All posts by jason

Hollywood, Uncategorized

Gut Reactions

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Jen and I went to Mayfair to watch a couple Best Picture nominees today.  I will have more to say about everything when I get to my final “Oscars Preview” post, but for the time being, these were my initial thoughts:

  • Slumdog Millionaire – Nice movie.  Well-directed.  Interesting for Americans to see for the sake of some exposure to India, but that’s probably most unique thing about it.
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Long movie.  Very, very long movie.  There’s a decent payoff in the last 30+ minutes, but I don’t think the build-up was worth it.  13 nominations?  Seriously?

Now I am very tired, and I am going to sleep.

Climate, Uncategorized

A Microcosm of Our Energy Future?

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I caught part of an episode of NOVA (almost completely by accident) this afternoon.  It was called “The Big Energy Gamble” and it focused on the state of California’s initiatives to move away from fossil fuels and generate a third of their energy from renewable sources by 2020.  I always like that PBS programming tends to be fairly even-handed, and what I saw of the show did a good job of balancing the positives and negatives of this plan.

And, since we live in the future, you and I can both watch the show in its entirety via the PBS website.  Take a look if you have the chance and interest…

Climate, Uncategorized

Earth Moving To the Back Burner Again?

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Apologies to those of you who also read the podcast blog for this dual-post; thought this was apropos for both…

In podcast #7, we touched on the so-called “green movement” and how it seems to be moving beyond the realm of partisanship. Today’s Dot Earth column from Andrew Revkin and the New York Times shows some numbers that beg to differ. The column is a good jumping-off point to read up on some recent stories on this topic. Revkin cites a Rasmussen Reports poll that said:

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Democrats blame global warming on human activity, compared to 21% percent of Republicans. Two-thirds of GOP voters (67%) see long-term planetary trends as the cause versus 23% of Democrats.

With the price of gas down to levels we haven’t seen since 2006 and the global economy reeling, will we shove our collective head into the sand once again when it comes to climate change? Can we afford to? The new president doesn’t seem to think so…

Hollywood, Uncategorized

Oscar Time: The Usual Suspects At It Again

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Just to note: There was not a sequel to The Usual Suspects released this year.  If there ever was, I suspect (ha-HA!) that it would NOT receive an Oscar nom.

In terms of the vast majority of nominees for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Actress, though, I am Jack’s total lack of surprise.  Seems like I’ll need to get to work, though, as I have seen zero of the nominees so far.  Major work.  In a profound way.

Off to check the movie listings…

General, Uncategorized

Dude: We're Purple

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It’s been an OUTRAGEOUSLY busy day at work, but I did turn on the inaugural programming on hulu and CSPAN, just kept it on in the background.

I talked to someone the other day who made a comment something like this is a big day for all those Obama supporters out there, and while that’s true, I don’t think the sentiment goes far enough.  It is a big day for those folks, but it is just as big a day for everyone who didn’t vote for our new president.

It’s an historic occasion, a time to celebrate the peaceful and seamless transition that we can so easily take for granted, and a moment to reach out to our fellow citizens that often disagree with us.  As we turn this page in American history, it’s important to focus on our strengths, put the past behind us, and make a conscious, concerted effort to work together in these troubling times.

It’s sad that it is so easy for us to distrust our elected officials.  But just maybe if we can put doubt aside and try to empathize with those on the other side of the aisle, it will be easier to follow the example that President Obama says he present: a transparent, honest and straightforward method of governance that you may not always agree with, but should always understand.

As excited as I am to see the person I voted for take office today, I am more hopeful than anything; that he will continue to demostrate the qualities that brought me over in the first place, and that he will earn the respect of those he hasn’t yet convinced.  I am hopeful that when Barack Obama leaves office, we as a nation can say that we have bit more faith in our government than we did yesterday.  It will definitely not be easy, but it feels good to think there’s a chance.

General, Uncategorized

Well That Day Could Have Gone a Little Better

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Had an extra day off today; uni was closed for MLK Day.  I had a nice list of things I wanted to do, and I got a few done, but didn’t manage to get to enough of them.  I ended up getting caught up in things and distracted instead of focusing on the list that I’d made.

I would tell you a little more about the weekend in Minneapolis, but at this point I’m just going to head to bed.  Here’s a short list from the weekend, though:

  • Good This American Life‘s the last couple weeks that Michelle and I listened to
  • That Mall of America is HUGE.  We didn’t even walk around on the first floor, and we were there for about 5 hours.  There is a new(er) roller coaster that’s pretty sweet.
  • Karaoke at LaFonda was almost just like karaoke at the Sky Club.  Or wherever.
  • Wish we could’ve hooked up with a few other people, but we can only do what can– had a good time with those we did get to visit, and we’ll be back some time in the near future…

Sleep well!

