Grizblog

Adventureland vs Zombieland

2010-03-15T08:37:00.004-05:00

2009 saw the release of a movie starring relative newcomer Jesse Eisenberg who is a quiet, quirky college student who has no luck with girls but later falls in love with a rebellious brunette. The love story is a subplot but the main plot of the movie, which involves his life being derailed in the beginning of the movie, never really goes anywhere. There are also several other subplots and hints of storylines that were never followed, possibly to allow for a sequel. The main cast is small, and the rest of the cast mainly walks around and occasionally mumbles something. There is really more character development around the theme park featured in the movie than most of the characters.

The movie I'm describing is Adventureland.. no wait, Zombieland.. no wait..

That's right, in 2009 two completely different directors, producers and crews made two very similar movies in many respects although they attracted two completely separate audiences.

Oh, and only one of them was worth watching...

Take the outline in the first paragraph of this post and then add the plotline of his family being dead, and most everyone else turning into zombies trying to kill him. Add in a few good comedy actors and give them everyone good dialogue and you have a very satisfying movie called Zombieland.

Take the same outline except this time the kid's parents lose some income so now he doesn't get to go on vacation or to grad school. (seems kinda tame compared to zombie attacks) Add in a few comedy actors and give them almost nothing to do as well as "that girl from twilight" who has the acting abilities of household blender, and you have a completely unsatisfying movie called Adventureland. Oh and the entire time the main characters are "falling in love," the girl and Ryan Reynolds are going at it like a screen door in a tornado. By the time you get to the ending which you guessed 15 minutes in, you really just don't care anymore.

So if anyone ever asks you, "Do you want to see a Zombie movie or an Adventure movie?" Bet on Zombies.

Funny thing happened on the way...

2009-10-16T08:27:00.002-05:00

Details have been removed to protect the innocent, guilty or otherwise.

One morning, about 5am, I was driving through a neighborhood when I was suddenly started by what appeared in front of my headlights. A man, dressed in business casual attire laying down in the middle of a yard. I jumped, as much as one can in a mid-size sedan. The man didn't stir from the sound of my vehicle or from my headlights pointed directly at him which bothered me more. I am aware that there are very few reasons people are outside at that time of the morning, the majority seem to be either workers, or people up to no good. Assuming the man in a button down and khakis had not discovered a new career in "lawn sitting," I first assumed he was either up to no good, or had a run in with someone who was. Although if he was up to know good, he would have been one of the best dressed and most underdressed criminals I'd seen, since it was only about 10 degrees above freezing.

I turned and drove down the street a bit then swung around and so I could see what, if anything, he was doing. I purposefully stayed far enough away that if he suddenly leapt up with a tire iron, I would have enough time to urinate on myself and make a hasty retreat. After no signs of movement for almost two minutes, I concluded that this wasn't going to resolve itself and there was no way in hell I was going out there to poke a body with a stick. I didn't hesitate to call 911. Who put me on hold. That's another story.

During my time on hold, and talking to the operator, I did see some slight movements so I assumed either the individual was alive, or I was living out a bad zombie movie. The operator kept asking for more details, but he was laying on his side, back to the street, so it was hard to tell much else. I got the location and details relayed and finally ended my call with 911. I watched as the individual rolled, or more likely fell, over on to his stomach. At that point there was some more movement and I thought he may have been trying to get up, but it looked more like he was getting amorous with the lawn. By amorous.. well.. you know what I mean. Luckily, in less time than it took on the phone with 911, three cruisers arrived.

Apparently police cruiser headlights have the ability to raise the nearly dead as what appeared to be a drunken frat boy suddenly sat up, and everything appeared okay. One of the officers told me "looks like someone didn't have a good night" and I tend to agree. Probably having officers wake you up because you're laying face down in a yard at 5am in the bitter cold, it's time to do some self-reflection.

Politics

2009-09-08T08:35:00.002-05:00

This entry is post-dated to the date of the City of Tulsa primaries. As most anyone who knows me already knows, I ran for City Council in my local District, number 8. As the race progressed I knew my chances were slim. Defeating an incumbent is hard and as I joked to people, I was running against an incumbent AND Santa as someone who runs a very large foundation was also running. That foundation gives out millions a year in the city so that is why I jokingly referred to him as Santa.

