Al Pacino: Movies that Suck

I recently watched an Al Pacino movie streamed over Netflix. The movie I had the misfortune of watching was "88 Minutes". Before I started watching, I didn't realize that the movie is set in Seattle. I remember when the movie came out, it got terrible reviews. Having seen the movie, I can now say that those reviews were well earned. What a steaming crap fest. I'm not even sure where to begin, so I won't, but I'll say this: Avoid at all costs.

Now, putting aside the lousy plot, pathetic acting, and the city stands in for Seattle (I suspect it was filmed in Vancouver, BC), the one thing that really cracked me up was a scene that was shot on a university "campus" where Pacino's character teaches. In the scene, it's raining (or supposed to be), a fact that's made clear by the fact that just about EVERY single person in the shot is carrying an umbrella. For the record, most Seattleites do NOT carry umbrellas. I'm not sure if we think it's effeminate to carry one, or that we're made of sterner stuff, but if you see 10 umbrellas on a rainy day, that's saying something. We've got hooded rain jackets, we've get ball caps, we don't care if we get our hair wet. Umbrellas? Nyet!

My resistance is wearing down...

I just may have to break down and get an iPod Touch. What I'd really like, to be honest, is the iPhone, but I refuse to be held hostage by being forced to buy a data plan. Not for you, not for anyone. Period.

But the iPod Touch offers just about everything the phone does, minus the phone and a camera. I have a cell, the camera I can do without. That makes the iPod Touch a lot more compelling.

This article has just about pushed me over the edge...

http://www.komonews.com/news/tech/41456877.html

Review: How an iPod can be a poor man's iPhone

In this Sept. 11, 2008 file photo, a shopper looks at two new second generation Apple iPod Touches at an Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif.

Story Published: Mar 18, 2009 at 2:56 PM PDT
Story Updated: Mar 18, 2009 at 2:56 PM PDT

By ANDREW VANACORE AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - I try to keep a stiff upper lip about not having an iPhone. Just couldn't afford it - not with the $75 a month or so AT&T charges for service on top of the $199 upfront cost for the device.

I could, however, afford the $229 iPod Touch - and got it as a gift, as it happened. It has most of the same goodies: a Web browser, e-mail, YouTube. And it stores way more music than the iPhone. (Ha!)

Plus, the other day I used it to call China.

Yup, a call around the world - on a device that doesn't have a phone. A handful of applications on Apple Inc.'s iTunes store will let you do this, as long as you're in a Wi-Fi hot spot.

My iPhone complex hasn't disappeared, but at least now I have a device that looks just like it, has no monthly service fees, and lets me make free or cheap phone calls.

The best part of these applications - which require the second-generation iPod Touch that came out last year - is that they are free to download, and calls to other people using the same app won't cost you anything.

Two of the services I've tried, Truphone and Fring, will also let you make free calls to Google Talk users and type instant messages to friends online. Both automatically queue up a list of buddies from different services you might have, including Gmail chat, AIM and MSN Messenger, once you log in.

But it's Truphone's pay feature that puts it ahead of the others. TruPhone charges you to make calls to landlines or regular cell phones, but generally at better rates than most wireless carriers. And it's upfront about what you pay.

Your balance - which you can add to with a credit card, either on the device or on your computer browser - pops up with the dial screen. Calls in the U.S. are all 5 cents per minute (2 cents if you sign up to pay a $4 monthly fee).

Rates outside the U.S. vary wildly but you can check in the application before you dial. To call cell phones in China, for instance, is only 5 cents per minute, while France is 25 cents. Antarctica? A whopping $2.25.

You can make regular calls with Fring using a Skype account, but that's another layer to deal with.

The calls on these services sound pretty good, a little tinny but clearer than my regular cell phone connection. IPod Touch users will need Apple's $29 ear buds that have a tiny microphone on the back of the volume control along the cord.

The most serious drawback is the most obvious: While the iPhone uses AT&T's wireless network to provide Internet access anywhere, on the iPod Touch you'll need to stick to Wi-Fi hot spots. For rural or suburban dwellers who don't encounter lots of free Wi-Fi zones, that may very well mean limiting yourself to your house, or other places where there's a computer with the same Internet phone call capabilities anyway.

That means these apps probably won't replace your cell phone. But they can moderate your iPhone envy.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 1863-2009

It's all over but the shouting.

After 146 years of continuously publishing a Seattle newspaper, the Seattle P-I ceased print operations today, laying off nearly 180 employees in the process. The "paper" will continue as an on-line venture with 20 employees that have been retained from the print version, but I don't see that being terribly successful (though I truly wish them great success).

