When I was in need of a quick pocket camera to go on vacation I stumbled on this at Walmart,the camera seems to be exclusive to them, for a considerable sum under the usual selling price.  A few days before I bought a cheap point and shoot Panasonic which also has a video function.

No matter how much I read about the acceptable nature of crappy sound and video online the garbage coming out of my sanyo hd100r  would seem to be taking the piss.  Why even make such a lo-end piece of crap  at the risk of poisoning your brand?  ( Thankfully I paid nowhere near the msrp but it’s not hard to see why.. ) 

It’s autofocus hunts for faces like Cheney and then pulls the trigger at the incorrect time. It’s hideous at capturing indoors without a spare nightsun(the lights you get on the bottom of helicopters) and it’s not so hot with movement during daylight.  It’s garbage.  The panasonic tz5 on the other hand does 720, it’s HD, can focus ,and works in lower light and it’s a  point and shoot camera that does video. The Sanyo is a video camera that can do stills, er no it can’t since they too suck.
 
Why even compete at the crappy end? There’s nothing here that makes me want to try a better Sanyo, all they’ve done is out crapped the market at a higher price than Aiptek.

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For the entrance charge of $20 we got a ceramic bowl, filled with our choice of chili or minestrone , a Marian Call CD and the concert itself. This is what’s known as a bargain.

I would like to be the first to say that objectivity is hard for me with regards to talented women with red hair. ( Don’t worry Tori you’re safe I just expanded the category to living in USA, not living in USA)

Hearing “100 easy ways to lose a man” live was an unexpected treat as it’s probably the best use of her voice when not singing her own work.

I rather cheekily , I hope not dickishly, suggested about her new song “Karaoke” that “Jonathan Coulton called and would like the song back” but it’s really good  and had the kind of comedic build up that I love within some of his songs. A duet would rock because I think the voices would mix really well  without someone needing to  fit paul and storm with tighter underwear:)

The new road song was really good and I am totally spacing on the name of the guitarist that accompanies her but damn he’s good.  This was an awesome evening that even I’m not going to take the time to poke fun at the more surreal aspects of the evening at least tonight;)

The Cheeseman he cometh

Creddy and myself are big fans of the work of Mark Jonathan Davis  and his best known creation Richard Cheese  “Tomorrow’s standards today”  While I’m not a fan of the venue or the way the VIP tickets were handled it was like every other Cheese show we’ve been to. Musically awesome ( I could watch “Bobby Ricotta” goof around all night) with the real show being the audience participation between a set we’ve seen 2.5 times prior.

Guess what when he comes back later in the year we’ll be there too.

Given the star wars geekery from  his other works and the pseudonymous singer I’m still surprised that the audience has yet to be invited out for milk and wookies.

An idea : Would the correct term for an older cougar be sabre-toothed tiger?

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Amongst other things Roach takes a look at ectoplasm, EVP that’s the people that listen to noise and claim to hear things, past lives,attends a class in the UK on how to be a medium. She also looks at the science of testing “psychics” like DuBois and other cold readers that are cynical ,delusional or both ( my bias). That blunt an answer is something this book isn’t going to provide for you but it’s probably a good thing that she’s not attempting to do that.

She’s a very entertaining writer,her footnotes amusing,and there’s real science to follow up on. I just didn’t learn as much as her prior works since it’s hard to accumulate a body of evidence for life after death when all we have is evidence of bodies.

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Anyway this is a mini web series , three episodes, and other than  note that anyone I know  already has this , so , so   who the hell am I telling?   Frak that .  

Think live action Venture brothers with a tad of Pinky  tossed in.  Seeing Captain Mal, er Hammer  again  rocks as the “good “  guy that wants to take the heroine  on a tour of a VW’s rear , you know somewhere uncomfortable was great. It’s not like most web shows , ephemeral to the power of mayfly   , you truly can  watch  and sing along more times that may be healthful:)   Don’t be horrible,  buy this , don’t rip it off as I want to see more, more more!

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Lately I have been working
remotely ( or remotely working) on the Friday so I’ve been going out
on Fridays for lunch since it’s all “new” to me. The same places that
I eat out at in the evening often have vastly different characters
during the day and this Black Angus throws it into sharp relief. For
example at night I have never been served stale bread.