The race was time consuming, energy draining and hard. I think it wore harder on my opponents who were going back and forth with each other while I just focused on my views and ideas on the issues. After I got past the first debate, the rest was a hoot. I got the best campaign contribution ever, $4 and 2 pairs of socks. I had some great support from people like Blake Ewing who helped with the campaigning, fundraising and marketing, Angie Brumley who did my logo, Chris Matthes who was my top financial contributor (but still not enough to break the $200 mark for reporting) and many others, not the least of which is Krystal, Natalie and Logan who were with me for every doorbell I rang, copy I made, etc.

See you in 2011?

Election soon

2009-09-03T17:46:00.001-05:00

Make sure and check out VoteGrizzle.com!

Death of CHEMIGO, Birth of a day

2009-07-22T08:46:00.002-05:00

(note: this post is backdated because I'm behind on blogging)

Since August of 2004 I've been driving a 2003 Dodge Ram Quad Cab, with 5.7L Hemi known by it;s license plate, CHEMIGO (See Hemi Go). I've dressed it up, modified it, and taken it to shows. It was a daily driver but it still impressed many. The hundreds of hours of labor and likely thousands that had been spent on babying it and spiffing it up, all went down the drain. A storm drain in this case.

So on the morning of July 21st we had a pretty big rainstorm. I was on my way to work hitting puddles left and right until I came across a large one. I know not to drive into standing water, but this was basically a glorified puddle that occurs everytime it rains, due to poor stormwater management at this intersection. As I approached I passed some vehicles who had just gone through the intersection in the opposite direction and I proceeded through cautiously, making sure the water never got deep enough to reach the underside of the truck or worse. What I could not foresee is that at some point in my drive my passenger side wheel well liner had come loose. Now basically resting upon my tire, it was pushing water up into the engine compartment and on top of the engine. Also unknown to me was the fact that this also likely loosened the air intake, which is above this liner, causing it to come loose where it meets the newly wet intake manifold. So while my air intake and filter never even got damp (keep in mind I use an oil/fiber filter that repels water), this odd chain of events caused water to seep into the intake manifold and kill my engine. Dead.

Fortunately for me, my insurance company covered the incident, although they were not willing to pay enough to make acceptable repairs. It was enough to pay off the remaining loan balance and by selling CHEMIGO for salvage, I was able to get into a used car that is not as testosterone-producing, but gets double the gas mileage.

The day after the accident, I spent a good part of it on the phone with repair shops, insurance companies, and scouting what would become my future ride. That evening I got to forget about it for awhile thanks to a surprise birthday party at my regular restaurant, Joe Momma's, complete with peanut-butter-filled Star Trek cupcakes, created by my wife.

Webs we weave

2009-04-07T08:44:00.003-05:00

March 4th we launched an all new redesign of TulsaNow.org incorporating a reworked design and coding (by me) an all new forum (with data conversion help from Tulsaconnect.) Then later in the month, Constant Conceptions refreshed the site design on DowntownLive.org which looks 100% better and was done to time the release with the April Issue of TulsaPeople magazine which I'm in (page 11,) although they put my name as "Scott Drizzle" everytime and got the URL for TulsaNow wrong. They did correct the online versions, but by the time anyone knew it was too late to do anything about the printed ones. I've been working hard to update the records on DowntownLive but I've had memory card issues, meaning I'd get ready to download my pictures and it's be empty, and then the touch screen got broken. So I can take pictures, but I can no longer control ANY settings on the camera.

We had the heaviest spring snowfall on record in Oklahoma. as you can see here:

When my deck is about the disappear, (seen on the left, the top is about 8" off the ground) the snow is pretty dang thick.

So I'm in the process of ridding myself from Bank of Asshatrica. Their practices are one (tiny) step above that of alleyway thugs. A few months ago I was out close to $2,000 when someone used my account fraudulently and BoA refused to block out the hacker (and in fact they even refused to shut off overdraft protection, so it was taking money from other sources to give to the hacker.) It took about 2 months to get my money back from them.

