 3 really is a refreshing breeze from the opposite direction. On those grounds, Spider-Man 3 stands tall indeed because of those morals...

...and because, in spite of being too burdened with too many story elements this time out, this is still the same core group of wonderful characters that we've come to know and love over the course of two movies, and it's great to see them again, and how they come to grow and develop even further.

I would probably see Spider-Man 3 again in the theater. I definitely will add it to my personal library when it comes out on DVD (something that cannot be said about X-Men: The Last Stand).

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'll give Spider-Man 3 a strong 7. Wish it could have been at least an 8, but in my mind it's quite a rare movie that is laden with flaws but still merits recommending to people.

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Where crime involving political signs is taken seriously ...

Opponents of a school bond referendum in Davie County have vandalized thousands of dollars worth of signs supporting to measure and it's being treated as an actual crime there. I'm going to do some more looking into this come early next week. Funny how a few counties over it's treated as a serious criminal matter (as it should be) but here in Rockingham County it's almost as if it's no big deal when other people's political signs are messed with.

Speaking of Ron Price, there's one more thing - at least - that is in the works. You'll know it when you see it.

Thanks to Penny Owens for forwarding along this news video from WGHP Fox 8.

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Song parody: "MacArthur Park 2007" (illegal aliens rioting)

With apologies to Jimmy Webb and the late Richard Harris, but I just couldn't resist writing this one. Inspired by events of the past few days...

"MacArthur Park 2007"

Originally written by Jimmy Webb and performed by Richard Harris

New words by Christopher Knight

Border is wide open for them girl
They're starting to get bold
As they scream their Spanish chants
Now they incite a riot as they press
The government to bow down
To La Raza's mad demands

MacArthur Park is burning in the dark
All those rubber bullets flying 'round
Gonzo's hot to find someone to blame
This country just can't take it
Illegals are going to break it
And we'll never have America again
Oh noooooooo!

I can see unlawful immigrants
Fighting with the cops
Of Los Angeles P-D
Better put a stop to this right now or
They'll be spreading from sea to shining sea

MacArthur Park is burning in the dark
While the country goes on crumbling down
Lawless immigration is insane
Taxpayers can't afford it
But elitists just adore it
'Cuz they'll never pay high salary again
Oh noooooooo!

There will be no other job for me
For I have lost it
American dream is dead to me
Illegal took it
And still they come like an angry swarm
While they threaten us with drunk driving and their guns
And of all the bad things in my life
And the things causing so much strife
This is the worst one

MacArthur Park is burning in the dark
All those aliens are running 'round
What the hell is wrong with Bush's brain?
No other way to say it
Real Americans will hate it
If politicians give amnesty again
Oh noooooooo!
Oh noooooo-oooooooooooo!

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Wally Schirra has passed away

Walter M. Schirra Jr., better known as "Wally" Schirra, has passed away at the age of 84.

Schirra was one of the original seven NASA astronauts, tapped from hundreds of candidates to be part of the Mercury program. He flew the Sigma 7 craft in 1962 and then a few years later commanded Gemini 6 as it rendezvoused with Gemini 7: the first such encounter between two spacecraft and a technical test for what would later be required during the Apollo series. The third and final time Schirra went into space was in 1968 with Apollo 7, the first manned launch of the Apollo vehicle.

Of the original seven Mercury astronauts, only John Glenn and Scott Carpenter are still with us.

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Bush: "I'm the Commander Guy!"

Remember that old TV commercial that had Mrs. Fletcher shouting "I've fallen and I can't get up!"? That's what America has become, my friends. It's fallen and it's so lame, there's no standing back straight and tall ever again. The timbers in the ship of state are just too rotted.

Witness the latest sign of the decadence: President Bush has a new name for himself. Yesterday he said this:

"The question is, 'Who ought to make that decision, the Congress or the commanders?,'" Mr. Bush said. "As you know, my position is clear – I'm the commander guy."

"I'm the commander guy"?

Two things that are so tragic about this: first, is that it has come to the point where we have gone from the eloquence that was once found in leaders like Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt, and come to where the height of presidential rhetoric is "I'm the commander guy". I mean, heck compared to George W. Bush, even Andrew Jackson was a classical orator.

The second thing that's so sad about this, is that there are poor fools that are going to be found who will absolutely lap stuff like this up.

"I'm the commander guy"... who possibly takes this president seriously anymore?

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Tonight's LOST: musings about "The Brig"

Lisa usually turns in before Lost starts at 10 p.m., meaning that I watch it and then we see it together the following afternoon from the DVR. But tonight she got drawn in by the first few minutes of "The Brig" and couldn't let go. So we got to see it first-run together. It just finished a short while ago...

John Locke may be the greatest tragic figure to come out of television of the past twenty years. You know what I keep thinking about, after watching this episode? It's that as much as Locke has wanted to be unlike his father, he has now become too much like his father.

Sawyer has lately been turning into one of my favorite characters, because of how he has been changing and growing. We've been seeing a real seeking of redemption and want of a new life out of Sawyer. He's had that new life. And then Locke has to destroy that life, just as the original Sawyer (I'm trying hard not to spoil anything here) ruined young James Ford's life.

That scene where it all comes crashing down together... you know what I mean if you watched it... that was genuinely painful to watch. I sure didn't feel any satisfaction out of that scene. I felt like a very horrible thing had been made to happen and I really can't say that I blame either Locke or Sawyer for it.

If nobody had a good enough reason to hate Ben before tonight, there sure is now.

Lots of answers in this one. In true Lost style, almost as many new mysteries in "The Brig". And there's a real sense that everything is converging hard and fast and when they meet... it's not going to be pretty.

Three more episodes left in Season 3. Next week: Ben's flashback episode. The early days of the DHARMA Initiative. And at long last... Jacob. "The Man Behind the Curtain" airs in exactly 166.5 hours!

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Comments temporarily for registered users only

Because of some apparent abuse on the part of a suspected individual on the "The Ronfather" post, I am temporarily turning off anonymous comments. You must be registered with Blogger in order to leave comments at the present time. I'm hoping to lift this and return to normal commenting - which you can choose to be anonymous or not - as soon as possible.

EDIT 5-03-2007 1:03 a.m. EST: Normal commenting has been restored.

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Student disciplined for making video game map of his high school

The Fort Bend Independent School District (in Texas) is upholding the suspension and subsequent placing in an "alternative education center" of a Clements High School student whose only crime was... get this... building a video game map from his high school!

Here's more of the story:

...on April 17, the day after the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 dead, Clements High School officials learned a student had been playing Counterstrike, an Internet-based shooting game. The locale of the shootings depicted on this student's game were the hallways of Clements High School.

School district police investigated the report and questioned the student at school and then visited his home. The student's parents gave police permission to search the 12th-grader's room and computer. Simpson said police determined no criminal charges were warranted but that disciplinary action was.

