It's Something To Do

The National

2010-05-26T00:37:00.000-07:00

The National are a Brooklyn-based indie rock band formed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1999. Thmb band's lyrics are written and sung by Matt Berninger in a distinctive baritone. The rest of the band is composed of two pairs of brothers: Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Scott and Bryan Devendorf. Aaron plays guitar, bass and piano, Bryce plays guitar, Scott plays bass and guitar, and Bryan is the drummer. Padma Newsome, from sister band Clogs, often contributes strings, keyboards, and other arrangements and instrumental flourishes. The band's influences range from Bruce Springsteen to Joy Division.

Beginnings

In 1991, Matt Berninger and Scott Devendorf met while attending the University of Cincinnati. There they met Mike Brewer, Casey Reas, and Jeff Salem to make the lo-fi garage band Nancy, which was named after Matt's mother. The band was together for five years, but only released one album, titled 3429 Ruther, on Wife Records. The group slowly dissolved when Matt, Scott, Jeff, and Casey moved to Brooklyn. Bryan, Bryce, and Aaron were childhood friends who played in several bands together over the years. When their last effort Project Nim broke up in 1998, they joined Matt and Scott in Brooklyn via the Devendorf relationship.

When the band was formed in 1999, it was called The National (although the domain name of the band's website is americanmary.com because, according to Matt Berninger in an interview with Better Propaganda, "t's a song off our first record. We never thought of changing the (website) name, although we should have.") Several of the members continued to work day jobs throughout the early years, including being involved in New York's dot-com boom in the late 1990s. The National performed their first shows, often on Sunday nights, at Luna Lounge on the Ludlow Street in New York City's Lower East Side.

Here is video of The National's recent live performance on The David Letterman Show. They played Afraid of Everyone from the new album, High Violet.

A Summary of LOST

2010-05-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

Plane crashes on an island.
People survive.
People fight, scheme, love, and bond.
Weird stuff happens.

Eventually, the people all die.
The people meet up after death.
The end.

As sad as I am that it's over, I loved the ending of LOST. There are so many unanswered questions such as "What happened to Walt?" and so on. My reaction to those questions is, "Who cares?"

In the end, the entire series was all about the people and the bonds they formed. All the hurrying around, criss-crossing the island and atom bombs were vehicles for the survivors to get to know each other and for the audience to get to know them.

"What about the Dharma Initiative?" people complain. "Was Charles Widmore good or evil?" Don't care. Unlike Star Wars -- even with Hurley's countless references to the Jedi saga -- Lost wasn't about the epic battle between Good and Evil. When all is said and done, six seasons later, this was all about characters and redemption and about love.

The series was full of characters with father issues, so it is quite appropriate that Jack's father, Christian, is the one who explained it all in the final scene:

Yeah, I'm real. You're real.
Everything that ever happened to you is real.
All those people in the church - they're real too.
Jack asks: They're all - they're all dead?
Everyone dies sometime, kiddo.
Some of them before you, some of them long after you ...
But why are they all here now?
Well, there is no "now" here.
Where are we, Dad?
This is the place you all made together so you could all find one another. The most important part of your life was the time you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed all of them and they needed you.

I found it perfect that Jack was the last one to this spiritual "party," the endless fixer, the one who always had to be the leader. His final lesson, even in death, was that he needed others, and that they needed him.

Boathouse Sushi

2010-05-24T23:20:00.000-07:00

If you find yourself hungry in Rohnert Park in Sonoma County, here's a great option. It's an unassuming-looking little building, next to a couple of motels. (One a Hampton Inn, one a dive motel.) There is also a location in Santa Rosa.

Once you're inside, the atmosphere is very fun, with lots of faux-Japanese artifacts and big fake palm trees. I think they're going for elegant but it ends up being funky. They play rock-type music rather than the traditional Asian, so it has a cool atmosphere.

There are two large flat screens; the TV over the bar was playing the sports network when we were there while the one over the sushi bar was playing the food channel. I appreciated the non-overabundance of sports.

The menu is so large as to be almost overwhelming. We didn't order any starters, but watched in amazement as a plate of crispy crab wontons went by that looked like they could feed a small army. ($5.50) Other appetizer choices from the menu range from the traditional edamame at $3.75 to the more unusual Hamachi Kama at $8.95 (grilled yellowtail collar).

The sushi bar offers a range of traditional nigiri sushi and sashimi, but the big deal here is the rolls. The restaurant offers some very imaginative choices! There seems to be an emphasis on cooked food in the rolls, but there are also many rolls that feature raw fish. There are also many spicy choices. Our server, Tara, was incredibly friendly and helped us navigate the large menu.

Here is a small sampling of some of the rolls, with their interesting names and descriptions:

Crazy Monkey Roll
Coconut Shrimp & Grilled Pineapple, Spicy Crab Salad, Avocado & Creamy Spicy Sauce

Dragon Roll
Shrimp Tempura, Crab Salad & Cucumber, Topped w/ Fresh Water Eel, Avocado & Masago Roe Splashed w/ Unagi Sauce

Lisa! Lisa! Roll
Shrimp Tempura, Cream Cheese, Cucumber, Avocado, Topped w/ Tempura Crunch & Drizzled w/ Unagi Sauce

Viva Las Vegas
Shrimp Tempura & Cucumber, Topped w/ Avocado, Crab Salad & Masago Roe

Crazy Horse Roll
Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, Avocado, Crab Salad, Deep Fried & Served w/ Unagi Sauce