The latest was when I was charged overdraft fees for overspending my checking account. Sounds simple? Well, they overdrafted BECAUSE of overdraft fees I was charged. To make it better, money was in the account the entire time and the original fees were based on charges that had never even hit the bank yet and didn't hit until the second round of fees. Confused? Follow this fictional example. Amounts in parantheses show (check register balance/BoA's version)

1. Account has $100 balance ($100/$100)
2. Make "instant transfer" of another $100 ($200/$100)
3. 3 days later, make 4 charges totaling $112 ($88/-$12)
4. Bank withholds $112 out of account (making you $12 negative) but still hasn't posted $100 "instant" deposit. ($88/-$12)
5. Bank CSR assures you this is just perception and everything will clear fine and you will incur no fees ($88/-$12)
6. You "instant" deposit another $200 ($288/$88)
7. You make 5 more transactions totalling $140 ($148/-$52)
8. Bank withholds $140 in fees (for charges in step #3)($8/-$192)
9. Bank withholds another $140 in fees, then posts deposit (-$132/-$132)

So even though they say deposits are posted and they say fees won't be charged, it happened and I'm the only one held responsible. Ironically, when my account was stolen they used overdraft protection to cover's the hacker's withdrawals but in this situation they told me I didn't have OP and never did.

*sigh*

Off to a bank run by humans who understand math.

How a phone can make your life easier.

2009-02-28T13:17:00.005-06:00

I've owned an iPhone since the day they came out. The world seems divided into two groups, those who roll their eyes at the previous statement, and those who are right there with me. This post is meant for the latter.

With the release of the iPhone3G and iPhone 2.0 software, the iPhone expanded it's horizons immensely with the addition of the App Store. Less than a year later, there are over 15,000 applications available for the iPhone. Why? Because it is easy to code for and very versatile. There are some great games for the iPhone but for now I will just talk about those apps that I find extremely useful:

Evernote(free)- Whether it is a simple grocery list, word document, picture, web page, whatever, evernote is tha app to store and organize them with. There is an iPhone app, a desktop app (for Windows and Mac) as well as a browser plugin and a web-based version. It means you can literally access your notes from any device or anywhere with an internet connection. Another bonus is that it recognizes the text ini anything you submit and makes it searchable. Especially helpful if you are scanning old documents or receipts.
Yahoo OneConnect(free) - Will likely overlooked as just an instant messenger application, OneConnect actually ties all of the social networks together so you can post and look at updates all in one consolidated view. I use it to post to Twitter, Myspace, Facebook and Friendster simultaneously. It is not meant to be a fully-featured client but it does link to the mobile websites of all the major social networks. If you do a lot with any of these networks, you should also seek out a more full-featured program.
Weatherbug (free) - The iPhone buit-in weather app is decent, but weatherbug gets you weather in your neighborhood as well as direct links to radar, cameras, etc.
WunderRadio (5.99) - Almost every radio statiion now has a way to listen online and with WunderRadio you can now access almost every single ronventional radio and weather radio station in the US. It's especially good if you're a traveller wanting to listen to your home stations or you just like adding some variety to your daily listening.
Weightbot (1.99) - There are a ton of weight loss and exercise related applications. I find it quite hard to track calories (unless you eat TV dinners every meal) and track exercise (unless you live and work on a running track) so all I wanted to do was track weight. Weightbot does just one thing and does it well, track weight, so that is why I picked it. Put in your height and goal weight and then it's a snap to post updates. Open the app, scroll to enter your weight (it defaults to your last measurement) and close the app. That's it. Turning the app sidewya gives you multiple graphs showing your recorded weight over time, progress towards your goal, and estimates when you'll reach that goal.
WinAdmin (11.99) - If you have a need to remote control Windows systems, whether it be for work, or just want to connect to your home computer, then this is the best app to do it with. It's a bit pricey, but many IT nerds can justify it.
Byline (4.99) - There are a plethora of RSS readers out there, but if you use Google Reader on your desktop, you'll want Byline on the iPhone because it is fully integrated with Google Reader and also offers offline use.
Myspace/Facebook/LinkedIn (free) - All three have free iPhone apps which offer a decent experience. Of the three, the facebook is probably one of the best designed.
Shazam (free) - One of the neatest ever mobile applications, Shazam can listen to the music around you, whether it be on the radio or in an elevator, and then tell you the artist, title and even gives links to buy the song, read the lyrics and watch a video.
Box.net (free) - Lets you store PDF files, pictures, documents, etc. on the internet from any PC and access them from your iPhone. Good place to store commonly used spreadsheets, password lists, etc.
Slacker/Pandora (free) - Both are internet radio apps allowinig for you to listen to station you customize (Pandora) or one of thousands of existing internet-only stations that cater to every taste(Slacker.)
Google Docs - While not an app per se, Google has a great web-based document and spreadsheet tool that can be accessed from the phone or any other browser. Pretty good if you're not a fan of Evernote.
Nuevasync - Also not a real app exactly, website www.nuevasync.com allows you to synchronize your google contacts and google calendar directly with your iPhone automatically over the air. If you're a google-head, you may need to visit this site.