Simpson said because of the violent nature of the game and because the actions had taken place in a computer-generated rendition of the high school, official consider the matter to be very serious.

"This was nothing to kid around about," she said.

Simpson said the student was transferred to an alternative school for the remainder of the school term.

The teen's parents appealed the decision. The school district has a four-step appeal process at the end of which a student can make a final appeal directly to the board of trustees...

Magee said he thinks the district probably reacted too strongly to the situation.

"He did it at his house. Never took anything to school. Never wrote an ugly letter, never said anything strange to a student or a teacher, nothing," Magee said.

Bryant said police need to take situations like this seriously.

If we have come to the point where we are threatened by a video game... then I'm sorry, but America has completely lost it. These school officials are blithering idiots and the people who started this mess against this student don't possess nearly enough spine.

Look, this is something of a tradition. Making video game maps based on real-life locales is nothing new. It started over ten years ago with Doom, and people hacking that game so that they could run around Notre Dame or their office or some other place they were familiar with. To the best of my knowledge, I don't know of anyone who used those home-brewed maps to practice a real-life killing spree. It's just natural that if you have the time and talent to do this sort of thing, that you would use a place you know like the back of your hand.

And notice that this student did this at home, on his own time, without using any school time or resources. So I have to wonder: what the hell gives these damned busybodies in the school system the right to intrude on his domicile?

Oh yeah: based on what they're saying in this story "Virginia Tech changed everything!" is what they'll probably say.

More reason why our children's education should not be trusted to those who are riding mental tricycles.

I still remember quite a lot of detail about my old high school. I wonder if I would get in trouble for making a Doom or Quake or Counter Strike map based on it?

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Fox News handling of Republican debate shows how screwed-up this country is

Let me see if I've got this right...

Fox News may exclude SEVEN candidates from its Republican presidential debate - including Internet favorites Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter - because they and others are hovering around 1% support in national polls. Fox News doesn't want to give airtime to anyone who is showing just that 1%.

If they had live and unfettered airtime during the debate, they more than likely stand a good chance of seeing their percentage of support skyrocket across the country.

But in order to have that airtime, they have to be well-known enough to the public now, from a considerable amount of news coverage, which Fox News, CNN, CBS, and the rest of the mainstream media will absolutely not afford them. Why? Because candidates like Ron Paul are not the "favored elite" among either party. They're not the ones "picked to win" by their parties' bigwigs and the controllers of corporate media. On a level playing field, someone as intelligent and as articulate as Ron Paul would wipe the floor with George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton.

But we aren't allowed to have sincere brilliance rise into leadership roles anymore. They would upset the apple cart too much in this country. The leaders of both major parties have too much to lose than to let "loose cannons" take away from their power. The mainstream press... well, it wants power too, but it's also terminally lazy and doesn't want to go through the hassle of reporting on people with real ideas. The corporate media only wants people from whom it knows what to expect.

I've very little doubt that we are going to see Hillary or Guiliani or Obama or McCain or someone else among "the anointed" sworn in as President come January '09. And when they do, I'll only be able to close my eyes and shake my head in disgust, just as I have done when George W. Bush was inaugurated and Bill Clinton before him. There are no more adults to lead this country: we are now, and will for the foreseeable future, being led by the delinquent and the insane. All cheerfully brought to you by the network of Fair and Balanced reporting and others of its ilk.

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Ron Price: He'll make you an offer you oughta refuse

If this is The Ronfather, does that mean its central character is "Ron" Corleone?

Someone called here yesterday to ask me about the Ron Price situation and I told this person that at no time have I "hated" the guy. Been disgusted with him? Certainly. But that's a far cry from outright loathing his guts. At the same time, he's doing wrong: both by staying on the Rockingham County Board of Education (in spite of being an admitted thief) and by this lawsuit against the Moores... which many here believe will be only the first in a series of retaliatory strikes against those on Price's "enemies list".

Bear in mind that at one point I was one of Price's strongest supporters. I even offered to make a TV commercial for his campaign back during the election season... for free. You don't do that for someone unless they've won your trust. That, Price did. I told this person yesterday that I'm going to be a lot more careful about being eager to support someone so readily from now on.

Anyway, one of the things Price has said in his lawsuit against Richard Moore is that he's been caused "embarrassment". I don't see anything wrong with that. Embarrassment and shame can be a good thing... especially when the person in question is an elected official in charge of a multi-million dollar budget and moral decisions affecting thousands of people. Why shouldn't Ron Price feel embarrassed and ridiculed, in light of what we now know of him?

So I've got no problem in making these parody images, because Ron Price only has himself to blame for all of this. If he would do the right thing and step aside, I wouldn't have to be making these. But this is how I fight the bad guys, with whatever creativity and talent that God has given me.

It's what we all should have been doing, every one of us, no matter where in this country or this world that we've been put or what we've been given to work with. This is where America is going to either live or die: at the local level, fighting the crooks off in your own backyard.

I wonder if MAD Magazine would hire me...

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Tonight's LOST goes out of "the box" and into "The Brig"

A few weeks ago in the episode "The Man from Tallahassee", Ben told Locke (Terry O'Quinn) that on the island there was "a box" that would produce anything you wanted. Locke laughed at the idea. And then at the end of the episode Ben told Locke that "I'm going to show you what came out of it."

What Locke saw when he opened the door and looked inside the room was probably the biggest shocker of the show's entire run.

We've only seen Locke very briefly after that, when he told Kate that he was leaving with the Others for... wherever it was that they were headed for. On tonight's Lost - titled "The Brig" - Locke returns and based on what little I'm hearing, this is going to be an episode as fine as any that we've seen lately... and those have been some of the best television ever produced in the past decade. Word on the street is that tonight's flashbacks show what Locke has been doing with the Others for the past several days. More intriguing still, "The Brig" might finally resolve a longstanding mystery from the first season involving Sawyer (if you watch the show then you know what I'm talking about).

Enjoy every minute of this while you can. After tonight there are only three more episodes and then Lost goes away until next January :-(

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Tom Poston - aka George Utley on NEWHART - passes away

When I was growing up, Newhart was one of the few television shows that I really liked to watch. Guess it was all those weird characters living together in that tiny Vermont town. One of the quirkiet was Tom Poston's George Utley. I think it was in his very first appearance on the show that he gave Bob Newhart's character Dick Loudon his business card and all it says on it is "GEORGE UTLEY", no phone or address: people have to shout for him if they wanted him. The look on Dick's face after that is what set the tone for all the years of the show that followed.

Well, news is coming out tonight that Tom Poston passed away Monday night at the age of 85. In addition to a life of great acting and comedy roles, he was also a pilot during World War II who flew soldiers in and out of a lot of dangerous areas. I think I remember reading that at one time he was a boxer, too.