Japanese Lasagna
Sushi Roll w/ Crab Salad & Avocado, Covered in a Layer of Cream Cheese & Yum Yum Sauce, Baked Golden & Served w/ Unagi Sauce

Apocolypse Roll
Crab Salad, Ebi, Scallop, Topped w/ Salmon, Avocado, Creamy Sauce, Masago Roe & Green Onion, Lightly Torched

Train Wreck Roll
Spicy Tuna, Shrimp Tempura & Cucumber, Topped w/ Unagi, Avocado, Creamy Sauce, Masago Roe & Green Onion

The Last Samurai Roll
Shrimp Tempura, Spicy Tuna, Cucumber, Avocado w/ Crispy Tempura Crunch & Tobiko, Splashed w/ Unagi Sauce

Titanic Roll
Shrimp Tempura, Unagi & Cucumber in Soy Paper, Topped w/ Salmon, Tuna, Avocado, Spicy Crab Salad, & Green Onion

Sensei Seduction Roll
Tuna, Cucumber, Kaiware, Seared White Tuna, Avocado & Green Onions in a White Truffle Sauce

The portions are generous. Dinner combinations come with miso soup (some of the best I've had) and salad, rice, and either two or three items. Items can be ordered ala carte, of course, but the dinner combination is the most cost-effective way to go.

Boathouse Sushi
Japanese Pan Asian Bistro
6278 Redwood Drive
Rohnert Park, CA
(707) 588-9440

Directions:

Directions to the Rohnert Park location, from the North:

Take 101 South and exit at Rohnert Park Expressway. Make a right on to Rohnert Park Expressway.
Make a right at the next light on to Redwood Drive. The restaurant is 50 yards on the right. Parking is behind the restaurant.

Directions to the Rohnert Park location, from the South:

Take 101 North to Rohnert Park Expressway. Make a left at the first light (and the end of the off ramp).
Go through one light and make a right at the second light, Redwood Drive. The restaurant is 50 yards on the right. Parking is behind the restaurant.

Boathouse Sushi
Japanese Pan Asian Bistro
2360 Mendocino Ave.

Santa Rosa Ca 95403.
(707) 546-7153

Directions to the Santa Rosa location, from the North:

Take 101 South. Exit Steele Lane and turn left. Make another left on Mendocino Ave.
Located at the end of the Safeway Center.

Iron Man Drinking Game

2010-05-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

The weekend is here! Not just any weekend either, but the one before Memorial Day. Unless you're taking the entire week off and going somewhere fantastic, there's not that much going on. You have to make your own entertainment.

We're here to help. How about watching a Big Summer Movie?

It doesn't get any bigger or summerier than Iron Man 2. There are more villains, more beautiful women, and more dilemmas for Tony Stark to face in this one. Is it a better movie than the original Iron Man? No way. But it's more entertaining, louder, and funnier that the original, so it's all good.

One thing that made me laugh out loud -- other than Robert Downey Jr.'s quick wit -- was the sequel's direct and obvious references to the first movie. If you've seen the first movie more than once (okay, I admit it, I have), these callbacks are really fun to watch for.

Drinking Game

So get a copy of Iron Man on DVD or BlueRay and pop it into the appropriate player. Or head to the multiplex and get in line for Iron Man 2. Take a drink of your frosty beverage (or take a sip of your $6.00 soda at the multiplex) if you spot any of the following occurrences.

Every one of these things happens in BOTH movies.

Tony says "I know exactly what I'm doing" and then something goes wrong.

An adversary refers to Tony as a "little prick."

Tony does significant damage to his house and is completely unconcerned.

After a big event, a beautiful woman with questionable motives waits by Tony's car.

Tony and Pepper share a very romantic moment on a moonlit rooftop.

Tony trash-talks his robots, threatening to do something bad to them.

Tony builds something:

scientifically impossible
important to his future survival
while wearing a black undershirt
in captivity
under extreme pressure.

Come to think of it, Iron Man and Iron Man 2 are kind of the same movie.

If you can think of things that happen in BOTH movies that I haven't posted, add them in the comments.

Suisun City

2010-05-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

Years ago, Suisun City in Solano County, California was the kind of place sensible people avoided. There was a run-down waterfront, ramshackle buildings, and it looked like a Hollywood scene of "that scary harbor where bad things happen." I'd speed by on the freeway without a second thought. Turns out, big things have been happening there while I wasn't paying attention.

Over the course of the last 20 years or so, Suisun City has been transformed. There are lots of restaurants, bars, and shops. Many of the historic buildings have been preserved. There is even a hotel. The marina is beautiful. The Suisun City Waterfront District has done an amazing job. The current economy has taken its toll: there are a number of vacant storefronts, as there are in any small town. Overall, however, the town seems to be doing quite well and is very attractive.

Pick up the "Downtown Suisun City Self-Guided Historic Walking Tour" booklet once you are there. If you're interested in California history, architecture, or or just a nice walk, you'll enjoy yourself. Suisun City and many of its still-existing buildings date back to the Gold Rush.

A wonderful place to eat when you're there is the Athenian Grill, located right on the waterfront. I enjoyed the Gyro Plate, which included gyro meat, rice, pita bread and Greek salad. It was more than I could eat, and delicious. Randy had Pastitso, which is pasta layered with ground beef and bechamel sauce. Rich and delicious. For those who aren't crazy about Greek / Mediterranean food, they also have hamburgers and sandwiches. The place has a cozy, casual atmosphere. Sit out on the lovely patio and enjoy the view of the harbor.