Journey to the Center of Believability

2009-02-10T13:09:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I'm fmiliar with "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and am willing to go along with the idea of a large subterranean area with dinosaurs. Strangely I have more trouble believing Brendan Fraser as an adventurer. Because of that I didn't watch the 2008 incarnation of this title. Luckily (or unluckily) for me, there are actually 3 versions of this movie released in 2008. One for the big screen, one for TV and one went straight to video. Since I'm camping on the couch with a stomach bug, it seemed like a good time for bad TV and the Sci-Fi channel didn't dissapoint with not the movie version, not the TV version, but the straight-to-video version of "Journey to the Center of the Earth." I even had trouble finding it on IMDB (you can find it's glorious 2.7 rating here.) Some of the highlights of the film include:

A "Military Detail" just happens to be all women.
That same detail makes a point that they need "'full combat attire" which means tank tops.
While creating a transporter may be a multi-million dollar project, all of their communication equipment has the quality if old AM radio.
The secret code that saves the day is 867-5309.
Any scenes of animation are a few frames long, on repeat, so you pass the same things over & over.
They are able to drill 600km down, but never address what happens to the material they drill.
They build a drilling rig meant for going 600km through the earth, but don't design it for subsurface voids(air pockets.)
600km below the surface, they have sunlight.
Major plot points (what happened to the drilling rig, where did the laser come from, what is that machine falling from the sky, how does typing Jenny's phone number make oxygen) are never mentioned in the dialogue.

So yeah, it's a true bad sci-fi. Since I'm sick I apparently don't have the brain power for good sci-fi considering I somehow managed to mess up microwaving soup.

Rock Paper Scissors... Lizard Spock

2009-02-04T13:21:00.002-06:00

Apparently there was an internet meme I missed out on.. then later it was mentioned on an episode of Big Bang Theory that I also missed (great show by the way, pay close attention to the production credits.) Not until it his a t-shirt at thinkgeek did I find out about it. It's called "Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock" and is designed to keep people from consistently getting in a tie as seen in lesser forms of "Rock Paper Scissors." The rules are:

Scissors cut paper.
Paper covers rock.
Rock crushes lizard.
Lizard poisons Spock.
Spock smashes scissors.
Scissors decapitate lizard.
Lizard eats paper.
Paper disproves Spock.
Spock vaporizes rock.
Rock crushes scissors.

Check out the video I linked above for the clip from the show and if you want to try your hand, here is a Javascript version. If you think it's too complicated, there is always this.

P.S. Ripped the arm on my leather jacket today. Bah I say. Bah.

Words Cannot Express

2009-02-03T15:24:00.004-06:00

How many Louie commercial do we need to explain that.. well.. if you snare you truck in power lines, DON'T CLIMB ON TOP OF YOUR TRUCK TO TRY AND FIX IT!

This person sadly learned the hard way

Also, just got a new assignment at work. My feelings are reflected in the picture above.

Long time, no post

2009-02-02T15:04:00.003-06:00

Not that I've been away from the internet for more than a few hours but I haven't had time to write much on here. Just a quick update for life as it has been.

Christmas was severely delayed in my household. Grandmother got sick right before the holidays and it turned out to be nothing too serious but it did have her out of commission for a few weeks. Everything worked out in the end. I became vice president of and helped form a neighborhood association, write the bylaws, got everything going, the had to quit because I became president of TulsaNow with which I have even bigger things planned. I'm halfway through my class of Leadership Tulsa and really enjoy it, especially since it forces me into social situations I would not otherwise be in. Plus I get to learn a lot about Tulsa, which I also really enjoy.

Finally gave in and bought a Nintendo Wii. Have to say I like Wii Sports which is included and gives a much needed break from reality. It's not often me or my wife can get away from responsibilities so if we can do that at home occasionally, it's worth what many would call wasted money. Speaking of, we are planning on finishing some painting and decorating that we never got done on move-in. Including our hallway, our master bedroom and re-painting the dining room. We're also going to finally fix (replace) our master bedroom toilet that our kids somehow sabotaged. Yeah, toilet!