Sad to see him go. We are steadily losing an entire generation of performing giants, and there really isn't anyone with their kind of caliber to fill in for them. But I couldn't wind down this post without sharing my all-time favorite George Utley scene from Newhart. It was from that episode that was made up entirely of dream sequences (I think this was like two years before the show ended with perhaps the most famous dream sequence in television history). Anyway in the first act we see George's dream and in it Dick is showing George all the crazy thing that can happen while dreaming, and at the end of it George lifts up his arms and goes flying off like Superman. It was hilarious!

Thanks for the years of good laughs, Mr. Poston.

EDIT 12:57 a.m. EST: Hey, here's a clip of that scene on YouTube! Enjoy!

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Happy anniversary Ed and Olivia!

It was a year ago today down at Cypress Gardens in Charleston, South Carolina that my longtime collaborator "Weird" Ed Woody was united in holy matrimony to his lovely bride Olivia. Here's a pic of the happy couple...What Ed, ya think I would let this day go by without remembering that? :-)

Happy anniversary you two!

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It's illegal to have this number on your blog

Hexadecimal 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

This is the decryption key for most of the HD-DVD titles that have been released. Apparently the bigwigs in the entertainment industry are going after websites and blogs that host it. This is similar to what happened a few years ago when DeCSS was discovered. Some people were arrested for spreading the code for that one around (in quite a few creative ways). Just for the heck of it, here's one of DeCSS's smaller C implementations:

/*     efdtt.c     Author:  Charles M. Hannum              */
/*                                                                         */
/*     Thanks to Phil Carmody  for additional tweaks.    */
/*                                                                         */
/*     Length:  434 bytes (excluding unnecessary newlines)                 */
/*                                                                         */
/*     Usage is:  cat title-key scrambled.vob | efdtt >clear.vob           */

#define m(i)(x[i]^s[i+84])<<
unsigned char x[5],y,s[2048];main(n){for(read(0,x,5);read(0,s,n=2048);write(1,s
,n))if(s[y=s[13]%8+20]/16%4==1){int i=m(1)17^256+m(0)8,k=m(2)0,j=m(4)17^m(3)9^k
*2-k%8^8,a=0,c=26;for(s[y]-=16;--c;j*=2)a=a*2^i&1,i=i/2^j&1<<24;for(j=127;++j;c=c>y)c+=y=i^i/8^i>>4^i>>12,i=i>>8^y<<17,a^=a>>14,y=a^a*8^a<<6,a=a>>8^y<<9,k=s
[j],k="7Wo~'G_\216"[k&7]+2^"cr3sfw6v;*k+>/n."[k>>4]*2^k*257/8,s[j]=k^(k&k*2&34)
*6^c+~y;}}

But what would have happened if DVD encryption hadn't been cracked? It had mostly been an effort so that Linux users could use DVDs on their systems, because the industry had up to that point refused to support DVD on Linux. Would there have been the boom in do-it-yourself DVD recording that we now enjoy had the algorithm not been broken? Probably not.

Let's face it: for whatever intent they have, hackers do almost invariably do a great long-term service for us. They open up new technology, and they challenge hardware and software producers to constantly improve the products they pitch to us. Same thing is going to happen with high-def DVD content getting cracked: my bet is that it'll eventually make self-production of 1080p discs at home that much more viable.

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RONBO: Lawsuit story hits the News & Record

Gerald Witt has a write-up in today's News & Record about the lawsuit that Ron Price has filed against Richard Moore (click here for more info on that). At the beginning of his story Witt makes mention of something that's currently on Moore's website and I couldn't resist posting it here either for sake of posterity...

Political sniping going to court

By Gerald Witt
Staff Writer

WENTWORTH — Ronbo — a mash-up of Rambo and Rockingham County school board member Ron Price — greets visitors to Richard Moore's Web site.

Moore, a local political pot-stirrer, independent publisher and unsuccessful 2006 school board candidate, doesn't seem rattled by a slander and libel lawsuit Price filed against him last month claiming $140,000 in damages.

A copy of the complaint is on Moore's site, next to the Ronbo photo: Price's face on the body of John Rambo , a long-haired, tank-topped Vietnam vet played by actor Sylvester Stallone.

"Ronbo"... heh-heh :-)

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Ron Price channels spirit of Trotsky in latest show of cockiness

It finally dawned on me today: Ron Price really is, unequivocally, a neo-conservative. And "neocons" are the most loathsome political movement in American history, without a doubt. These are people who believe in "the noble lie": that it is perfectly okay to deceive people if the goal in mind is political power. As was proudly boasted in National Review recently, neo-conservatism is an off-shoot of the teachings of Leon Trotsky, who helped bring communism to Russia along with Lenin. Well, neo-conservatism is Trotsky's beliefs in absolute power without apology... coupled with excessive narcissism and feeling of self-importance without regard for others.

Sounds just like confessed thief and disgraced Rockingham County Board of Education member Ron Price, who is now violating his oath of office by suing his opponents for practicing their constitutional rights.

Well, as considerably more than one person told me months ago would happen, Price is letting his sense of power go to his head. Today on his blog he lashes out at local media for spending "a disproportionate amount of time on rumors and gossip". Here's more from his post:

In order for Rockingham County to climb out of its pattern of decline, the attitudes and concerns must shift to an emphasis on creating wealth and away from an emphasis on gossip.

As one looks around the county it is apparent to me that there are organizations in the media that concentrate on emphasizing the negative and even exacerbating the negative to the point of senseless and useless ridicule and cynicism. All the while they are doing this they are pulling attention away from creating wealth and directing it towards gossip and failure.

As we move forward we must all concentrate on the goal of wealth building and allow those organizations that don’t to die out from lack of support. Some of these groups and people are on the wane but may regain strength if the county loses its focus on creating wealth.

Henry County, one of our sister counties to the north in Virginia, share some of the same economic conditions and a common TV station problem as well.

"A common TV station problem as well." That says it all. Price hates WGSR-Star 39 in Reidsville for helping to keep his "sign incident" toward the forefront of most people's minds around here.

He can't own up to his wrongdoing, so once again he's lashing out at his "enemies".

But this time he's attempting to spin this as if those who have tried to hold him accountable are now a threat to the community! According to this latest screed by Ron Price, stations like Star 39 and "independent" media like the Neely Chronicle (and this blog, no doubt) are economic and cultural liabilities that are holding back development in Rockingham County.

Really, Mister Price, I think you are seriously attributing too much power and influence toward me!

This thing about "creating wealth" that Price harps on troubles me. If you were to believe Ron Price, the only thing that we should be concerned with is materialism. He completely glosses-over such matters as simply doing what's right. There are things you can't put a price tag on y'know... like principles.