The sad thing is that papers are dying. Even the Seattle Times has stopped printing on the traditional large-sized paper stock, and are printing on something that more resembles tabloid-sized paper.

Now that Seattle is down to one city paper, a right-wing rag at that, the idea of having to pay for a Times when I want a print paper is depressing. With the "liberal" voices silenced, I can't stomach the idea of having to get my news skewed through the eyes of an editorial board to which I am philosophically opposed.

Dave Ross, local radio talk-show host was prognosticating last week when the final headline would read. His guess, and it was a great one: PI RIP The actual final headline read simply: P-I Presses Fall Silent

I've always been a collector of papers when historical events occur: 9/11, 2001 Seattle earthquake, Obama election (and swearing in), etc. I went out early this morning to pick up my copy, and I'm glad I did. There were only three papers left, and the checker who spotted me as I came in said I'd better hurry as they were going fast. I grabbed two.

Take it all...

So the Feds are trying to track down where all that filthy money Bernie Madoff stole has disappeared. Of course, the scumbag, has claimed that as much as $70 million in assets is in his wife's name and should be protected from seizure by the Feds. Some of the assets the Feds are looking to reclaim are their $7 million New York penthouse, as well as another $62 million dollars that aren't detailed. We'll let's look at this:

1. She worked as a bookkeeper for Madoff''s "company"
2. I presume she wasn't making enough money to buy the penthouse, or squirrel away and additional $62 million. If she was, certainly even she would have to wonder how her bookkeeping skills would warrant that kind of pay.
3. As the bookkeeper, she would have visibility into what was coming in/going out.
4. If she was kept in the dark about the transactions (shenanigans) her husband was pulling, again, she would visibility into the books and known something was seriously amiss.
5. While New York is not a community property state (it's an Equitable Distribution state), basically assets are split as fairly as possible, depending on a number of set criteria. They have not filed for divorce, so this isn't applicable in this case. If Madoff has "gifted" his wife this amount of money (I can't see any other way for her to acquire this much), then she's the beneficiary of ill-gotten gains and should have no legal claim to these assets. Lawyers be damned, I don't see how she's going to be able to keep any of it.

Look, she's known all along that something is fishy in the Madoff world of big finance.

In the interest of restoring all of the people who'd been fleeced by this scumbag (Bernie) and any others who may have been party to it, ALL assets of those involved should be seized, sold, and used to repay the victims in this case, particularly the elderly who have been left with absolutely nothing. Find those who helped perpetrate this fraud, squeezing them into confessing, get them to rat out all those associated with this scam, and seize ALL their assets. Oh, yeah, I forget. When all that's done, send them to a cell right next to Bernie's. Let's call this "Lifetime at Bernie's"

I find it incredible that we (the American public and the Federal Government) are expected to believe that Madoff pulled off the biggest financial scam in American history, all by himself. With the thousands of clients that he had, he certainly wasn't creating fake statements, dealing with questions, collecting/depositing "services" fees by himself. It is physically impossible for him to have handled all those details for all those years. I heard a former employee state that toward the end, Madoff was largely out of the office for months at a time. Can't be pulling the strings if you're not in the office.

I want downer cows...

out of my food supply.

President (you'll note the capital P, I couldn't bring myself to use that during the previous administration), Obama today banned downer cows from being slaughtered . If you don't know, a "downer" cow is one that's too weak or ill to stand on its own.

This was all done in the interest of minimizing the chances that Mad Cow disease might enter into our food supply. That aside, if a cow is too sick to walk, there's definitely something wrong with it, why would anyone consider that animal safe enough to eat? You don't want to sit next to someone with the flu, would you want to eat a cow that has some bovine flu strain (or worse)? I should think not.

I've seen video take and slaughter yards of these downer cows, and they'll tie a rope around a leg and drag it up to be killed. I've always felt very bad for the cows under these conditions.

What I want to know is: Why has it taken so long any one of a number of past presidents from taking this step?

It's not clear to me what they will do with these cows, but at least it won't wind up in my next bit of Wendy's perfection. This really seems like a no-brainer and should have been done a long, long time ago.

Last week of the quarter coming up

One more week of school, then we slide into finals. I feel like I'm getting pulled over the finish line for my math class. I'm rocking my other two classes.

I'm really, really, really looking forward to the Spring Break. 'Tis a shame I'm not 18 and heading to some warm, sunny destination.

Instead, for fun, I've planned a week for myself working in the front yard...

Joy.