Have a
wide range of ages , group sizes and noise levels and there’s some
life in the place. Chilis that just opened up nearby and seems to have
kidnapped the life leaving a quiet, genteel even , location that
would be more fitting in the deep south when you don’t have anything
better to do. So far this is the only local place that exceeded my
hour.

Food’s ok , fitting with the price range and the
burgers are well appointed, cooked to request and relatively
tasteful. Fries tepid and it feels likelike the minimums you have to
do to keep the blue rinse and Caddy driving class happy is all they
are about. The only thing hip about this place is the replacement
joints.

Coffee seems to have been held on life support and
brought out when some unsuspecting fool that refuses to believe in
coffee only being a morning drug. Usually the surroundings don’t bug
me but it felt like the Hometown Buffet , which I can live with until
you give me stale bread past it’s sell by date which I fear may a
fitting epitaph for this place within daylight hours

More reviews over at Yelp.

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I can see a JoCo song  / mashup for this little guy.   But I digress.

It’s really going to be the future soon.  Wall-E  is one future but let’s me just say that  I have nothing to add to the   97% rating that he’s enjoying over there on Rotten Tomatoes.

Why this movie works for me.

Wall-E has more character than the prior Pixar incarnations because you come to him pure, he doesn’t need to fit into car shape, rat shape, fish shape or any of the pre existing personalities from the toy box. 700 years of exposure to our ephemera and the worst that happen to him is show tunes. ( maybe the right wing folks had a point;) )   Wall-e  being seen as  antithetic  to the humans that made him is a point made in many  reviews  has been annoying me.

I  have to be simplistic here and claim that the  US division of thought  falls into right /left wing ideologies ( basically the same fundamental idiocy that reaches divergent conclusions on how it’s best to steal from others for their own benefit, a setup you may  know  better as democracy.) 

This movie has been seen as  a massively pro environment/ anti capitalist movie  by both ends of the moebius strip  so I find myself on familiar ground  in the contrarian position that both sides are wrong.

So in my usual  Socratic ( that means avoiding having to actually solve shit;) )  manner  I have some questions and observations about both side.

1) How is this movie anti capitalist?  The  monopoly position is not practically achievable in capitalism without the intervention of the state and BnL didn’t get that way without help.

2)  How is Wall-e not a reflection on those that created him, how can we be the bad guys in this piece?   Humans  made it to  space,  they made a fricking society that looks pretty close to socialism ( cradle to grave all needs met)  and it pretty much looked like what the  left has wanted to sell us for decades.  They also tried to solve the problem. 

3) The bit I really don’t like.   Farming. We get to the stars  I  and the idea that  we circumvent millennia of improvements to go back to  nature. As if to think that  farming is a default human condition.

I was brought up on a farm have a non romantic view of animals(  unlike the Welsh) and have managed to escape the daily need to hunt food, shelter and the myriad other niceties of living pre dentistry , pre anesthesia  and pre Tetris.  The environment, would it help to call it location? in Wall-e is a background and necessary for his existence, character development.  Basically the framework isn’t built to hang your ideas of the world on and  both sides do this movie a disservice by trying.

To end on a rant.

People that find this liberal really need to get a dictionary and perspective. The root of conservative means what again? It’s more than a greeny trope and can just as easily be seen as an indictment on a socialized system that keeps people stupid , fat and reliant on the state ( corp) from cradle to grave. Seriously politics are what’s stopping most of you from enjoying one of the more touching love stories/ characters in the last few years.

Why bother saving our place on this planet if this is the kind of thought that we’re preserving?

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Interview with director on ,Daywatch, his prior movie

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Well the good news is the meal was  very good.  Pizza rocks,  wings are desperately average with nothing to recommend them but their fries were good and the kid loved them.  So  far so good.  I updated my prior scathing review but will   go a couple of times   paid before making up my mind. 

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Two movies with heavy CGI that I’ve been “forced” to watch at the behest of ,what’s occasionally referred to as my better half  contained Lara Crotch, I mean Angelina Jolie and both left me annoyed.  I could have watched  “no country for old men” but no ,  3d or not 3d that was the offer.  Wrong Joel E (than)  sadly. Apart from that monstrous pun  let’s ready to diss this Dane.