By the way, in case Ron Price is wondering: I don't like to brag about it, but I am doing my darndest to cultivate a real filmmaking industry in Rockingham County. Something that everyone in this community can have and take pride in. I grew up here. I have real love for this area. It's not like I'm some carpet-bagger from Florida who only blew into town a year ago and hasn't done anything toward promoting the local economy.

Dear Lord, has there ever been a politician in the history of Rockingham County who has tried to frame so much in reference to himself as Ron Price is doing now? Does Ron Price actually believe this is all about "Me Me Me"?!

"The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end."

-- Leon Trotsky

Ron Price really is a student of Trotsky, isn't he? I mean, he can't win any other way, so he's trying to rile up the "proletariat" so that they'll revolt against his political enemies. And if he has to lie and deceive and obfuscate everyone so that he can get his way... well, he doesn't think there's anything wrong with that, does he?

I swear, people like Ron Price make me sick. They're part of the cancer that's eating away at this country. The "SCREW YOU I GOT MINE JACK!" mentality is destroying America, and right here in our own backyard we see it personified in Ron Price.

Why am I so opposed to this man? Because we either do our damndest to stop people like him now, or else we have to tell our children that we didn't stop the bad things from happening when we had the chance. We have to, as Barney Fife so eloquently put it, "nip it in the bud!"

In the meantime, "Ron Protsky" wants to incite revolution. Let us hope that he doesn't get exiled to anywhere that has a surplus of icepicks.

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"Gandalf 3:16"

Was flicking through channels and saw that tonight TBS is running The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Which reminded me of something that I don't think I've ever mentioned in this space before...

On the night of December 18th, 2001 - just less than a month after we got engaged - Lisa and I went to the Beechwood 11 Cinema in Athens, Georgia for the movie's midnight premiere. It was the first time that Lisa had ever done a "midnight showing" of a new movie. Well, a few months before at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, the good folks at TheOneRing.net had given us these nifty t-shirts from their website. We wore them to the theater that night, and I brought along a sign that I'd made before we left Lisa's apartment:

Here's a pic that Lisa took of me waving the "Gandalf 3:16" sign around while we were waiting for the show to start:

And here's some folks who came to the event in costume:

Here's the photos, along with an after-action report, I made for TheOneRing.net (you have to scroll down a bit to find it). Incidentally we saw Fellowship of the Ring twice on its opening day. We got back to Lisa's apartment about 3:30 a.m. and caught some sleep (I crashed on her couch) and then saw it again about 12 hours later that afternoon. Not completely as crazy as what I did when Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace came out (saw it twice on opening day all before 6 a.m.) but that's another story.

Anyhoo, I saw that the movie was on TV tonight and thought it'd be fun to share that lil' anecdote and the pics :-) It definitely was one of the best movie experiences I've ever had in my life.

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Ron Price makes good on "enemies list" threat - Lashes out with "silly" lawsuit - Openly violates oath - The Knight Shift expected as next to be hit

Ron Price, disgraced member of the Rockingham County Board of Education ("I don't have anyone to hold my Bible for me" he lamented meekly when he was sworn-in this past December), has filed a lawsuit against fellow former school board candidate Richard Moore and Moore's wife Debbie in retaliation for the Moores trying to hold Price accountable for his stealing campaign signs on the night before last November's election.

Here's the story that's being reported in today's Reidsville Review.

In filing this suit, Ron Price is grievously breaking the law - and subsequently is violating the oath he took when he was sworn-in to serve on the Board of Education - by attempting to "punish" others for practicing their rights under the Constitution.

And good money sez that The Knight Shift blog and Yours Truly will be getting hit soon too, as the supposedly "Christian" Price lashes out against those on his "enemies list".

If you've been reading this blog for awhile now, you know the details. Here's the first post about it along with my open letter calling for Price to step aside, on the grounds that he was no longer morally fit to serve on the school board. If you look through the archives from November 2006 through today you'll find several items relating to what Price calls as "the sign incident" (unlike Ron Price, I haven't "scrubbed" anything about this from my blog). You'll also see that I couldn't help but openly mock Price and his insistence on being on the board ("The Rockingham County Star Chamber" and the "But Mommy..." graphic most come to mind).

Price's lawsuit against Moore mentions "several other Defendants to be named at a later date". Because of that and in realizing that I did wind up having a somewhat prominent role in taking Price to task in public for his stealing ways, I'm more than expecting to be next to get slapped with a lawsuit...

...because after reading through the suit that Price has filed against the Moores, I wouldn't put anything past Ron Price (Richard Moore currently has all 8 pages of the lawsuit up on his site for public viewing). Among other things Price is suing Richard Moore for wearing a t-shirt to a school board meeting, for having criminal charges filed against Price (even though Ron Price admitted on live televison on the night of the election that he had stolen the signs), and for assisting with the petition drive - that was signed by I don't know how many Rockingham County citizens but it was several hundred at the very least - to have the State Board of Education look into Price's suitability to serve on the board.

If there weren't grounds enough to petition for Price's removal from the Rockingham County Board of Education, there sure are now. Ron Price is now openly attempting to deprive others of their First Amendment rights: namely, the right to free speech and the right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances".

Now, what kind of example of citizenship does Ron Price possibly think he is setting for the children of Rockingham County by acting as if the Constitution is not much more than a mere piece of paper?

How does "conservative Christian" Ron Price reconcile this lawsuit - which in the past few days several people have told me is "silly" and "the most bizarre thing I've ever read" - with 1st Corinthians chapter 6? If we as believers are instructed not to sue each other, how much more are we not to file frivolous suits against anyone else? We are supposed to be establishing a good witness for Christ with all of our actions. Throughout this entire matter, from the moment he chose to steal the signs, Ron Price has acted as anything but a Christian... and much less a "conservative" one.

What I would especially like to know is this: every day, school teachers throughout the country have to put up with a lot worse in their own classrooms than anything that Price has "suffered". How dare Ron Price expect us to have any more sympathy for him when those teachers have done nothing wrong and Price has done nothing right throughout this situation?

If Ron Price can't take the heat, he shouldn't have run for the seat in the first place. Price definitely shouldn't have broken the law - of God if not of man - by taking what was not his.

There's more that I could say about this... and there is likely going to be a lot more that I will be saying... but for sake of brevity and because I lack the time this morning, I'm going to hold off on those thoughts for the time being. I've little doubt that a deputy sheriff will be arriving at my doorstep in the near future with my own lawsuit, and when that happens I'll scan and post the pages of that for your mirth and merriment.

In the meantime, I have this message to Ron Price. Ron, if you are reading this, I have but one thing to say to you, in addition to how much more I and many others are laughing at you for this latest stunt...

To quote the great philosopher Thanos: "Come and get me!"