General, Uncategorized

Back In MKE and All Is Well

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Made it back to my house at about 9:30 or so.  Had a good weekend overall; more to come about it tomorrow, for now I am tired and going to get ready for bed.  For those that are curious, I would’ve picked Philly and Pittsburgh to make it the Super Bowl.  Can’t believe the frakkin Cardinals!  And speaking of frakking, shut the frak up about BSG until I have a chance to watch it (tomorrow morning).

Last day of GW’s administration tomorrow!!!!!!!

General, Uncategorized

Friday in the Twin Cities

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It’s about 10:30 and I’m still working on my first cup of coffee.  It’s a vacation-y weekend, that’s for sure.

Michelle and I made it in to St. Paul yesterday at about 5:45.  We met up with Joe and April at a sushi place called Saji-Ya for dinner.  It was good, and as usual, deceptively filling; sushi never looks that big on your plate, but it goes a long way.

We missed the first period of the hockey game, but had (relatively) good parking, and it was fun to watch the rest.  The second was slow, but in the third, the Wild dumped in 3 more goals after Edmonton kind of fell apart.  Hockey is cool.  I had to ask a few rules-related questions, but it’s basically a simple game– put the puck in the net more than the other guys.  So, fun for the whole family!

We got back to Dave and Andrea’s place at about quarter to 11.  They’ve got a nice house on the south side of the city of Minneapolis.  Their dog, Boo, is fun, too.  It’s pretty cool to have peeps to stay with around here…

When I got out of the house this morning, my car BARELY started.  I let it run for 20 minutes and the defroster was still blowing cold.  I drove around a little and found the nearby Caribou Coffee joint, and that pretty much brings us up to speed (except for the part where, as I was turning in here, I discovered the hard way that they don’t seem to salt the roads in Minneapolis, and I almost crashed my car into a light pole).

Later on today, we’re meeting up with Joe and April for a little Mall of America fun, and we have yet to locate a good karaoke place (but it’s a big city, we’ll find one).  Stay warm if you are living in the upper half of the US… it is FROSTY out there!

General, Uncategorized

Have Some Priorities

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Kept rolling dubbing some tapes over to DVD this evening.  After I got back to WI from my time in Montana, I didn’t use the video camera nearly as much, and you could tell by the drastic gaps in datestamps on the tape.  Still some interesting viewing.

Now that I’ve moved on to dubbing me and Lorchie’s 2000 spring break trip, I don’t have a to keep such a keen eye on the tape (it doesn’t need someone to carefully mark those title and/or chapter breaks).

It’s definitely important, when you’re engaged in a project like this, to have a clear idea of your goals and how to most efficiently reach them– the whole point here is to preserve video that exists in VHS format only for the future.  I don’t need to dub over anything that can be had on DVD already.  So, the Packers’ Super Bowl XXXI retrospective?  Do NOT need to dub it.  The Ice Bowl?  No dub required.  You don’t want to or need to copy over any movies that you might have on tape, because it’s going to serve you a lot better to (at the least) rent a copy of the movie and copy the DVD.

That makes me think of this: a handful of the VHS tapes I’ve still be hoarding are:

  • Indiana Jones trilogy
  • three copies of the Star Wars triology (the “original” box set, the “THX” box set, and the “Special Edition” box set)

Do I need to keep those?  I have all the movies on DVD now.  Why am I keeping these tapes?

I also had two white russians.

General, Uncategorized

What Are the Odds of That?

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I was pretty excited today because I got the DVD recorder that Mom and Dad bought me for my birthday in the mail.  After work and dinner, I spent some time hooking it up and comparing the video and audio quality to my trusty old Pioneer.  I came to the conclusion that I would have to leave both of them hooked up; the Pioneer has optical out for the audio, and there is a notable difference between that and the coaxial audio out on the new Magnavox.

Once I had settled that issue and moved my server to a different shelf (freeing up some space in the sad, sad, little “entertainment center” that my sad, sad, little living room has), I ran the boxes for both players down to the basement and retrieved my VCR, ready to begin the process of dubbing over the VHS tapes that I have so longed to get rid of.

Plugged in the VCR, and I almost immediately noticed the subtle aroma of an electrical fire.  I sniffed each component close up.  Naturally, it was the VCR.  Even though it smelled like that, I thought, “what the hell, I’ll try putting a tape in here.”  That didn’t work, either.  Seems like the deck itself is jammed and (without a LOT of experience or know-how to go on) the burning smell is probably the motor that operates it literally burning itself out.  Eh, what the heck?  The VCR was purchased in haste in the year 2001, when I needed it for something random that involved a computer.  Frankly, I don’t recall what.

Wait!  Ohh!  It was to record video ONTO the computer via the TV card!  That sorta worked a little bit at the time.  Point is, the VCR didn’t even cost 40 bucks as I recall, so it’s to be expected that it doinked itself after so (relatively) few hours of playback.

I guess I’ll have to borrow someone else’s VCR to finish up this project, but I can go ahead and begin with the tapes I made on vacations and in Montana a few years back…