I found myself doing a lot on Facebook after initially not having it and spending less time with Myspace. (Links on the right so I won't repost)

Oh and my best friend from high school is getting married in just a few days! I wish I could be there and wish them the best of luck.

NIN @ BOK

2008-11-23T11:36:00.000-06:00

After seeing NIN at the Ford Center in OKC 4 months ago I was hesitant
to go again but I went with a larger group this time and it was worth
it. The sound was much improved over the Ford Center concert and I
liked the much more club-like atmosphere with lots of mingling areas.
Everyone seemed much more relaxed and enjoyed every minute. Bonus is
that you're standing on ice so it never got too stuffy/hot.

This is a no-zoom phone picture. We were 5-6 rows back on the floor.

No way I could pass this up.

2008-11-16T21:28:00.000-06:00

Nerd Pumpkin FTW

2008-10-30T21:05:00.001-05:00

Unreal

2008-10-13T08:03:00.002-05:00

So the Makers of Knight Rider, the 2008 version, were apparently unaware of certain failures of the previous incarnations. That being everything on Team Knight Rider, almost everything on Viper and the 1980's KITT's "Super Pursuit Mode" (which, well before tuners started doing it, stated that adding wings to a car makes it go much faster.)Those shows found that when you diverge from believable science too far, you diverge from your viewers as well.

Okay so, here is the new KITT. Like the 1980's version, a lightly modified production vehicle. I'm with ya so far.

Instead of "Super Pursuit Mode" new KITT gets "Attack Mode" which changes wheel color, grill, and adds TWO spoilers on the back. My they couldn't meld the two "modes," no-one knows. I can't imagine wheels have to be black to go fast but chrome to camouflage yourself. I, for one, HATE anything with two spoilers, but I'm willing to follow you.. so far..

Now after the TV Movie was turned into a series they decided "Tuner" Attack Mode sucked and came up with "Dragster" Attack Mode. This version does actually look faster and opts for one giant spoiler instead of two. It seems like they wanted to seperate the two "versions" of KITT more so they created this. I'm following, but getting confused.

Now, here is where they accidentally mixed their medications. Now the nanites which previously could change color or bend a panel or two are able to turn into a Friggin' truck. Different seats, windows, the whole nine. They can flip a switch and just turn a mustang into a truck, but they can't make a form without the bright red lights on the front. How weird is that?

Oh, and it goes underwater too. Really, are you intentionally trying to lose people? What does it turn into for sweeps week? A Cuisinart?

The Return of TV

2008-09-24T08:53:00.004-05:00

Long time friend "TV" is finally returning. The last year or so has been marred with writer's strikes, bad writing, bad timing and crappy ideas in general. The crappiest idea was "Viva Laughlin" which I hope they sell on DVD at some point as I want to be able to show it to my grandkids. Maybe they'll still be able to checkout some clips of it on YouTube. For those who missed it and were around in 1990 this was the 21st century version of "Cop Rock." An unfortunate fatality, which I'd also love to have on DVD, was Journeyman which was Quantum-Leap type show with more of an overall storyline and a little less episodic (see Ozzy and Harriet) in nature. This show stumbled and then was axed by the writer's strike. After many months of prepping, the new TV season is starting in some sort of synchronized attack on the audio and visual senses, in stunning HD. :)

Heroes - Bad writing and strike during Season 2 caused major hits. Season 3 seems back to it's "A game."
House - House soldiered on during all of the problems that mired other shows and even had a almost wholesale cast change but became the #1 TV show in the U.S. This year promises to be very promising as well.
Boston Legal - Oft overlooked, this quirky law drama/comedy is probably one of the best shows on TV and likely the best show featuring comedy in the courtroom since Night Court. Shatner and Spader have won Emmies for their roles on this show and well deserve them. Due to problems getting viewer's attention, cast changes are regular between seasons and this season they seem to have abandoned most of the supporting characters and focused on leads.
Life - Another great show no-one is watching. Police officer is framed for multiple murders and spends 12 years tormented in prison until he is finally set free. After the lawsuits he has more money than he knows what to do with as he mainly enjoys harassing his ex wife, driving a Buick grand national and having access to fresh fruit again. His demeanor and detective work is very reminiscent of House but without the attitude.
Knight Rider - Campy 80's TV returns. The Pilot/Movie was fun, but can weekly episodes keep it up? A betting man would vote "NO" but we'll have to wait and see.
Fringe - Good show from the minds behind Lost, Transformers movies 1&2, the new Star Trek Movie, etc. Probably will get cancelled since it's kinda creepy, but still seems to be a good show.

