"When faced with a problem you do not understand,
do any part of it you do understand; then look at it again."
~(Robert A. Heinlein - "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress")

About to comment here for the very first time?
Check Where'd my Comment go?!!! to avoid losing it.
-

Thursday, December 23, 2010

DAFT PUNK

-Say WHAT?!  Huh?!!!

I've watched TRON: Legacy twice now.

I saw the original TRON when it first came out in 1982, and in 2002 I added the 20th Anniversary Collectors edition to my DVD collection.  It somehow survived the many purges and sell offs I had gone through over the years.

With the new movie sequel coming up, I was very surprised to not see the original all over the place; Disney has absolutely no peer when it comes to milking something for all it's worth.  It's been out of print for years now, and I've learned that my copy truly is  a collectors item; prices starting at $130.00 on Amazon.com for new copies still in the original factory wrap.

A relook at my copy of the original verified my memory of it; it was fairly good, but not all that fantastic.  I suspect the suits at Disney took a look and decided that it would not compel people to put the sequel on their "must see" list.

Which is a shame, as they did something truly amazing with the sequel, elevating it into one Hell of a fine movie, with a simple (deceptively simple) storyline that has a lot more going on than at first appears.

(Jeff Bridges also has had an amazing year, appearing in this, and  in True Grit ; THE best movie of 2010, so far. He deserves a post of his own, so I'm not going to cover him here.)

The first thing that grabbed me (really grabbed me) was the music; seemingly a marriage of Phillip Glass and Tangerine Dream (with bits of John Carpenter and John Barry thrown in). The music is mostly for motion (and there is a lot of motion here) and it puts the movie into overdrive.

I had to wait until the end credits to learn that DAFT PUNK (an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter) did this score.

I had never heard of them before, and this appears to be their very first film score, but they've been around for awhile.  I can see now that my next bankruptcy may well be engendered by seeking out what else they have done.

Hunt up the CD soundtrack of TRON: Legacy and give it a listen.

If it doesn't move you, and make you want to check out the movie, you might as well pack it in;  you're already dead!.
-

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Dr. Sanity's already been here.

I had thought (in my post  Dr. Sanity nails it! ) that she had said it all about nanny-statism.

That clearly shows my lack of imagination. 
Check out one of AJStrata's latest:  Dumbest Lawsuit Evah ...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The left truly is insane. Who else would champion a lawsuit that basically cries out: “Mom has no damn backbone“:

"The lawsuit alleges that “McDonald’s exploits very young California children
...
said she was bringing the case because of the constant requests for McDonald’s Happy Meals."

Good lord, what a moron.  Her kids want Happy Meals and so she is suing McDonalds to shut them up.  Just let that one settle in for a bit.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

There appears to be truly no limit to this urge to place restrictions on absolutely everything we do in life. In total contradiction to everything I've ever believed in and advocated, she makes me feel that, in her case at least, some people really shouldn't be allowed to run around loose. :(
-

Monday, December 13, 2010

"What is THAT for?"

-
I'd love to post the whole Strategy Page  article that answers the question, but that might strain their patience on copyright, so look for "What is THAT for?" on this page...  http://www.strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic324b.asp

(Somehow, this brings to mind Jerry Van Meter's "Glooshmaker" joke.  No, you probably wont find it on Google; it's peculiar to his sense of humor.  If any of my Air Force buddies see this, they will know it.  I could tell you, but then... :-)

Bureaucracy forever.
-

Friday, December 10, 2010

HOW do spambots evade my site meter?

-
I occasionally get anonymous comments of the type that neo-neocon has posted about as "Spambot of The Day", when a new or somewhat original example came through her spam filters.

Often whimsical, with wonderfully loose language, and sometimes no other apparent purpose than to show that it could  be done.
(Updated - With an answer)

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

December 7

My calendar shows today as...
   1) Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
and...
   2) First of Muharram (First day of the first month in the Islamic calendar;
       making it the Islamic equivalent of New Years Day)

Any bets on which one will most likely be honored (or even mentioned) by The One?
-

ADDENDUM - After that vent, I remembered this...

Today (Dec 7) is also the 38th anniversary of the Apollo 17 launch;
the very last manned lunar exploration mission.

This is very personal to me, as described in...
  Adventure of a Lifetime
and
  The Adventure - Continued

(Yeah, I'm blowing my own horn here.
 Well -- So What? :-)
-

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Help! - Carpal Tunnel Syndrome???

That's a term I've heard for a long time, and always thought of as some kind of arthritis-like pain in hands and fingers.  (Updated below) 
(Updated again 05 Dec 2010 below)

For months now (since my 68th birthday on May 25) I've had problems with my fingers and thumbs feeling numb and thought it to be a circulation problem; hence the walking regimen I've forced upon myself since the end of May. While good for other things, it may turn out to have been an exercise in futility for this particular problem.

You see, a number of people where I work, observing my problems, have raised the possibility of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). While that sounded just plain wrong to me, I finally decided to look it up on the internet.

So, what did I find?

Followers

Stat Counter