Athenian Grill
750 Kellog Street
Suisun City CA 94585
(707) 425-0500
Open 11:00 a.m. to 9 p.m.
7 days a week

If you want something a little fancier, the Main Street Bar & Grill has a "white tablecloth" atmosphere. They serve an amazing Kobe Beef hamburger for only $8.00!

Main Street Bar & Grill
627 Main Street
Suisun City CA 94585
(707) 428-6270
Lunch Mon-Fri. 11:00am to 2:00pm
Dinner Mon-Sat. 5:00pm to 9pm
Sundays 4:30pm to 8:30pm

View Larger Map

Lockeford Meat & Sausage

2010-05-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

This place has the best sausage ever. It's worth the drive from anywhere in Northern California to go there and buy meat from them. Believe me, people do - the lines there on weekends are long but worth the wait.

Lockeford Meat and Sausage is a tiny little storefront in the one-horse town of Lockeford. Right down the street is Lockeford Liquor and Donuts. I ask you - is there anything better than that?

Don't be fooled by appearances, though. Lockeford Meat and Sausage is a completely professional operation, very clean and well-run. In addition to sausages, they offer old fashioned franks, marinated tri-tips, slab bacon, new york steaks, and several flavors of beef jerky. I laugh every time I overhear a man give his order to the patient and helpful counter servers, because the order always ends with "... and some beef jerky." Every time. Listen for it when you go there.

The prices are amazingly reasonable, about $4.00 to $5.00 per pound for the most delicious sausage you'll ever have. The steaks and tri tips run about half the price that you'd pay in Bay Area gourmet markets.

There are two basic kinds of sausages, fresh and smoked. Here is a list of some of the sausages they offer. My personal favorite is the Apple Sausage.

Garlic Salami
Summer Sausage
Heavy Smoked Thuringer
Columbus Dry Italian Salami
Liverwurst
Pepperoni
Old Fashioned Franks
Bockwurst
Knackwurst
Garlic
Bavarian
Pesto
Basil
Apple
Jalapeno
Mild Italian
Hot Italian
Hot Beer Links
Chorizo
Wisconsin Brats
Luau
Smoked Dakota Bratwurst
Portugese Linguica
Polish
British Bangers
Kielbasa Smoked Polish
Cajun Andouille
Okie Breakfast Links
Maple
Swedish Potato

The fresh meat is incredible. I've never liked New York steak that much -- even the expensive ones I've had have been kind of tasteless -- until I've had the ones from Lockeford.

Sliced Slab Bacon
Country Style Pork Sausage
Smoked Ham Hocks
New York Steaks
Marinated Tri-Tips
Tri-Tip Roasts
Regular and Teriyaki Jerky
Landjaeger (which are meat sticks, sort of pressed jerky)

View Larger Map

In case you're having any trouble with the map above, here are the particulars again:

Lockeford Meat & Sausage
19775 Cotton Street
Lockeford, CA‎
(209) 727-5584‎

Lockeford is outside of Lodi on Highway 88. It's a nice drive through the country. It's well worth the excursion!

The Return of It's Something To Do

2010-05-02T23:44:00.000-07:00

Has it really been over a year?

The It's Something To Do Blog is back! Look for restaurant reviews, commentary on first-run movies, DVDs, TV shows, and web sites. We want you to have Something To Do.

Stay tuned!

The Great Debaters

2008-01-20T23:02:00.001-08:00

Starring and directed by Denzel Washington, "The Great Debaters" is based on the true story of an underdog debate team from a small, black college that wins a national championship in the segregated 1930's.
The debate team is from tiny Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. The debate coach is Melvin Tolson (Washington), who demands the highest performance from his students. Tolson is something of an enigma. He has a secret life as a political organizer; he is trying to unionize the poor whites and blacks. This has major plot ramifications, even though he keeps his political views out of the classroom and the debates themselves.
Each of the debates we see in the movie are on social justice themes. The first major engagement Wiley College had against an "Anglo Saxon" college was on the subject of "Civil Disobedience," for example. The Wiley debaters always got the desirable position; they never had to debate in favor of something distasteful. It would have been interesting to see them forced to take the difficult position "Resolved: Civil Disobedience is Immoral."
The emotional climax of the film comes when the team is on a road trip to a debate and they come upon a lynch mob. As black people in the south in the 1930's, every day life for them was full of racism, but this event changed each of them. Each of the debates that followed this horrible scene drew on it, in ways both subtle and sledge-hammerlike.
On one level, the movie is your basic "sports movie" about a team that overcomes great adversity with a great coach and goes on to beat the big bad team to win the big championship. I'm not a fan of those movies because they're so predictable. This movie has that basic plot, but it's only the coathanger upon which the important stuff hangs. "The Great Debaters" is really about how education and self-respect are the keys to defeating racism and discrimination.
My only negative on this movie is that it was a bit overly long and a little preachy.
B+

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

2008-01-19T23:50:00.000-08:00

Otherwise known as National Treasure 2, this big-budget action flick has a mega big-name cast. Returning as intrepid historian / treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates is Nicolas Cage, of course. The supporting cast includes Jon Voight, Ed Harris, Harvey Keitel, and Helen Mirren. Seriously. WHAT THE HELL WAS HELEN MIRREN THINKING?

This is an entertaining movie, a good way to wile away an afternoon, but not a "good" movie or anybody's idea of an Oscar winner. I guarantee you will remember very little about this movie fifteen minutes after you walk out of the theater. This is the movie equivalent of Cool Whip.

Instead of a substantive review, I'll give you a few three-word summaries of this movie.