Don’t be an idiot

 

I’ve been seeing a lot of these ads lately advertising making all sorts of ridiculous health claims; laying the key to physical health at the foot of the lowly acai berry.  Look, it may be a tropical fruit with lots of health benefits, but it I will NOT turn you in to a ripped stud, no matter how much you consume.  If you want to look like the decapitated body on the right, Alex Rodriguez can probably introduce you to someone…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That said, let’s look at this add.  Our new buddy, “Jason” is touting the health benefits of acai (I’m assuming it’s juice because he mentions that you drink it).  He claims that if you use this product, you won’t have to work out “too much”.  Define “too much”.  It also states in the ad that he went from flab to fab (the pictures you see at the bottom of the screenshot) in one month.  YGBFK!  Uh, yeah, sure, Jason.

Now, if Jason is so proud of his new physique, why did he crop the heads off both the before and after picture?  Wouldn’t you want to prove that it was really you in the photos?  I know I would. 

Our new buddy also mentions that he submitted this story to GetMeASixPack.com, but the URL shows that we’re looking at "areyouagenius.org”.  If the answer is based solely on my response to the add, then I’m a freakin’ genius because they aren’t getting a dime from me. 

I’ve recently been seeing ads geared toward women in which one woman claimed to lose 43 pounds in 2 weeks.  Now, come on…  Please.  Does ANYONE believe this crap?

To illustrate my point, I made a screenshot of an add a few months ago because it was so ludicrous, I couldn’t believe it.  In fact, this revolutionary product is so amazing that it can turn you from a massively obese black woman into a merely overweight woman.  Don’t believe me?  Look for yourself.

See?  I told you.  On top of this, even if it was the same woman (not that I’m conceding this point, mind you), the picture on the left would have represented a much greater weight loss than 12 pounds.  I realize they haven’t made the claim that these pictures of the “same” woman were taken two weeks apart, but that’s the implication.

Do yourself a favor.  Put the fork down, go outside, and take a nice walk around the neighborhood.  Meet your neighbors, walk the dog, get active.  There are no shortcuts, so just be reasonable and set your expectations appropriately.  You’ll get there.

This is not us, I promise (but you'd never know)

This article hits so close to home, you'd think we had a camera in our house, and they simply changed the names.  I guess we're not all the unique in this area.

From MSN.com: http://lifestyle.msn.com/relationships/articlerb.aspx?cp-documentid=18187582&page=0

"We're Constantly at War Over Chores"

He's a neat freak; she's, well, not. And for Sally Cumberland and Paul Schmidt, arguing over housework has become a chore in itself.

By Lambeth Hochwald

Although Sally Cumberland and Paul Schmidt aren't exactly Oscar and Felix from The Odd Couple, they come close. Sally, 40, a stay-at-home mom and part-time college student, considers housework to be a necessary evil, while Paul, also 40, a budget analyst for the Air Force, is a self-proclaimed stickler when it comes to all domestic tasks.
Throughout the Dayton, OH, couple's decade-long marriage, the art of Swiffering has been a subject of many discussions — and plenty of fights. And with two rowdy sons, Cameron, 8, and Griffin, 3, keeping the house tidy proves to be a challenge.
"I do all the heavier cleaning, including the dusting, the bathrooms, and floors, but Paul is forever in an agitated state about something I'm not doing correctly," says Sally. "If my nightly water glass remains on the bedside table until 9 a.m. the next morning, he'll think I'm taking him for granted and that I expect him to move it. To Paul, it's an act of disrespect. To me, it's just that I haven't noticed it was there." Paul agrees that he tends to take household disorder personally. "I can't tell you how many times I'll reach into a cookie box only to find an empty box with no more cookies left," he says. "I interpret this as not being thoughtful to the other people in the house."
"Sally and Paul are never going to change their fundamental philosophies about housekeeping, but they definitely need to rethink how they talk to each other about chores," says Tina B. Tessina, Ph.D., a REDBOOK Love Network expert and the author of Money, Sex, and Kids. "Every fight they have says, 'We can't work together' and 'I want to be right more than I want to love you.' Learning to work together — and appreciate their differences — will give them the happy marriage and family life they want."
Hot Button: "We have completely opposite approaches to housework."
Sally: "I really dread cleaning. When Paul is away on business, the house gets messy pretty quickly. And when he isn't out of town, I'm known for doing a quick pickup of the day's mess at 4:45 p.m., right before he gets home. If I find a cleaning shortcut, such as using the Swiffer WetJet or that thing you hang in your shower that shoots out cleaner, Paul attacks it and compares me to his mother, who, at 80, still pulls the oven out from the wall as part of her cleaning routine."