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New product: The "Shoot Them Both" Anti-Republican/Democrat t-shirt

Want to show the world how honked-off you are at both the major political parties? Have we got the shirt for you!

The "Shoot Them Both" Anti-Republican/Democrat t-shirt! Let everyone know that you don't fall for the two-party fraud. Make a bold statement about your independent streak! Let's face it: we all know the system is headed toward collapse because of the criminal conspiracy that is "bipartisan politics". Show everyone that you're ahead of the curve by wearing this shirt (and even if you don't wear this shirt, show it to everyone anyway, however you can).

$14.99 through CafePress, click here to order.

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AMC is running PSYCHO II right now

Funny story about that movie...

It was like early 1987 or so and one day at the video store my sister and I rented Psycho II (actually we got Mom to rent it and she said the original Psycho was a good movie but they didn't have that one). So Anita and I popped it in the VCR and watched it. Even without seeing the original, I was able to understand Psycho II pretty well.

So the movie ends and Anita and I are getting up from the floor and walking down the hallway and just as she's passing by the bathroom I point and scream out "BLOOD'S COMING OUT OF THE TOILET!!"

My sister screamed like you wouldn't believe. To this day, I don't think she's ever forgiven me for how bad I scared her like that.

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It was late and I was hungry ...

Working late on a few things, and I had to go out for a bit. This was like at midnight. And I was feeling both that I needed a good nighttime drive, and that I was feeling hungry. How many places for good food are open at this time of night though?

So 20 minutes out from home, just before 1 a.m., I stopped by Sandy's Subs and Italian Grill at Elon. This was a place I loved to eat at when I was a student at Elon. Well, Thursday through Saturday nights they're open 'til 4 a.m. I got a foot-long ham and cheese and brought it back home. And it was dee-licious!

Sandy's Subs is on Haggard Avenue not far from campus (if you're on Williamson Avenue coming through from the direction of I-40, turn left and it's just a short distance on the left, near the Domino's Pizza). Well worth checking out if you're ever in the area.

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Making martial law easier

You know what? At this point, I'm starting to just not care anymore. America seems so hell-bent on its own destruction that nothing your or I can do would do anything to stem it. I don't even know if anyone can make the case that this country is worth defending anymore, because what is there to defend? So much has been taken away already.

The American Conservative has a sobering article about how much easier it has become for President Bush... or any ensuing president... to declare martial law. And how it seems that our elected officials are completely indifferent to it. And the likelihood of this new power to be abused.

And it will be abused, no doubt about it. Politicians can not resist using power, if they know that they can get away with it. And there is really nothing left to stop them from doing it (Fred Reed writes about this better than I can).

It's funny: President Bush has done things to the Constitution that, if Clinton had done this 8 or 9 years ago, the "conservative Republicans" would be ready to storm Washington with torches and pitchforks. But these same people turn a blind eye to Bush or anyone else claiming to be a "good Christian" (see Chuck Baldwin's new article for an especially good read about that).

Some people cheer for "our President" getting this new power now. How joyful will they be when the next president, or the one after that, uses the powers they gave this current one to come after them. And it will happen. It is the nature of the beast that is unregenerate human nature.

This is why I have come to believe that widespread gun ownership is vital for the survival of liberty in this country. It's so you will be able to kill them when they follow their orders and come for you.

Call me a kook if you like, but I just know from history how these things tend to wind up...

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Three words

Falwell v. Flynt.

To whom it may concern:

Bring it on.

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Latest LOST theory (about the lists)

Okay so we've heard that of the castaways that the Others took at the end of last season, that Jack "wasn't even on Jacob's list". That means that Kate and Sawyer were on the list, with Hurley only there to be sent back to the castaways' camp to tell them not to come looking for their friends.

Then last night we find out that Sun conceived on the island, with Jin, and it was because the island gives men five times the sperm count than they would have anywhere else, so Jin's impotence was cured (chalk it up to another healing miracle that the island did).

Did Ben have Kate and Sawyer taken and put in the circumstances of their imprisonment, for the sole purpose of having them come together sexually, as another experiment by the Others? Juliet did say something in her report to Ben about how she was going to attempt taking a sample from Kate soon... so is Kate pregnant now?

Are "the lists" made up of those the Others think are genetically ideal for something?

It sort of makes sense. I've been trying to figure out why Kate and Sawyer would be on "Jacob's list" but not Jack, and what those two would have in common, and that's the only thing that really comes to mind.

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I've only got one thing to say at the moment

It's too dark in here.

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Live blogging about tonight's LOST

10:17 PM EST: In this first act we have learned two things. One is that some people die on this island. The other is that some people don't stay dead on this island.

10:26 PM EST: Jin knows kung-fu. So far, good episode.

10:40 PM EST: Well, now we know where all that stuff went to when the ladies visited The Staff, right?

10:51 PM EST: This last act epitomizes everything that makes Lost the best show on television right now, and perhaps one of the best ever. So much mixture of joy and grief in just the last two minutes of it... wow.

It was enough to make me momentarily forget about the "five times" thing: holy crap!!

11:01 PM EST: The whole episode, especially the last five minutes, is best summed up by the very last thing said in the episode, by Hurley:

"What?"

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Something screwy going on...

Seems to be some gremlins in Blogger's works tonight. This is more or less a test post. Gonna see if it works and hope they'll fix it soon.

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The Rebellion Begins: New U.S. ORDER OF THE PHOENIX trailer

Hot on the heels of comes the domestic trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix... in awesome Quicktime!

See that pic up there? That's from the scene that the Potter fans have been slobbering to see the most in this film: the scene where Fred and George basically tell Umbridge that she can shove her damned rules straight up her ass, before unleashing indescribable mayhem as they flee Hogwarts.

Two things I hope we have learned from the Harry Potter books. Number One: Do not fear death (a lesson I think the books have done beautifully). Number Two: Government f**ks everything up so bad that you... yes you... have to do it yourself. From the looks of this trailer, the Order of the Phoenix movie might do a handsome job of making that point loud and clear for everyone watching it.

And gotta love the tagline: "The rebellion begins".

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Rumor: BioWare making a NEW Star Wars MMORPG...

...and it might be set 4,000 years before the time of the movies.

Here's the story at TheForce.net and it's breaking out in quite a few other outlets right now too. The full scoop is that, allegedly, BioWare is creating a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG for short) based upon Knights of the Old Republic, their 2003 smash hit which is widely hailed as the best Star Wars game of the past several years. Knights of the Old Republic broke away from the traditional "Rebels versus Empire" motif of just about every previous Star Wars game and went into bold new territory: a time four millennia before the rise of Emperor Palpatine.

I loved Knights of the Old Republic (it equals TIE Fighter as my all-time favorite Star Wars game). It's an extremely beautiful and well-crafted game. And it's setting in Star Wars history is lush with untapped potential.