Overly white teeth. Seriously, Nic, lay off the tooth whiteners.
Indiana Jones ripoff.
Physics rules disregarded.
Lincoln is assassinated.
President unusually handsome.
Lots of chasing.
Ferrari gets towed.
Mercedes gets crashed.
Cibola is golden.
Lots of water.
Secret book exists.
Sidekick hacks computers.
Silly popcorn movie.

C+

Banished Words

2008-01-15T11:48:00.000-08:00

Lake Superior State University has recently published its 33rd annual List of Words Banished From the Queen's English for "misuse, overuse, or general uselessness."

The winners / losers are:

PERFECT STORM – for overuse. The pundits on TV show say "perfect storm" when they mean just about any coincidence. I agree with this one. Stop using book titles in a way that indicates that you haven't even read the book.

WEBINAR – a made-up word. A seminar on the web about any number of topics.
I'd have to disagree with this one. I haven't heard it used that much. Yet. I think there are a number of more deserving candidates.

WATERBOARDING – "Let's banish 'waterboarding' to the beach, where it belongs with boogie boards and surfboards." – Patrick K. Egan, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. I have mixed emotions on this one. It was probably used most during 2007 by Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, and I love my Daily Show.

ORGANIC – Overused and misused to describe not only food, but computer products or human behavior, and often used when describing something as "natural," says Crystal Giordano of Brooklyn, New York. I'd like to add the word "green" to the list as well, for the same reasons.

WORDSMITH / WORDSMITHING – "I've never read anything created by a wordsmith - or via wordsmithing - that was pleasant to read." – Emily Kissane, St. Paul, Minnesota. What the heck is wrong with "editor"?

AUTHOR / AUTHORED – "In one of former TV commentator Edwin Newman's books, he wonders if it would be correct to say that someone 'paintered' a picture?" – Dorothy Betzweiser, Cincinnati, Ohio. What the heck is wrong with "writer"?

POST 9/11 – "'Our post-9/11 world,' is used now, and probably used more, than AD, BC, or Y2K, time references. You'd think the United States didn't have jet fighters, nuclear bombs, and secret agents, let alone electricity, 'pre-9/11.'" – Chazz Miner, Midland, Michigan. Agreed. So overused.

SURGE – "'Surge' has become a reference to a military build-up. Give me the old days, when it referenced storms and electrical power." – Michael F. Raczko, Swanton, Ohio. I disagree with this; it's an important part of the news. I suppose they could say "military build-up" but in our 10-second news bite culture, that takes too long to say.

GIVE BACK – "Various media have been featuring a large number of people who 'just want to give back.' Give back to whom? For what?" – Curtis Cooper, Hazel Park, Michigan. I have a problem with this one, too. What is wrong with people wanting to do community service? This entry confuses me.

'BLANK' is the new 'BLANK' or 'X' is the new 'Y' – "Believed to have come into use in the 1960s, but it is getting tired. The comparisons have become absurd." – Geoff Steinhart, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. This ridiculous phrase was spoofed in the musical Wicked when a character scoffs "Black is the new pink."

BLACK FRIDAY – "The day after Thanksgiving that retailers use to keep themselves out of the 'red' for the year. (And then followed by "Cyber-Monday.") This is counter to the start of the Great Depression's use of the term 'Black Tuesday,' which signaled the crash of the stock market that sent the economy into a tailspin. – Carl Marschner, Melvindale, Michigan. I agree, so overused.

BACK IN THE DAY – "Back in the day, we used 'back-in-the-day' to mean something really historical. Now you hear ridiculous statements such as 'Back in the day, people used Blackberries without Blue Tooth.'" – Liz Jameson, Tallahassee, Florida. This phrase is so old that it was overused back in the day.

RANDOM – "Overuse on a massive scale by my fellow youth. Every event, activity and person can be 'sooo random' as of late. Banish it before I go vigilante." – Ben Martin, Adelaide, South Australia. This phrase has been overused for at least 10 years. Why banish it now?

SWEET – "Too many sweets will make you sick. It became popular with the advent of the television show 'South Park.'It is annoying when young children use it and have no idea why, but it really sounds stupid coming from the mouths of adults." – Wayne Braver, Manistique, Michigan Yikes. I'm guilty of this one myself.

DECIMATE – "'Decimate' has been turned upside down. It means 'to destroy one tenth,' but people are using it to mean 'to destroy nine tenths.' – David Welch, Venice, Florida. Thank you! This has been a pet peeve of mine for years! This has got to be one of the most misused words in the English language.

EMOTIONAL – "Reporters, short on vocabulary, often describe a scene as 'emotional.' Well sure, but which emotion? For a radio reporter to gravely announce, 'There was an emotional send off to Joe Blow' tells me nothing, other than the reporter perceived that the participants acted in an emotional way. For instance: I had an emotional day today. I started out feeling tired and a bit grumpy until I had my coffee. I was distraught over a cat killing a bird on the other side of the street. I was bemused by my reaction to the way nature works. I was intrigued this evening to add a word or two to your suggestions. I was happy to see the words that others had posted. Gosh, this has been an emotional day for me." – Brendan Kennedy, Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada. Wow, Brendan is certainly emotional.

POP – "On every single one of the 45,000 decorating shows on cable TV (of which I watch many) there is at LEAST one obligatory use of a phrase such as ... 'the addition of the red really makes it POP.' You know when it's coming ... you mouth it along with the decorator. There must be some other way of describing the addition of an interesting detail." – Barbara, Arlington, Texas. Don't forget, "And this will be a wonderful place to sit and read a book."