Grendel… supper’s ready. *

Technically I liked it, best dragon yet,  though there’s a tendency towards too many “oo loook pointy” moments.Drawing attention to the 3D detracts from the movie,if you have to remind me it’s in 3d then somethings gone wrong in the story department. Oh and if we’re really going to innovate  drop the suspense shots that telegraph what’s going to happen. geez, just add a fucking double take for the character’s as Grendel bursts into Heorot.

In short the first half can be summed up as Happpy, drinky ,maudlin , screamy , Shouty, schemy, lusty, sleepy , fighty,  repeat.  Intersperse with a rapper’s vocab on how cool you are,  and that you are indeed Beowulf.  Usual look into man’s failings, who is  really a monster are present , but it’s like watching a video game cut scene that you’d be  pressing triangle furiously on to skip the dialog and get to the kick ass dragon ending.

Keeping on the  theme  Beauty and the beast here’s a couple of reviews that  may help.

From the  Flick Filosopher

:: rogerebert.com :: Reviews (xhtml)

*I had four cars named Grendel. My road home was along country lanes and the numbers of rabbits mowed down by my earth rim walker ( mostly accidentally )  led to the name.

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It’s not Run Jason Run since thankfully it’s linear and there’s no need to relive it another two times( unless you had the misfortune to see the prequels)

The first above 90% review on Rotten Tomatoes that I disagree with. That this is called intelligent thriller would seem to suggest a population too stupid to not keep voting for wars ( that would mean by voting either side) oh wait I’d better stop.:D

Smart? I’m sorry but pointing out that most trained killers volunteer for this is hardly intelligent, it’s a gee duh! Then again most of the country believes that doing so is the highest civic good. Smart? There’s a reason Quis custodiet ipsos custodes isn’t exactly a revelation.

Visual flair does not equal unlocking a tripod and whip panning the audience into oblivion. There’s a scene, a continuous take with Tony Jaa that show’s exactly what’s possible and yes the impacts lost on You Tube but I really can’t stand violence choppy , fragmented and then it’s carried over into cars. The Director must not have seen the amazing work on “Children of men” and decided that the real world is shaky, really shaky. It’s like trying to watch a hammer work out it’s relationship to a nail.

The Bourne Ultimatum – Rotten Tomatoes

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Microsoft OneCare Bombs Out In Antivirus Test – WinPlanet Windows Software Reviews

Microsoft’s Windows Live OneCare antivirus software came in dead last in an evaluation of 17 antivirus programs in the AV Comparatives Web site’s bi-annual software roundup. It runs its on-demand tests every February and August to test how well antivirus software detects known threats.

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 I would tell you the exact time of death  but for reasons that should be obvious   I had no clock.

So ends the most expensive alarm clock I have ever purchased and the ONLY  one that has died on me. The tone generated by this thing, along with the flashing light, wasn’t so much an awakening  it was rude.   I hate alarm clocks , all of you,  you’re bastards  the idea that we still have to arrange ourselves  into work patterns based on  last centuries needs pisses me off but seems unavoidable the lower, or higher up the chain you get.  

Link to Sonic Boom Alarm Clock – loud alarm clock with optional bed vibrator and lamp flasher

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I think I get it, they are being ironic… Because if you get what you want it’s not hell!. Today we stopped in at , like most Irish theme bars in the USA, R.T. O’Sullivans in Glendale. The thought of an Irish bar without cider is as laughable as a French bar sans wine or a burger joint that doesn’t have a coke but would you like a nice green tea? No apple cider in stock , please perry, aka pear cider is fine but it’s not frickin’ cider and there seems to be some reality problems with bars here. NM , ok I do mind but I will let that lie for a future podcast. The wings, HELL , HELL-o I thought I was meant to be in mortal danger here. Seemingly a sauce mild enough to douche with is their idea of hell.. mine is paying $8 to be sorely disappointed, again. Gets better they totally forgot to bring out Erin’s main course .. she’s not happy since the Friday night another restaurant ,A bbq one in Scottsdale forgot her sandwich with her order of …a sandwich.. Today was ok I had enough cider to cushion the effects of a pissed Erin;)

Podcast related to the above

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I am not surprised that Dolphin stadium doesn’t have a roof since the Superbowl ads sucked so much that it would have imploded any dome.  Seemingly we’re going back to traditional values which means  cut any hint of sex, bring on the violence. The heart attack  was particularly nauseating , what ‘King idiots thought that evoking a mugging  is in anyway useful to preventative meds?  I’m just glad they are not involved with the colon since the mind boggles at the shit they would have come up with.