I hope BioWare is really doing this. Heck, I hope BioWare is making any Star Wars MMORPG. The already-existing one, Star Wars Galaxies, has devolved into a glorious mess because of incompetence on Sony Online Entertainment's part. Star Wars deserves better than that. Maybe BioWare will be the company that finally does this right.

How's that for a story, ya meatbags?

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Is it really good news when the Dow breaks 13,000?

Once upon a time, this may have been news of interest to the average American. Today, I doubt there are very many barber shops across the country that this is going to come up in as a topic of discussion.

If America still had the manufacturing infrastructure that it possessed 20 or 30 years ago, I could see this as cause for celebration. But as I'm seeing a lot more layoffs and plant closings (usually to relocate overseas where the employment is cheaper) I have to wonder how much of this "profit" is coming at a cost to the middle class. Curious, that it seems there is a correlation between the number of workers who lose their jobs in this country to how their respective former companies seem to only gain financially.

A robust economy cannot be long sustained when its foundation is primarily service industry.

Among the things that are ruining the United States economically are rising debt brought on by easy credit, and the delusion that we can have employment that is both good and cheap. That last one has driven too many companies to either relocate their manufacturing overseas, or to hire illegals at lower wages.

Eventually, the lust for more material goods and the lack of a strong domestic (and legal) workforce are going to collide. And it won't be pretty when they do... even if the Dow were to reach fifteen or twenty thousand along the way.

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LOST tonight promises to continue the streak

I'm hearing extremely good word about Lost tonight. This week's episode, titled "D.O.C." (for "date of conception") looks to be dealing with two big things. First, the woman parachutist who fell from the sky in last week's show and was found by Desmond, Charlie, Jin and Hurley (she seems to have been looking for Desmond because she had the photo of him and Penny among her effects). Second, this is going to be a "Sun and Jin"-centric episode and it's fairly well known that the thing about Jin's pregnancy - and how no pregnant woman lives long enough to come to term on this island - is going to be the driving plot of tonight's show. But what's really got me stoked is that, apparently, tonight's episode sees the return of Mikhail a.k.a. "Patchy" (played by Andrew Divoff) who didn't die when Locke through him through the fence after all.

Speaking of Lost, I've heard some weird rumors in the past few days about Jacob and who will be playing him when we finally get to see him. This past weekend the story was that Ron Perlman would be Jacob, but the producers shot that one down (though it looks like Perlman might have some kind of role on Lost yet). Then on Monday I heard that Angus Scrimm (the "Tall Man" from the Phantasm movies) is going to be Jacob. Me? I've thought for awhile that when we finally meet Jacob that it'll be Peter Coyote playing him, since Coyote does the narration of all the Lost "retrospective" shows. But I gotta say: Angus Scrimm as Jacob would be pretty wicked cool.

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Astronomers discover the planet Krypton!

The first extra-solar Earth-like planet - complete with warm temperatures and liquid water on the surface - has been discovered by astronomers.

It orbits a red star and is 12,000 miles in diameter as opposed to Earth's 8,000 miles... meaning that it has heavier gravity than Earth.

Just like the planet Krypton!

In other news, scientists have discovered kryptonite deep inside a Serbian mine.

This has all put me in the mood to watch Superman Returns later tonight.

Seriously though, the planet is about 20 light years away... which is just around the corner so far as cosmic distances go (though getting there is a little problematic). Maybe Project Daedalus can be brought out of mothballs and sent off to investigate.

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The international trailer for HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

The movie of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is supposed to be the shortest of the film adaptations to date. You wouldn't believe that after watching this trailer, because it looks like the most epic by far of the series...

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Politicians exploiting Virginia Tech in the name of mental illness

"President Bush says he has directed federal officials to conduct a national inquiry into how to prevent violence by dangerously unstable people."

He can start with those who want the war in Iraq because as Einstein put it: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".

For me, the red flags started going up yesterday when Senator Charles Schumer from New York said that he wanted mental health workers to report to the federal government on who is "mentally ill" for the express purpose of the feds denying them the right to own a gun.

For one thing, this is a knee-jerk reaction. For another, the existing gun laws are adequate already... maybe too adequate. For yet another, no matter how much law gets passed, eventually someone is going to break it and cause something like the incident at Virginia Tech to happen. Sorry to say this, but there can be no guarantees in life and you certainly can't expect... and shouldn't even want... the government to try to protect you from everything.

But most of all: should we really want politicians to be the ones defining what "mental illness" is? Seung-Hui Cho certainly had problems that should have discouraged him from having ready access to firearms. But I've come to know many people who although they have to take anti-depressants and other medication to function day to day, they are as healthy and fit as you or me (okay, I'll admit that some have questioned my own soundness especially after my first school board campaign commercial, but I digress...). A lot of these people show much more sense and compassion than many who have never had to take medications for depression and other conditions. Are they going to be denied a permit to have a gun for self-defense because just on the basis of being prescribed these drugs, the government declares them "mentally unfit"?

And if so, then where will it stop? Where can it stop? Because if government has the power to deny a basic right because it has the authority to declare someone a "mental invalid", then there is nothing to keep it from defining that condition in any way that it sees fit. Would political dissent be grounds for branding someone mentally unstable? Hell, there are apparent cases where dissenters have been denied the right to travel in this country: why wouldn't the federal government stop there and insist that they not be allowed the means of self-defense, either, because it declares these people's "behavior" to be symptomatic of mental illness?

What Bush and Schumer and too many other politicians are suggesting in the wake of the Virginia Tech slayings, is a potential start on the road to the gulags. Remember how back in the day in America we heard about how dissidents were declared "mentally ill" and sent off to Siberia for "treatment" for the next forty years? Apart from physical relocation (for now), how was that different from what a lot of politicians here are wanting?

Think that federal government wouldn't ever practice such gross abuse? Remember: President Bush wants mandatory mental health screening of every schoolchild in America... to say nothing of his wanting to medicate them against the wishes of the children's parents and physicians. This was apparently being promoted at the behest of the pharmaceutical industry: the same industry that talked Governor Rick Perry into mandating an uncertain cancer vaccine on every girl in Texas. That came soon after after the vaccine's manufacturer Merck gave Perry a substantial political contribution. If they can sell out principles for money, they can sell them out for power, too.

It's like this: if the government can declare huge portions of the population "mentally unfit" to own firearms, then there is nothing preventing the government from defining "mental illness" in whatever way it believes necessary. Anyone and everyone can be deemed mentally "unsound" for the most ridiculous of reasons. Inevitably, a person will have to produce official documentation showing that he or she is sane, instead of it being determined that they are unhealthy based on prior behavior. So it will be that only the "super sane" will be authorized to own firearms by the government. Anyone want to take a guess at how many of those there will be?