IT IS WHAT IT IS – "This pointless phrase, uttered initially by athletes on the losing side of a contest, is making its way into general use. It accomplishes the dual feat of adding nothing to the conversation while also being phonetically and thematically redundant." – Jeffrey Skrenes, St. Paul, Minnesota. One of the worst time wasters ever.

UNDER THE BUS – "For overuse. I frequently hear this in the cliché-filled sports world, where it's used to describe misplaced blame – i.e. 'After Sunday's loss, the fans threw T.O. under the bus." – Mark R. Hinkston, Racine, Wisconsin. Oops. I guess I'd better stop saying this one ...

What words or phrases do you think should be banned for misuse, overuse, or general uselessness?

Microsoft Live One Care

2008-01-11T23:11:00.000-08:00

Are you protected in the event of computer disaster?
Dire words, but I'm here to tell you, it can happen, because it happened to me this week. When I clicked on "My Computer," the computer looked at me cross-eyed, shrugged, and said, "HUH??" I am not exaggerating at all here: when I clicked on "My Computer," instead of giving me a nice list of disk drives and files and folders, it displayed the "search" icon - the one with the flashlight. Have you ever heard of a computer that didn't recognize the My Computer command? The thing had such poor self esteem it didn't even know who it was. I was considering booking it on Dr. Phil.
Fortunately, I had installed Microsoft Live One Care some time ago, and had used it to back up my files to an external hard disk. The short answer to this whole experience is: this product works. I am very glad I had it, and I recommend it. Now for some details.
After an easy download, OneCare does several things to keep your computer running smoothly. It does this primarily in the background. It costs $49.95 per year for up to 3 PCs. Here is a description from the company's website:

Protection Plus, with its antivirus and antispyware scanners, managed, two-way firewall, and integrated anti-phishing technology, helps protect your computer from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, hackers, phishing, and other threats. It runs continuously in the background, but you can scan individual files and folders for viruses on demand simply by right-clicking them. You can even scan attachments you receive via Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger.

Performance Plus regularly defragments your hard disk, removes any unnecessary files that can clog your computer, and helps make sure important security updates from Microsoft are installed efficiently and on time.

Backup and Restore regularly copies your important files and
settings to CD, DVD, external hard disk, network drive, or other data-storage device.

OneCare communicates the status of your PCs health with an icon in the taskbar. Green for good, yellow for needs help, red for trouble. Pretty simple. The program automatically updates itself and tells you when it does so with a taskbar balloon. It will perform a "tuneup" (remove unneeded files, defrag the disk, backup, etc.) on a schedule you set. All these things are easily modified by user settings.
Obviously, I was most interested recently in the Backup and Restore functions. They worked beautifully. You can back up all you want, but that procedure is worthless unless you can restore. I held my breath, and viola - it worked! OneCare backed up all my Microsoft Office files, my Itunes files, my photo files, my financial files, my email files, in short, everything I couldn't live without. Note that it backed up lots of stuff that wasn't from Microsoft applications, for you I-hate-Microsoft-skeptics out there.
About the only glitch in the restore process was that restoring my Outlook Express data files took a bit of know-how. The OneCare program provided a "help" file on this subject that was only partially helpful. Someone with only minimal computer skills would have been completely stumped by this. I consider myself an "intermediate" computer user and I muddled through. The big problem, believe it or not, was locating the Outlook Express data files themselves. Sounds easy enough, but they were buried about sixteen layers deep in the file structure in a very obscure place, and it took quite a bit of searching.
Other than the OE data hiccup, the data restore was pretty easy. So I was really pleased with OneCare's performance. I highly recommend the product.

Juno

2008-01-06T16:02:00.000-08:00

Juno MacGuff, played by Ellen Page in her first major role, is a very sarcastic highschool student. On a whim, she decides to have sex with her friend Paulie Bleeker. Juno turns up pregnant. Rainn Wilson has a hilarious cameo as the pharmacist where she buys her pregnancy test, as she attempts to shake away the positive result: "That ain't no etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle that can't be un-did, homeskillet."

Which brings me to the writing. The screenplay by Diablo Cody is simply brilliant. She captures not so much the actual language of teens - which, let's face it, I'm no expert at - but the cadence of it. Every other movie with teens in it sounds stilted now. Teens talk fast, overlapping, finishing each others' sentences, in fact speaking not in whole sentences most of the time. Diablo Cody caught that perfectly. I've read reviews that complained just the opposite, saying that Juno didn't talk like a real kid. For example, in one scene she calls an abortion clinic, saying "I'm calling to procure a hasty abortion." That's exactly what a teen like Juno would say. It's straightforward and sarcastic at the same time. It's her trying to sound adult without trying too hard. It's perfect. I find it incredibly ironic that the strike by the Writer's Guild may prevent the Academy Awards from airing this year, thereby preventing the amazing writing in this movie from being recognized.

The acting in the movie is top-notch all around. With so much attention paid to Ellen Page as Juno, it's easy to forget about other characters, but that would be a big mistake. Michael Cera as Paulie Bleeker, the father of Juno's baby, is achingly sweet, and does wonders with relatively few lines. The couple Juno arranges to adopt her baby, played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, are fantastic as well. Garner is especially adept with her role, which could easily have become a cartoon of the shrewish wife but did not in her hands.

A+

Charlie Wilson's War

2008-01-01T16:11:00.000-08:00

Based on a true story, Charlie Wilson's War is the best movie I have seen in a long time. It stars Tom Hanks as Congressman Charlie Wilson, Julia Roberts as Texas socialite Joanne Herring, and a nearly unrecognisable Philip Seymour Hoffman as CIA agent Gust Avrakotos. Directed by Mike Nichols, the screenplay crackles with Aaron Sorkin's dialog. I have long been a fan of Sorkin's work; his credits include Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The West Wing, and the gone but very much not forgotten Sports Night.