Slap happy..

Bud had two ass(ault) headed items with a tossing a  real rock in Rock, paper ,scissors  and  so on through a swathe of disinteresting, if technically accomplished ads.

Only4  gave us a reaction

Blockbuster : mouse

Jack: Vegetarian

Carlos:   no speak English

Snickers taking the term “fudgepacker to a new limit : Kiss

and the why they  hell did they bother:

That’s the most interesting thing you can do with Jessica Simpson?

The car ads pedestrian, soft drinks forgettable and in Sprites case I can tell real humor from the idea deficient offerings , O calories = O power to think.    All in all a fuck you very much to Ms Jackson’s tit for ruining yet another Superbowl..

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http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=55.999481… 

This is my parents airfield and scrapyard in Scotland with a really good resolution.  Hell some of the ones taken by the microlight 2000ft up aren’t as nice.  Soon a map to all of the places I can recall living in.

Last night:  A night at the Museum.. everything comes to life, apart from the acting ability, the character development , the ability to not telegraph physical humour  or go for the most obvious sight gags or  humor on the lowest shelf. 

Tonight: Range, and it’s obvious that my skills have deteriorated badly from 1-2 times a weeks.   I’m just going to bite, er ,the bullet and return to a weekly basis of 100 9mm’s  and 100 45′s and 50 357′s  which means a lot more lunches in the workplaces discount section.

Work’s been sullen the last 2 days re the untimely demise of an employee under the most senseless circumstances,  sadly  I  fit in with a Heinlen quote re the nature of man and   Jubal  didn’t seem to be offering it as a compliment.

“Man is the animal that laughs”

It’s usually all I have left,  it’s my way with dealing with life , universe and everything yet .At the time I most have to respect other’s insanity re their man in the sky providing  “sense”   which is a one way street.

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Enough insanity already,.. there’s a new hot sauce for me, oh that’s bull. I can still see both of them:) I find it hard to explain to people why I like inflicting pain on myself, but it’s my legal high, no running , no adultery ( hard when I’m not married) and this is a hottie Erin will accept:) or a myriad of other vices that cause endorphin rushes, like running , or shoplifting.. why do the former if no one is chasing you? Anyway check out this fun site for more in the world of oral pleasure/pain delivery

More heat

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Often a mark of a really good movie for me is what I would call  my “lost highway” effect  which relates to a quote  from David Lynch’s “lost highway”

FRED I like to remember things my own way.

 AL What do you mean by that?

FRED How I remember them. Not necessarily the way they happened.

I.e my memories of what I thought I saw are often enough to not revisit films I considered  powerful at the time  and it’s odd that the one of views that leave an impression  and I have a feeling this is one of those movies.  Firstly it’s  in Spanish set around the end of the Spanish civil war and while there’s no wicked witch the sadistic  father figure way beats any apple wielding tart , doesn’t just beat her he bludgeons her and cuts off body part,  for  the role of evil in uniform.   Escape is always the safest place .. this dissident  pearl of a child is jammed between her pregnant mother’s need for security  at the expense of hers.   Let’s have the movie sit a while and discuss it later.

Ole goat boy was  glorious  IO  PAN !

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Maybe I’m just looking for it but representations of torture seem to be increasing within the entertainment sphere as a  handy little plot device, not happy about it.