Well, it won't be very many. And they will be far too few in numbers to be an adequate bulwark against the government deciding that it needs even more power.

Tell me again how this doesn't sound like we're headed to Siberia, comrade.

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ConcealedCampus.com

There's a new website called ConcealedCampus.com. It's advocating the right of college students to carry concealed firearms as a means of self-defense. Needless to say, I am 100% in agreement with their position.

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The "Garter Incident" from Chris and Lisa's wedding

Our wedding was almost five years ago and people we know still giggle whenever the crazy stuff that happened during it comes up in conversation. I've started ripping some video clips from our DVD of it and here's the first: the now-infamous "Garter Incident". Keep in mind that this is a stunt that I had been waiting for fourteen years to pull off...

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Harsh but true insight from the Virginia Tech tragedy

You'll have to read Kathy Shaidle's commentary about the Virginia Tech thing for her complete thoughts on the subject: I'm not going to summarize it here. But I do believe she is making a good but sadly seldom-considered point.

Thanks to Jenna Olwin for the find.

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This blog's policy on presidential campaign banner ads

See those ads for John McCain that pops up every now and then? I didn't put them there. Didn't want them and don't ever want them. In a few hours they should hopefully go away for good.

This blog will not be used to promote any presidential candidates. Unless there is one that really, really impresses me with sincerity, humbleness and ability. But that will not be John McCain or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or just about any of the other "front-runners" we're supposed to buy into.

Up 'til now, the ads that have appeared on this blog, I really didn't give much thought to them. That's changing starting now. If there is an ad for something that I don't approve of that's appearing on here, it's going to get zapped off the site.

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Change is in the air

If you're a regular reader you've no doubt noticed the new title graphic. I thought I'd shamelessly capitalize on getting recognized by The New York Times a few months ago for my school board campaign, and on what more people are telling me that I might have a pretty strong case for being the first known blogger with proof of it. This site gets tons of visitors each day, mostly because of only a handful of articles that have been here for awhile. So yeah, I'm trying to increase my regular readership :-)

Anyway, that won't be the only thing changing around here. The next few days are going to be spent playing around with the layout and other elements on this blog. That new title might not even last for very long. Since the last time this blog got a new look over a year ago, so much has happened in my life that I really don't feel like "that Chris" at all. So the blog's new look is going to reflect more on who I am now: still enjoying life, but a lot more serious too about things. You might have noticed that coming out in the posts of the past few days, especially.

So if this place seems messed-up at times, that's just me working behind the scenes. This place will be fixed-up good pretty soon. Just mind the holes in the meantime :-)

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Ham sandwiches are now a hate crime

Be careful when putting your Quizno's sub on a table: it might be investigated as a hate crime. Here's the story from Boston.com:

Police investigate ham incident at school

April 19, 2007

LEWISTON, Maine --Police are investigating as a possible hate crime an incident in which a ham steak was placed in a bag on a lunch table where a group of Somali students were sitting.

Such an incident would be offensive to Somalis, who are Muslims and consider pork unclean.

A Lewiston Middle School student was suspended after the incident, which happened April 11.

Superintendent Leon Levesque said the incident is being treated seriously and police are investigating. The center for the Prevention of Hate Violence is working with the school to devise a response plan.

The incident is the second of its kind in Lewiston in recent months. Last summer, a man rolled a pig's head into a mosque in Lewiston, which has a large Somali population. A court later ordered the man to stay away from the mosque.

This past week I've gotten the sense that this country has completely come unhinged from the locomotive. When the location of a ham sandwich is found to be "offensive" by some people and turned into an issue for law enforcement, you know we've gone over the edge.

I'm thinking of starting my own religion. It's called Knightiology. And one of the tenets of Knightiology is that mayonnaise is an affront to my faith. If anyone brings a sandwich with mayonnaise near me, I'm going to scream about how insensitive I'm being treated and have the police investigate it as a hate crime.

Now, wouldn't that be the stupidest thing, if I really did that?

Isn't it the stupidest thing that we have to be careful with our ham sandwiches now for fear of "offending" someone?

I wonder what would happen if I had some pork rinds shipped to the local mosque...

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Digital filmmaking's fight against entropy

A sobering read from Variety, especially for folks like me who are into digital filmmaking: the problem of archiving digital footage. Think that tape and recordable DVDs can store the products of our work forever? Nah-uh! The problem is two-fold: life expectancy of storage media, and current methods of storage being unable to be read by future technology. The current best solution is to "migrate" older material to new media every so often, but for the time being there is no reliable long-term storage.

What this is going to inevitably mean is that the work of a lot of people is going to be lost forever, eventually. Especially for the "indie" filmmakers and other artists. Which is especially horrifying to me because I've always thought that every person's creative work has merit. Whether we actually like it or not is a whole 'nother thing, but we should at least be appreciative of others for following through on a vision from their own unique perspective. But now, unless adequate and economical solutions to the storage problem are found, it will be as if a lot of those people's work never existed at all.

So far as filmmaking goes, the other alternative is to work with real film... but that's hideously expensive. And film can fade over time, just as tape will.

Isn't thermodynamics a wonderful thing? /sarcasm

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The "ARMED STUDENT" t-shirt

Shortly after posting about Bradford Wiles, who called on Virginia Tech officials this past summer to allow students to be able to defend themselves, I had an idea. Police wear badges and carry guns as a visible detterent against committing a crime. Maybe it's time for civilians to start boldly doing the same...

The "ARMED STUDENT" t-shirt. Whether you actually choose to carry a firearm while wearing this shirt is entirely up to you. Imagine just a few dozen students walking around campus wearing these shirts and the effect it would have on someone contemplating another shootout. Now available for $8.99 at CafePress. Firearm not included.

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Virginia Tech student pleaded for school to allow guns

Virginia Tech grad student Bradford Wiles pleaded with school officials to allow students to be able to defend themselves by having guns on campus. To say that Wiles has considerable frustration with the Virginia Tech administrators would be putting it mildly...

Would my wife and family, knowing how much I have written and spoken about allowing me my most basic right of self-defense on campus, feel any comfort in the policy that supposedly protects me?

Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations, in response to a column I wrote in August asking that the university change its policy forbidding law-abiding concealed handgun permit (CHP) holders from carrying on campus, wrote the following in The Roanoke Times: "Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same."

Do you still feel the same way about your policy now, Mr. Hincker? Will your faith in that policy provide comfort to any of the victims' families?

Very powerful essay that's definitely recommended reading. Thanks to Chaplain Geoff Gentry for finding this article and sending it this way.

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On honor

Too many people in this country believe they're honor-bound to follow the orders of other people... who never gave a damn about honor in the first place.

Fred Reed - master of the fine art of curmudgeonry - has a surgically precise piece about the concept of honor. I dare not excerpt anything from it here: it really is best to take this one in whole. Suffice it to say, I think it's one of Reed's better pieces... and they all tend to be good.