Charlie Wilson's War opens with the Congressman receiving a medal for his work in Afghanistan. Tom Hanks is truly a great actor, because here he manages to look pleased and disappointed at the same time. I was thinking that he was upset because the ceremony was being held in front of only a couple of hundred people at some military base, but that's not the reason. We find out at the end of the movie.

The rest of the movie is told in flashback. It tells the story of Wilson's involvement in the U.S.'s covert operations in Afghanistan in the 1980's, and how he literally changed the course of history. This is not some somber documentary, however. The movie is funny as hell, drops the f-bomb like candy, and has some nudity and drug references. So don't be an idiot and take your 8-year old child to see it like the people sitting in front of me.

Charlie Wilson had life on Capitol Hill figured out. He had a bevy of beautiful assistants who answer to the name "jailbait," he attended hot tubbing parties with sleazy promoters where drugs, booze, and strippers were plentiful, and gave and dispensed favors right and left. Tom Hanks plays his playboy role for all it's worth but does not chew the scenery like so many other actors would do. He plays it wry, sarcastic, and amused. Perfect. When called upon to be awed and appalled (such as when visiting an Afghan refugee camp), he hits those notes perfectly as well.

While hot tubbing with said strippers, he sees Dan Rather on TV wearing a turban while visiting an Afghan refugee camp. He figures that had to be important. Shortly after that, he receives a call from Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), who wants to eradicate the Godless Soviets from Afghanistan. She has an agenda, like everyone else in the movie (and in the real world), but she's intelligent, knowledgeable, and she brings Charlie to the realization that he can use his contacts in Congress to do something good. Roberts plays her role perfectly as well.

I'm not going to detail the entire plot of the movie because I don't want to ruin it for you. Go see it. I give the movie a great big A

LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics

2007-12-31T21:45:00.000-08:00

While traveling over the holidays, I came across a delightful retail store: LUSH. Headquartered in Canada, LUSH sells a wide assortment of "fresh, handmade cosmetics" in stores across the US and Canada. They also have a great website with descriptions with each of their products including detailed lists of ingredients, user comments, and ratings.

Irreverent and quirky, LUSH has products like Sex Bomb (get your minds out of the gutter, it's bubble bath), Mask of MagnaMinty (a minty face mask), and The Big Tease (hair styling gel). Their core philosophies are environmental consciousness, no animal testing, and fun. Here's some information about the company from their web page.

A LUSH LIFE.......what we believe!
FRESH...We believe in making effective products out of fresh organic fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics, without animal testing, and in writing the quantitative lists on the outside. We also believe that words like FRESH and ORGANIC have honest meaning beyond marketing.
NO ANIMAL TESTING...We also believe in buying only from companies that test for safety without the involvement of animals and in testing our products on humans.
HAND MADE...We believe in making our own fresh products by hand, printing our own labels and making our own fragrances.
AMBIENCE...We believe in long candlelit baths, massage, filling the house with perfume and in the right to make mistakes, lose everything and start again.
GOOD VALUE...We believe that our products should be good value, that we make a profit and that the customer is always right.

I purchased Dream Cream and I absolutely love it. It's a rich hand cream that is very moisturizing but is somehow not sticky or greasy. Even better, the effects last for a long time. Most hand creams I've tried seem to last for about 10 minutes. Now I'm wishing I'd purchased more things when I was in the store.

80's Lyrics

2007-12-21T13:53:00.000-08:00

It doesn't get any sillier than this. 80's Lyrics Quiz. People Are What? A great time waster for a Friday.

Fill in the blank 80's lyrics. {blank} killed the {blank} star, worth two points. Ooooh, I got that one. I had no idea how many of these songs I didn't know, and I was ashamed of how many I did. The 80's, the decade of bad fashion and really, really bad hair.

The Oddities of the World

2007-12-20T22:20:00.000-08:00

When you're standing in line at the grocery store, you sneak a look at those awful tabloids. The really bad ones, with headlines like "Frog Baby Born in Argentina," or "I Had a Space Alien Baby." Doesn't it seem like those headlines always have something to do with either babies or aliens - or both? I guess a space alien baby is the total jackpot for one of those Pulitzer Prize winners. But I digress.

Well, I confess, I do gawk at 'em while waiting at the store. I draw the line at actually touching those papers. I will not sully my college-educated hands with the Weekly World News.

Wouldn't it be great if there was a place where you could get that kind of "news" with (a) some respectability (i.e. nobody would see you reading it) and (b) the possibility of some reliability?

That's why we have the intertubes, people.

I couldn't stop laughing when I read Oddee, "a blog on the oddities of our world." They have some truly crazy stuff on there. It's like a compendium of supermarket tabloids, except that it's pretty well documented and very well written.

I was hooked, in fact, when I read the post from 12/19/07, 7 Craziest Conspiracy Theories. The first one is "Israel makes palestinian schoolgirls sexually promiscuous by selling them aphrodisiac bubble-gum." Yep, that's crazy, all right!

Waiter Rant

2007-12-18T23:00:00.000-08:00

If you eat in restaurants, you will be amused and/or horrified by Waiter Rant. In this blog, the unnamed waiter posts horror stories (i.e. rants) about his mostly ghastly experiences waiting tables at "Café Machiavelli" in an unnamed city.