Paul: "I admit I like to do things in a complete way. For example, when I run the dishwasher, I'm inclined to wash the dishes with soap before loading them. Sally will put dirty plates in without rinsing them. We have an ongoing debate over whether the dishwasher actually cleans plates that aren't rinsed."

Sally: "Paul nags me for hanging coats on chairs, putting my purse on the kitchen counter, keeping wet socks lying on the floor by the front door — and we still can't talk about a peach pit that was once left on the coffee table without arguing."

Paul: "I try to be as efficient as possible with my time. I like things to be organized, and I put things, like keys, wallets, and cell phones, in the same place so I don't have to spend time looking for them. I create staging areas where I can go to grab something quickly and be on my way."

Expert Advice: Sally and Paul talk a lot about their housekeeping conflicts, but they've stopped listening to each other about their expectations when it comes to chores. To suss out what's truly bothering each other, they have to get specific, Tessina says. "Sally and Paul should sort out what's really upsetting them and what things aren't so terrible." For example, Paul needs to stop being explosive and dramatic and simply say, "Let's put the kids' toys in this part of the den but leave the living room looking really good so we know there's one room that's tidy."

Approaching housework as co-executives running a company will also help end the bickering. "Sally and Paul have to sit down after the kids are put to bed and talk about what needs to get done," Tessina explains. "For example, Paul should say, 'Let's create a solution about the pileup of newspapers in the front hall,' and Sally needs to add, 'I need you to appreciate all the things I did while you were at work instead of needling me for the things I didn't do.' This will ultimately take the criticism and accusations away and replace on-the-spot reactive fighting with a calm conversation."
Hot Button: "Neither one of us feels appreciated."
Sally: "When I do a chore, Paul is usually negative about how I do it. In the time Paul would take to select the proper cleanser and sponge assortment for one job — which would eventually be done perfectly, to his credit — I can make the entire house look great, so I often avoid asking for his help. When I wash the floors, I don't usually wash the baseboards or even move the chairs to get under them. If Paul washed the floor, he'd get rags out and wash the baseboards every week. I don't want a simple task to turn into a production. I want him to stay out of it and appreciate what I do, and that's it."

Paul: "I want to feel appreciated for all I do to keep the house orderly. All the things I do are pretty invisible unless they're not being done. Case in point: I harp on Sally about hanging up coats and not hanging them on chairs. She doesn't notice when I'm hanging them up, but then one day a coat and purse were left hanging on a chair, which made it tippy and easy for our 3-year-old to pull the chair over. Nothing happened, but it did get everyone's attention, and the stuff was promptly put away."

Sally: "Well, I hate that I get this constant sense of disappointment from Paul, like I'm a big failure. There's a lot that I'm doing right!"

Paul: "It's not that Sally's doing everything wrong. Everyone knows that it's not life or death if the toilet paper roll isn't changed, but when she doesn't do it, I feel like she doesn't acknowledge my presence."
Expert Advice: "Sally isn't necessarily upset that Paul has definite views of how he wants the house to be kept," Tessina says. "Rather, it's the way he speaks to her about it. Sally thinks Paul is going to yell at her, and Paul thinks that if he doesn't tell her what needs to be done, it won't get done." To fix this, they need to find the things that are great in what the other did. "Thanking each other for the things they do is the WD-40 of any relationship," says Tessina. "It will make things run much more smoothly."

For example, Paul can say, 'The kitchen looks wonderful'; Sally can say a thank-you and mention that she plans to get to the bedroom the next day. Once they begin to acknowledge each other's contributions, the couple can delve into the deeper message behind the mess. "A small thing like not changing the toilet paper is symbolic," says Tessina. "For Paul, it feels drastic; it feels like Sally doesn't care about him. For Sally, as long as there's toilet paper, it doesn't matter. They need to accept each other's point of view, even in areas where they'll never exactly agree."

Hot Button: "The problem gets blown out of proportion."
Sally: "When the house is messy, Paul will raise his voice or act defeated. He'll suggest that we have a terrible marriage because we don't connect on these matters. Then I respond to him by being sarcastic or snide, which makes things get worse."

Paul: "Sometimes I just blurt out a criticism without thinking it through. I tend to overplay things and act disappointed or think we're really not in sync. I worry that Sally and I are so far apart on how we run the house that we're actually incompatible. I know saying things like that isn't helpful when we're in the heat of an argument."

Sally: "It's the blanket statements that come out when he's upset that truly bother me. That's when I can't even hear what he's talking about."