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The Pornography of the Real

Paul Harrill talks about the media circus at Virginia Tech this week, before NBC did or did not do a wise thing in releasing the video and photo material so soon after the shootings. What makes Harrill's voice one to pay heed to is that he is not only an independent filmmaker, but a teacher at Virginia Tech. Thanks to Shane Thacker for finding this.

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Town with mandatory gun ownership celebrates 25 years without a murder

A couple of days ago, I wrote here that the Virginia Tech massacre proves that gun laws don't work. And that a civilized society needs more decent people with guns.

Now comes an article proving my point: WorldNetDaily has a story about Kennesaw, Georgia: a town where there are not only no anti-gun laws, but it's mandatory for every home owner to have a gun. And in the quarter-century since enacting this law in 1982, there has not been one murder in Kennesaw. Also worth bearing in mind that in 1982 the population of Kennesaw was 5,242: at last count, the present population is 28,189... but the crime rate has dropped significantly since passage of the law.

Sounds like a nice place to live.

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Finally some justification for an 80 GB iPod

Russia wants to build the world's longest tunnel under the Bering Strait, connecting Siberia to Alaska.

I suppose that when this is finished, and if a highway can be built across the Darien Gap, it will theoretically be possible to alternately drive and take the train from Tierra Del Fuego all the way to London. Which may be enough time to listen to all the songs on a fully-loaded current-edition iPod at least once.

Now if only those things had easily replaceable batteries like spares for a cellphone...

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Standard Wednesday night reaction to LOST

Fairly good episode this week. Not as heavy or revelatory as the previous several episodes. It had a pretty heart-pounding opening though. And a very strong ending that already has me impatient for next week.

I thought that Desmond's time as a monk was rather interesting. And that priest said something that I really liked, something about "you've been so busy running away that you haven't realized what you're running toward", and how God had something bigger in mind for Desmond than being a monk.

Was that the weird jewelry woman who told Desmond all that stuff about the universe from "Flashes Before Your Eyes" in that photo on the priest's desk?! It sure looked like her. Won't know for sure until I go back and watch "Flashes Before Your Eyes" again (which is still on our DVR). But I immediately caught that little detail tonight.

Loved Sawyer's comment about how they have to play ping-pong.

Okay so... she fell from the sky. Who is she? I'm intrigued more about this parachutist than I was about "Patchy".

Any other Lost fans get the sense that we're seeing the pieces being put on the board right before our eyes, but we still have no idea what kind of game it is that is being played?

This has been one of the most amazing seasons of a television show I've ever seen. Definitely some of the most compelling storytelling in any medium I've had the pleasure of enjoying. Let's hope the showrunners can keep this up.

EDIT 11:27 PM EST: Where did the helicopter come from? I don't think even the best of them could carry enough fuel to cross over a large expanse of ocean like that. It must have come from a ship or another island in the vicinity. Who knows, maybe Penny is rich enough to have an aircraft carrier out there looking for Desmond...

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Revealed: what Galactus will look like in the FANTASTIC FOUR sequel

You're not going to like it.

Philip, I know you're definitely not going to like this one bit, brother.

Want to know what Galactus, the devourer of worlds, is going to look like in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer?

Here's the scoop from Ain't It Cool News...

Wanted to let you know what Galactus is going to look like / be represented as in the FF2 sequel:

A storm cloud.

Yep.

That's it. That's the solution from the creatives.

(clears throat).....pretty lame.

Think Superman/Silver Surfer flying through clouds with Galactus / Jorel VO.

THAT IS THE DUMBEST PIECE OF %#&$ I HAVE EVER HEARD OF IN THE HISTORY OF COMIC BOOK MOVIES!!! Galactus as a massive storm cloud...?!

We could have gotten a beautifully CGI-rendered Galactus standing amid a ruined landscape like how he's depicted in the Marvel Ultimate Alliance game. THAT is how I envisioned a feature-film version of Galactus.

Instead we are getting... well, V'Ger from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

This is going to make Malebolgia from the Spawn movie look like inspired art, in comparison.

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Fighting the Guild Wars

For the past few weeks I've been playing Guild Wars a lot. If you don't know what it is, Guild Wars is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) with, at last count, about 2 million active players. But it's different from most MMORPGs out there, like World of Warcraft. For one thing, there are no monthly fees you pay in order to play the game: you buy the software and create your account and that's all the money you'll ever have to plunk down. It's not an entirely game-wide "persistent" world though: you can meet other players from around the world in places like cities and outposts, but once you leave those the game is an "instance" created just for you and your party of fellow players (if you want to play alone though you can hire "henchmen" from the cities to follow along and help you). It's also different from most MMORPGs in that there is a considerable amount of backstory and active plot that is at work in the game while you play. The biggest of those is the Searing: the first part of the game is played in an idyllic "fairy-tale" setting that lets you get used to gameplay. But once you choose to participate in a certain mission, an event called the Searing takes place and the kingdom you're in is turned into a desolate landscape. The story then picks up two years later and it's only then that the real game begins.

I first bought the original Guild Wars game - the one now referred to as the Prophecies campaign - almost two years ago: several of my friends had gotten into it and had recommended it. I played with it a bit, thought it was a lot of fun... and then some real-life stuff happened and I totally forgot about it. Since that time I've seen the two new "chapters" - Factions and Nightfall - hit stores, and a few times I wondered what I'd been missing by not fully exploring the original.

Then a few weeks ago I read about the upcoming expansion to Guild Wars called Eye of the North. Then next year will be Guild Wars 2, which is said to be a true MMORPG-style persistent world while keeping the traditional Guild Wars elements (including no monthly fees to play). Reading about them intrigued me enough to start playing the original Guild Wars again, this time creating a new character from scratch so that I could re-acclimate to the game. Real-life circumstances have also led me lately to make myself "relax" a bit more: the past few months I really have been going full-tilt nonstop. It's time to slow down just a bit...

Well, I'm glad that I gave Guild Wars another shot, because I'm enjoying it a lot more this time than I did when I first bought the game. It seems like a lot more people are playing it too, and it's always fun to hook-up with live players when it comes to tackling a mission. I'm probably going to play the original Guild Wars: Prophecies and then move on to Factions, which is the second chapter of the story (Prophecies and Factions and Nightfall are each stand-alone games, but if you have the others then they "interface" with each other so that you have a much larger world in which to run around in).

The original Guild Wars sells for about $25-30 bucks in most stores. Well worth picking up if you ever wanted to experience a MMORPG without having to worry about paying fifteen bucks a month and then feeling committed to play: with Guild Wars you play at your own pace. Maybe this game can be what we eventually use to wean hardcore World of Warcraft players off their addiction... :-)

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