Here's the beginning of Leave Home Without It

The quartet of chattering yuppies on table 24 have finished dessert and ask for their check. They’ve been running me ragged all night with special requests, menu substitutions, and water refills for glasses three quarters full. I’m glad they’re leaving.
“Here you are, sir,” I say, laying the check presenter on the table. “It’s been a pleasure serving you this evening.”
“Don’t go anywhere,” the host, a balding man wearing black framed designer glasses, says imperiously. “I’ll give you my card right now.”
The man pulls his wallet out of his breast pocket, peruses the dozen or so credit cards it contains, selects an American Express Platinum Card, and puts it on the table. Crap.
“I’m terribly sorry, sir,” I say. “We don’t take American Express.”
“What?” the host gasps. “Why not?”
“I’m sorry, sir. It’s the restaurant’s policy.”
“That’s ridiculous!” the man says. “What would happen if I didn’t have another credit card?”

The posts are all well-written and funny. As a restaurant patron, they're thought provoking as well. Why are so many customers assholes?

Real Age Calculator

2007-12-17T16:40:00.001-08:00

Would you like to know how old you really are? Check out the Real Age Calculator. I'm not any kind of health professional, so I have no idea how accurate the thing is, but it gave me an answer 10+ years younger than my biological age, so it gets a big thumbs up from me!

Civility Is Dead

2007-12-13T10:22:00.000-08:00

Lunchtime yesterday, I was in the parking lot of a suburban strip mall. Actually it's where several strip malls join together so the traffic pattern is difficult on a good day. During the holidays at lunch, well, it's a nightmare.

I'd just driven into the parking lot off the street, and there was a car on my right (coming from the post office), three cars in front of me (the first of these cars is waiting for someone to back out, tying everything up), and a guy in a SUV immediately to my left. I was surrounded on three sides. Sorry about the poor quality of the illustration, but it's literally drawn on a pizza store's paper napkin.

SUV guy honks his horn. He didn't toot his horn, he laid on the thing, looking right at me. (Remember, he's directly to my left, so he's about three feet away, and I could see the whites of his eyes).

HOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKK.

I looked right at him and gestured that I couldn't move. He gestured back that he wanted to go to the Post Office, behind me. I gave him the "Sorry, there's nothing I can do" shrug (there still wasn't).

A civil person would have (1) sighed and waited until the traffic cleared, or (2) gone around behind me, maybe swearing a little under his breath. What did this guy do? Any guesses? The bastard honks again.

HOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKK.

Just as I gave up on the idea of civility and gave him the finger, a woman jumped out of her car and yelled at him,

"You idiot! She can't move! Go around her!"

He went behind me.

Rumor Has It

2007-12-12T16:56:00.000-08:00

If you're like me, you frequently receive forwarded emails containing urban legends, myths, and rumors from friends and associates. Before forwarding these things on, PLEASE check them against The Urban Legends Reference page, Snopes.com.

If you do check the forwarded emails you receive, you'll find out that almost all of them are false. Snopes goes to great lengths to prove or disprove the validity of the claims found in these things. They cite references, such as newspapers and even scholarly journals. On top of all that, their writeups are usually really funny.

Remember: Snopes before you forward!

Urban Dictionary

2007-12-11T23:00:00.000-08:00

I find it extremely annoying when someone uses an acronym, slang expression, or phrase and I have no idea what they're talking about. Fortunately, there's a solution to this minor problem: Urban Dictionary.

Full of R and X-rated content, this user-generated dictionary has definitions of every possible slang word. Since anyone can submit, some of the words and definitions are ridiculous. Each entry has a thumbs up and thumbs down count next to the definition to give the user an idea of how popular the word and its definition are.
The site offers a Word of The Day, which you can sign up to receive by email or by RSS feed. These words are usually pretty funny and actually useful. Here are a few current examples.

December 12
w00t
An expression of joy and excitement.
I just got an A on my test. w00t!

December 11
wi-five
It's a high five that doesn't involve actually contact, normally over a long distance where a real high-five isn't possible. Mix of "wireless" and "high-five", hence "wi-five", (wireless high-five)
Iain (yelling across the room): Dude, that mess was teh pwnz. Wi-five, brosef.
Eric (in response): You need to chill with that nano shit, son

December 10
compunicate
When you are in the same room with someone, each on seperate computers, and you talk via Instant Messenger instead of speaking to them out loud, in person

Even though they are sitting right next to each other, Jesse and Justin only compunicate when they have to tell each other something.

Next time you're reading something on the internet, whether a website, a blog, a forum, or whatever, and you come across an unfamiliar word or acronym, give Urban Dictionary a try.

Happy Bloody Holidays

2007-12-10T12:21:00.000-08:00

I went in for a routine blood test this morning. No big deal, right. Poke my arm, take my blood, get me outta there so I can go to Starbuck's (or better yet, Peet's). Man I hate this "nothing by mouth after midnight the night before" stuff. So I'm in the waiting area looking at the corny, corporate holiday decorations and I'm completely floored when I notice this on the wall behind me:

The first two things are standard-issue junk; fake poinsettias and a plastic "Season's Greetings" sign. Nothing celebrates the joy of the holidays like plastic. But wait. What is that below it? A bunch of stuff scotch taped directly to the wall. Here's a close-up.

Those are the vials they use to collect your blood. Somebody in that medical office has a sense of humor. I love it.

Confidence

2007-12-09T23:21:00.000-08:00

How's that for a vague post title? Here it refers to the title of a film (normally I call 'em "movies", but I watched this on the Independent Film Channel, so I guess this one is a "film"). Confidence, released in 2003, stars Edward Burns and Rachael Weisz, with Dustin Hoffman. The film plays like a foul-mouthed version of The Sting with Paul Newman and Robert Redford (according to IMDB, the word "fuck" is said in Confidence 130 times).