Those are the highlights. Not sure how I'm going to get that much done, I've recently setup two message board sites I'm trying to admin: TulsaMakesCents.com and PeanutMommas.com while trying to hand off PreeclampsiaSurvivors.com and plus.. you know.. working.

Logan just turned 2 and he seemed to understand the whole presents process pretty well:

Really loving on Craigslist recently. Had a using dining room set that was not durable enough for us and we decided to lifecycle it for another pre-owned version, this time from a place that rents furniture for furnished apartments and the like. Sold the old set for $200 (paid $250 5 years ago) on craigslist and spent $330 (with tax, after coupon) on the new set. Would be nice to upgrade furniture for so little considering we are out $150 when a new set would've cost over $1,000 for solid wood and 6 chairs.

Other things going on: Just started Leadership Tulsa, still promoting DowntownLive! and a new internship with Land Legacy.

Need more DrPepper-based foods

2008-08-31T12:10:00.000-05:00

Announcement

2008-08-24T17:46:00.002-05:00

Kmart classy

2008-08-16T11:38:00.001-05:00

I like Cheez-ums. (Even if they don't call them that anymore)

2008-08-12T10:25:00.000-05:00

Thank you weatherbug

2008-07-27T11:17:00.000-05:00

If not for weatherbug on my phone, I would've been completely
surprised by the impending... Nothing.

iPhail

2008-07-11T15:11:00.002-05:00

Today is iDay 2.0 or the release of the second version of the iPhone called the iPhone 3G. The nomenclature has the adverse effect of causing people to call the original iPhone the "second Gen" and thus confusing many, or at least just me. After my participation in the original iDay on June 29th I was happy to once again join into all the fun and excitement that can be had while standing in a row. Knowing demand was not going to exceed last year and that this year's model had a release time during most people's work schedules, I assumed the same size line or slightly less. So with cash in hand at 5:30 this morning (t-minus 2h30) I headed to the apple store and found a fairly small line with myself in a low 30's in position. I was originally going to wait at an AT&T store but the lines were about the same for smaller stores with less employees. (not to mention AT&T's legendary ability to suck) What I did not factor in was that proximity to an AT&T store is not a factor when measuring AT&T's ability to suck.

The line went smoothly with various news crews and apple employees handing out water to those in line. The mall security, always happy to assert authority with anyone who will agree to it, made us rearrange our line to form "an aisle for mall traffic" a full 3 hours before the mall officially opened. Opening time finally came and probably 50 bouncy appleheads greeted us. Then came the unexpected part, they let about 12 people in and then stopped the line. A full 15 minutes passed before cheers came from the store heralding the first successful purchase. Slowly they brought us in one by one and then it was my turn I was prepared more than average but in for a less than average trip.

I was originally thinking of white for myself and the wife wanted black. I told my salesmen what I wanted and how I wanted to pay, with cash. Apparently this is a no-no. I was unaware that sometime overnight cash became non-legal tender in the U.S.. At least it appeared so. After about 20 minutes we had converted my cash to gift cards which somehow ARE legal tender and we were back at step 1. We finally begin the new activation process. About 3 steps in I get a message about an "IRU" which means nothing to me or the apple employees. Further investigation reveals this means they think I'm a business.
In actuality I'm only in the business of trying to buy a dang cell phone but it is baseing this assumption on the fact I used to have a discount on my account through my employer. I call AT&T and they claim to remove everything that says I'm a business. By this time I've lost my sales guy and have to wait for next available.

I get a new sales guy and by this time decide maybe I want black after all and ask for two black. We try to order and even after removing the discount, no joy. More calls and no real help from AT&T's call center and multiple AT&T server outages later, I am informed I need to go to an AT&T store to solve this problem within AT&T's system. This is of course after 11 by this point and all AT&T stores are sold out. I try one AT&T store with a short line and find that they are sold out and are taking ship-to-store orders. These are being done because AT&T backlogged a large amount of stock in their warehouse so they can later ship it to the stores with pre-paid sales instead of trying to second-guess demand. Once I am in the AT&T store and almost ready to pay for my phones I'm told that they don't take cash either.