Paul: "Sometimes it's really hard balancing being friends, taking care of a home, and reconciling the two."
Expert Advice: "Fighting about little things — and chores are ultimately 'little things' — is stealing the energy that Sally and Paul could be using for having fun times together," Tessina says. "You can be good friends and have a good time and still get the work done." Tessina points out that Paul's explosiveness and exaggeration are what makes Sally feel that she's being taken for granted; she might have made all the meals, cleaned the floors, and played with the kids, but none of it counts except for some household chore she didn't do.

So the next time Paul comments that a household task didn't get done as expected, Sally can get playful and say something like, "The laundry fairy wasn't able to make it today." "That small, light statement can do wonders to cut the tension — so long as she isn't sarcastic when she says it," says Tessina. Doing all this will decrease the conflict between them and put the emphasis back on acting loving toward each other. Sally and Paul will never quite see eye-to-eye about housework, but if they can learn to respect each other's perspective, their marriage — and their house — will keep running smoothly for years to come.

The Couple's Reaction:
Sally: "I feel relieved. We've always been too busy to talk to an expert, but it's nice to hear a third party tell us that our issues aren't so unusual. The one thing I want to start doing right away is to skip the sarcasm. I usually shut Paul out when it's chore time, but I need to invite him to help without getting annoyed at how intense he is about housekeeping. I'm used to getting defensive, and I snap into that mode far too quickly."
Paul: "I think I get down in the dumps too easily thinking that Sally and I aren't a good team. But by talking through this and stepping back, I can see we really are a good team. It's important for me to remember that she may not focus on housekeeping, but she's such an involved, engaged mother, and that's so much more important. I needed to be reminded that opposites do attract and that we're a much better team than I gave us credit for."

The Update: "Since we talked to Tina, we are proud to report that we're trying to incorporate humor and respect into how we talk to each other about household duty differences. I can't even recall a recent argument concerning chore wars. We're working from Tina's suggestion list, which is posted on our refrigerator. We have even held a couple of brief "meetings" to talk out some business of the marriage, as Tina suggested.
"We're each making changes the other can see. For instance, I am trying to be aware of how words come out of my mouth. What I say always feels lighthearted, but I'm realizing that it might not be taken that way all the time by Paul. Cutting down on the sarcasm has only helped our communication. On the flip side, I noticed something Paul did the other day that would be a good example of turning Tina's advice into practice. He saw an odd-shaped article I had put in the dishwasher and doubted that it could emerge clean from the cycle.

"Usually, Paul would yank the item and hand wash it while scolding me for putting it in there in the first place. This would create tension, guilt, and bad feelings on my part. This time he bit his tongue, and instead bet me $10 on whether it would come out clean. Instead of just shooting me down, he validated my decision to put it in there. He was even a little bit funny and I appreciated his efforts.
"While I don't know if we'll ever joke about cleaning 'fairies' as was Tina's own personal example, we were able to take things from her suggestions and make them our own. We will keep working at it and keep trying to remember that if we embrace our differences instead of butting up against them, we can get so much more out of our marriage."

Does your marriage need a makeover? Write us at redbook@hearst.com and put "Marriage Makeover" in the subject line. You could appear in REDBOOK!

Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc.

Another One Bites The Dust (almost)

The wife had some friends stay the night last night. They came down from Vancouver, BC, and we went to dinner last night. After we got back, they played Scrabble (is there a more boring game out there?), and I got busy with my homework.

While we were out at dinner, we got a call from the woman with whom we agist our alpacas. One of our little ones is sick, and she didn't think he'd make it through the night and wanted to know how we wanted to handle it. We decided not to call in a vet, but to ride it out to see if he'd pull through. One of the sad facts of raising animals is that you have to decide how to spend your money. Vets can be pretty damn expensive, and the treatments even more so. Do we spend a small fortune on an animal you won't recoup your costs? In the end, we chose not to call in a vet. We got a call this morning from our agister; he was still alive, and we decided to take a wait and see approach.

I just got another call. He's still alive, but not doing well. He was up walking around earlier, but he was talking short steps and walking in circles. His breathing is shallow and the agister is certain he's gone blind (hence the walking in circles). She's had other animals who have not been in as bad a shape as he's in and none have survived. Based on that, she's certain he won't recover, so we've decided to euthanize him at 3 pm (if he hasn't passed by then). They will then perform a necropsy, and send the samples to a lab that can do a more detailed analysis of the cause of the death.

Not much fun for anyone involved, least of all the poor cria.