The film starts with a voiceover: Jake Vig, played by Edward Burns, says "So, I'm dead." This reminded me of the end of the other movie when Robert Redford was "dead" at the hand of the "FBI agent." So already I'm thinking "Jake is SO NOT DEAD." Fade to black and "Three Weeks Earlier ..."

Jake and his team of grifters run a con. The mark turns out to be an operative of The King, the local big-shot crime lord. The King is really, really mad that his money is missing and has one of Jake's guys killed.

So far, we're about 30 minutes into the movie and they've practically copied The Sting's screenplay.

Jake visits The King (played to the hilt by a scenery-chewing Dustin Hoffman, clearly having a great time). The King, eccentric and possibly off his rocker, tells Jake that he'll stop killing Jake's friends and let him repay his debt if Jake manages to con Morgan Price, a banker with deep ties to organized crime. Of course, Morgan Price is The King's biggest enemy and The King wants nothing more than to humiliate this guy (and of course, The King thinks all that money would be nice, too).

The Sting again -- this is the Setup. Just like they dangled lots of easy money in front of the mob boss in the earlier movie, they're doing it here. There's even a scene were one of Jake's team says "Nobody pulls that con anymore," and somebody says something just like that in The Sting. The idea is that this con is so old it's new again. Brilliant.

I'm not going to give away the rest of the plot, because from this point on the movie, er film, is actually pretty absorbing. It gets pretty twisty and complicated and there are lots of crosses and double-crosses. It's very entertaining and it does keep you guessing from the middle onwards.

Ed Burns does an excellent job playing the smooth operator. There's something kind of blank about him in this film, by necessity. I'd like to see him in a role with more depth. Dustin Hoffman was both hilarious and frightening as the omni-sexual, brutal and eccentric crime boss.

Overall, I'd recommend this film.

A Christmas Story: A Generation X Thing?

2007-12-08T10:58:00.000-08:00

A Christmas Story has been my favorite Christmas movie for a long time. I don't remember seeing it when it came out in 1983, but then again, most people don't, because it was something of a flop in the theaters. It became a cult hit 15 or 20 years ago, and now that TBS runs it "wall-to-wall" (24 hours straight) on Christmas day every year, it's pretty much mainstream.

In case you're haven't seen it, here's a brief synopsis. The movie is set in Indiana in the 1940's. Nine-year old Ralphie wants only one thing for Christmas: a Red-Ryder BB gun. All the adults in his life tell him the same thing: "you'll shoot your eye out."

If someone asked me to name the funniest moment in A Christmas Story, I'd have a very hard time coming up with just one. All of Ralphie's dream sequences, especially the ones where he has his Red Ryder and he gets the bad guys. The scene in the Chinese restaurant. The time Ralphie got to help The Old Man change a tire, lost the lug nuts, swore and got his mouth washed out with soap. In fact, any scene with The Old Man is golden. Probably best of all is the "major award" and the mother's reaction to it.

How anyone could say A Christmas Story has "attitude" is beyond me. It is just like a real childhood. I could never relate to It's a Wonderful Life. It strikes me as forced and preachy. When Donna Reed looks at Jimmy Stewart at the end, all dewy-eyed, I want to shout at the screen, "Oh for goodness sake, woman, get a life!" To each his own - if that's your favorite Christmas movie, please watch it. It just doesn't work for me.

A recent article in Time laments "A Christmas Story's attitude is superseding It's a Wonderful Life's earnestness" and goes on to say that this change is caused primarily by Generation X and Y.

In a 2006 Harris poll, respondents from 18 to 41 years old named it (A Christmas Story) their favorite holiday movie, while their parents and grandparents picked Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street.

That's not to say Christmas Story or its viewers are cynical. It's nostalgic--but for the past's faults, not its imagined perfection. It's the nostalgia of its Gen-X and -Y fans, who remember childhood in terms of divorces and bad haircuts.

I agree about the nostalgia part. Here's a big problem about the demographics: I'm 52, well out of Generations X and Y. Many of the people in my ancient age group also love A Christmas Story and watch it every year. Please respond to the poll have at the top of the page and let me know if I'm alone on this. I'd love to hear your comments, too.

Always Love

2007-12-04T17:02:00.000-08:00

Moving out of my self-imposed box of websites, TV, and movies, this post is about something new: a song. I heard a song on Radio Paradise today that "blew my mind." (Oh no, my 1960's are showing again.) Normally when I listen to the radio, the lyrics of a song that I haven't heard before form a pleasant blur in my head. As long as the song is musically pleasing, it's all good.

"Always Love" by Nada Surf jumped out at me, though. Video.

Here are the lyrics:

ALWAYS LOVE

to make a mountain of
your life is just a choice
but i never learned enough
to listen to the voice that told me

always love
hate will get you every time
always love
don't wait ‘til the finish line

slow demands come around
squeeze the air and keep the rest out
it helps to write it down
even when you then cross it out

but always love
hate will get you every time
always love
even when you want to fight

self-directed lives
i want to know what it'd be like to
aim so high above
every card that you get dealt you

always love
hate will get you every time
always love
hate will get you

and i've been held back by something
you said to me quietly on the stairs
you said hey you good ones
always love

The song is plaintive and sweet and yet full of retribution. Hate will get you every time. Karma is a bitch. There's a symmetry to that that really speaks to me.