I head to the bank and deposit the cash, luckliy they still accept it. After some time for venting I head to a store where I know one of the salesmen and know he can tell a cell phone from a hole in the ground. He has no real problems with ordering but by the time we get the paperwork done, the warehouse is now out of black. He asks if I'm set on "Vader" or want to order two "Stormtroopers" (white) instead. I finally agree and he gets them marked for expedited shipping. Fingers crossed I leave the store with little more than a few slips of paper and a hopefullness that they will arrive soon.

Well the iPhone3G was pretty cool when I played with it in the store at least...

Pop Culture goes Pop?

2008-07-02T08:12:00.002-05:00

Upon a recent trip the the one-page bookstore (anything that costs $4 should be a book, not a card) I noticed a "pop culture" section with movie and tv quotes on them. Being a geek of the big and small screen, I was very interested. I initially saw a top gun quote, although it probably wasn't one everyone thinks of immediately. I checked out a few other cards and found a good portion were from "high school musical" which is like grease, except for 13 year olds. I understand "pop culture" isn't a well-defined category, but I would generally think a two-year old made-for-tv movie (cable even) wouldn't have earned such prestige that it would usher out more longstanding pop culture icons. I also found at least one for the TV show "Lost" and the intersperesed with the "pop culture of the last two years" cards I found a few that dated back 50 years. Apprently these cards are not meant for those between 16 and 61.

I realized that this desire of the masses to capture the "pop culture" market and try to commercialize on it (which is ironic, in and of itself) may be getting out of hand. I recently watched the pseuo-indie film Juno thanks to my friendly neighborhood redbox machine (and the free rental codes from insideredbox.com.) A lot of people talked this up and when people start mislabelling low-budget films as "indie" and then start talking about how great they are, I generally turn off. After seeing enough parodies however, I wanted to see the original product.

Juno is about a teenage girl dealing with pregnancy. Being as this is the theme of the movie, it was a bit surprising to me that they could've dropped the pregnant suit and 95% of the movie would've worked the same. In total there were less than a handful of references to her actual dealing with the pregnancy. Pop culture references were present but felt "injected" into the movie as did Rainn Wilson's character who seemed to have a scene in the movie just so they could say "Hey look, it's that guy from The Office, isn't that wacky!" Everything seemed a bit "off" to me throughout the movie including the main character interest in acts such as iggy pop without a single friend or family member sharing that interest. Who introduced her to anti-establishment punk of the 70's?

I never really realized how disingenous the references were until the main character announces her water breaking by yelling "Thundercats are go!" While most people chuckled, my ears perked up. Thundercats being a series when I was a kid I enjoy a good Thundercats reference. However, the line "Thundercats are go" never happened in the show so even if Juno was watching TV when she was -15 years old, she still wouldn never have heard that. Instead, the Thundercats would rally behind the cry "Thundercats Ho!" So where did the "Are go" come from you ask? In the 1960's (when Juno was -35ish) there was a super-marionetta show called "The Thunderbirds" about a group of rescuers with strange flying machines who announced "Thunderbirds are go" when they spring into action. During the 60's there wasn't a huge amount of children watching science-fiction puppet shows on TV so even if it wasn't 40 years old, it is still not that well known.

What struck me is that it is a major line in the movie but it's wrong.. The most highlighted pop culture reference and it's wrong? Mistakes happen, yes. The author is a of the right age to know the TV show but maybe someone directed to put in more references like this. The director, who recently directed and produced the 2007 holiday ads for wal-mart (not kidding) should also bare some of the blame. I blame the major studios who want to find the next "hot new director" or writer by pairing them up and put big movie hype behind freshman work.

HP Tech Forum 2008

2008-06-23T13:38:00.001-05:00

My first trip to a nerdvana went fairly well. HP had their annual conference at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Ridiculously nice hotel and everything was extremely well taken care of. Everytime you turned around there was more food, it was like we were Hobbits. They had dancers, a house band, an emcee, as well as Howie Mandel and Matchbox Twenty on the last day of the conference. I also made my way down to "Star Trek: The Experience" which I have read may close at the end of the year. All was pretty enjoyable although it was very hectic and I didn't have much tim to really "enjoy" vegas. Planning on going back on a non-business trip early next year so I can really enjoy it.

Pics posted on flickr.

Really?

2008-06-20T11:51:00.000-05:00

Is the Las Vegas airport men's room that popular of a place for needle
use?