Today’s meal at Earl’s wasn’t exactly torture but  on three occasions now I have had a dish in transition. Their curry has gone from vindaloo to , are you sure this isn’t just isn’t a sauce from the store?  Today’s attempt was on par with Pataks sauces, I like those but maybe  restaurants should aim a little higher.  I really used to like this place but  it’s sad to see a slide so completely into the mediocre.  Previously the people I’ve been with have on the whole experienced one  meal failure per  4-6 people.  Scottsdale triangle. …

A rant is coming soon.  Seemingly Janet  the governer is into speed cameras for reasons that ring hollow on anything other than revenue  generation. In short  whenever somone refers to law enforcer  rather than peace officer I thin you really get which side of the state their bread’s buttered on. 

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So what else.   We saw Pan’s Labyrinth which I am about 1/2 way through a “review” on but the upshot is that it’s very good and worth viewing. It’s not a date movie unless your both goths ( shocking generalisation #45) 

Ah ha! A new Indian restaurant, Tandoori village,   finally opened on  43rd and Bell road and  woo hoo it’s good.  Note I didn’t say excellent since I am  biased to the UK bastardized curries of my youth but these guys are reasonably priced, don’t have the stand offish nature of many Indian eateries in the US where it’s almost like eating in a red wall papered funeral home    In common with all new restaurants the menu had more typos than was necessary and  I’m not sure that literacy is even require in print shops these days. The Vindaloo was pretty close to how I make it traditionally, the Tikka Masala Erin had was way way nicer than I make it. Pakora nicely spiced but of the loose type ah well I can’t have everything. No liquor licence either making it a carry out that I can  carry in  

And the anti windmill?  More of an anti climax seemingly the bumper on the pinball table of life hit the tilt a few times and rescued the ball before it was irretrievably lost. ( If even I know to what I am referring to in 2 years from now I’ll be surprised:)

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Children of Men is bound to end up one of my favorite films of the year. In common with many of my favorites the ending’s  ambiguous, the heroic meet unfitting ends at the hands of unworthy all while the true authors of  the society they inhabit shuffle through existence , life having been eradicated from their souls long past.   The movie’s about life.  Set in a near dystopian future the planet’s women are barren. The youngest person on the planet is 21 and if you can think of all the worst behaviours the species could get up to when there’s no  “for the children” to rally behind.

It’s a brutal realization of what UK totalitarianism would look like though spliced in with enough visual cues to tie it to more contemporary conflicts which is where this film hit me the hardest. I’m actually being forced to pay for this treatment of other people , the more money I make the more it goes to create misery in the world.  Fine  it’s taken by force but the attempt to accumulate more, ergo paying my masters off,   is something I do have a control over  it’s a rather large pickle to digest I’m afraid.  

What if …   A girl gets pregnant?

The baby belongs to the world?  The first thing that occurs in the movie is the report of the death of the youngest member of the race due mainly to events arising from the celebrity of being such which presages the fate of this infant, let alone being born to an immigrant.  They wont want an immigrant baby,  the anti state forces want to use the baby as a figurehead and the evils of collectivism  at both ends of the spectrum  are battling to be the first to extinguish the first baby born in over 20 years by their sheer ideological stupidity ( that part isn’t from the future) 

 The apparatus and visual crunchiness of the near future  is superb work, understated ,and  CGI has been used to get out of the way of the story in a way that’s just breathtaking.  

Side note: Harkins Theatres really have to get their act together on their small screens.  This is the second movie in a row  that has had severe  disruption on screen for most of the picture ,the print 1/3 of the right had scratches all the way through, this was at Arrowhead, the time before was Scottsdale 101 where someone can’t focus   They were good on both occasions about refunding the money but it’s incredibly sad that  their core competence , ie all they can offer me that my house cant is space, better projection and sound  and a shared experience with a large  audience. The tickets are all one price which is  interesting  when you think that you pay more money to get into the Capri, bigger screen , better sound..  yet the same money to get into the smaller  crappier outlying screens. 

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Get this a generous offer · 1 year domain registration – $30 which is so funny I just hurt myself laughing. One thing that I find odd is that  mails from the company re the billing were not sent,  how odd is that?  

Anyway this is a crappy situation for customer service since it’s really my responisibility to ensure no one, even if their practices appear to be a little sharp in the non  notification of billing ( given the pricing structure and the feel of the site it seems to be playing on the less sophisticated  web user ( ok that’s why I am upset, it’s pride at having been made a fool off:) ) 

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