No matter how many times I see it, the fan short entitled "Grayson" never fails to entertain me.

If you’re a fan of DC Comics (or just of comics in general), then you’re most likely a fan of this 5-minute fan-fiction trailer.  This trailer is not currently preluding any large box office release.  There is no screen play.  There is no studio backing.  However, this visually stunning trailer still managed to get made by an independent filmmaker with nothing more than a love of the comic characters/stories and an eagerness for filmmaking.

If you’ve never seen "Grayson" before… then you can view it at THEFORCE.NET.

Check it out… you won’t regret it!!!

After seeing this short, I wanted to know if the makers had made any other independent films… or if this was just a one-time fling.  I soon discovered the treasures contained within thier website at http://www.untamedcinema.com.  From this site, you can access two additional films entitled "To Rise from the Ashes" and "The Final Pawn".

John Fiorella (Director/Producer/Actor/All-Purpose Staff/Etc., Grayson) took on the role of the Boy Wonder himself.  I thought he did a great job… and he fit the role a hell of a lot better than Chris O’Donnell ever did.  I have recently had some correspondence with John and gave him kudos for his work.  I’m all for supporting the film industry (and have the DVD/VHS collection to prove it).  If I had my way, I would be able to do more than just give a few words of admiration and a congratulatory slap on the back… which is why I was inspired to write this blog post.

I write this message voluntarily.  John and the Untamed Cinema crew did not solicite me to do this in any way.  So I hope they do not mind me inserting my 2¢.  I feel very strongly about supporting the film industry, and even stronger about supporting talented filmmakers who have not yet gained the attention to earn themselves the opportunity to work with the larger Hollywood budgets.  Some of my favorite films were made by directors who had a vision, an abundance of creativity, and a meager budget of maybe a few thousand dollars.

Last night, John sent me an email telling me briefly, but eloquently, about his dedication to the film-making arts and a small note on this next project.  He is currently pursuing funding for another short film and for Untamed Cinema’s first full-length feature film.  From checking out thier website, you’ll learn that this is to be "an outrageous horror/action/comedy in the spirit of ‘Evil Dead II’."  (It’s got my attention already!!!)  The minimum budget that they hope to raise for this project is $500K.

Now… if I had the financial means, I would gladly back the project of these young and talented filmmakers.  However, being a poor IT guy with a limited salary and many children to feed, I don’t have that ability.  Unlike several other mediums, film is an expensive form of art.  So money-making is a necessary evil.  If anyone out there has any BIG money-making ideas or have any investor leads for John in his pursuit of funding, then you might want to give him a heads-up through Untamed Cinema.  However, please don’t overwhelm him with trivial suggestions.  They need serious investors for a big budget.  If it helps him get his next film made, then I’m sure he’d be thankful… and so will I.  I look forward to his next film.

Ya know, Life is just too godda*n funny sometimes. Gotta love it.

We’re going deep!

Take your keys out of your pockets before entering the room.

Does a hobbit live down the street?

By now everyone has heard of the case in California where a couple were supposed to be celebrating a birthday party for their ex-chimp or something.
So then today, this gem shows up in the headlines:

“One was at his head, one was at his foot. But all that time … he was trying to reason with them,” a sobbing LaDonna Davis told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I couldn’t do anything.”

Wait a minute… I want to make sure I got this straight.

The guy was trying to reason with violent animals.

He was trying… to reason… with a chimp that bit all his fingers off, and removed his manhood, his foot, and other assorted body parts.

Now, for my punchline, I’m just not too sure. Should I compare this guy to the Europeans? Or the whole UN?

Somebody wtih a twisted sense of humor is going to force me to sit through an episode of the "O.C." on March 10th just so I can check out the Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith trailer.  Click HERE for the commercial advertising the event.

Now I know what a Rifleman is, and the responsibility of owning a gun just became much deeper and much more awesome that I anticipated. That rifle in my safe is my Freedom, and I am proud to live in a place where I have that Freedom.

Over at Kim du Toit…

IMAO brings us the lowdown on a third group of fighters. While the Pirate-Ninja wars rage on, these “knights” may be gaining power.
For example, did you know:

* A knight’s most feared weapons were his lance and his laser heat-vision.
* In a battle between Aquaman and a knight, Aquaman would be impaled on the lance and laser-fried like a crispy fish stick.
* Knights were frequently called upon to fight fire-breathing dragons. The main danger from a dragon, though, was not his fire, but his ability to lie convincingly. The dragon would pretend to be the knight’s friend, convince the knight that they were on the same side, and - once he had the knight’s trust - betray him. Much like what modern-day journalists do to American soldiers.

Read up on these warriors, for we may have to rob them blind one day…

Riding Sun, tell us what you really think!

I can see why the U.N. would be in favor of abortion. After all, it’s a convenient way to get rid of all the unwanted pregnancies caused by its shameful worldwide rape scandal.

Sauce
1 medium garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne

Steak
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 pounds skirt steak, cut crosswise into 3- to 4-inch pieces

To make the sauce, mince garlic and mash to a paste with salt. Transfer to a blender* and add remaining sauce ingredients, then blend until smooth.

Stir together cumin, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Pat steak dry, then rub both sides of pieces with cumin mixture.

Heat an oiled, well-seasoned ridged grill pan over high heat until hot but not smoking, then grill steak in 2 batches, turning occasionally, about 2 minutes per batch for thin pieces or 6 to 8 minutes per batch for thicker pieces (medium-rare). Even better, grill over an open flame. Hopefully outside.

Serve sauce poured onto the steak.

*Yeah, I know pirate’s didn’t have blenders. They had wench captives for that kind of thing. More recipes here…

… to be a Marine!

Fans in Tokyo recently held a Matrix Reloaded event where everyone dressed up as Agent Smith and decended on the subways.  No word on if innocent strangers were sucked into the form of Smith also.

Thanks to Japundit!

Each week we’re going to highlight a blog we’ve found somewhere that may not be getting the attention it deserves.

And the winner for March 4th, 2005 is:  Major Mike, from Beaverton, Oregon.  Mike is a retired Major from the US Marine Corps.  Many good articles on there about the relations between the media and the military.  He’s now a permanent fixture on our blogroll…

Thanks to The Mudville Gazette for sending us his way!

In my many surfings, I occassionally happen upon a nifty little utility that is so kewl that I can’t help but give it mention.

"ISO Recorder Power Toy" is one such tool.  You can get it from:  http://alexfeinman.brinkster.net/isorecorder.htm

Description:

ISO Recorder Power Toy is a UI component that allows to use CD-Recording capabilities of Windows XPr to record ISO images and copy CD to CD - a piece of functionality missing in Windows XP

The ISO Recorder itself does not record CDs but instead uses existing OS features. Some of the interfaces it uses are not fully documented by Microsoft and as such are subject to change in the future.

This software works on Windows XP only . It was tested with retail build of Windows XP (Home and Professional)

I liked this utility because it doesn’t require a new pretty interface to function.  It doesn’t waste your time with a hundred different useless options, or make you sit and watch silly animations of drums, stick figures, or whatever might be the flavor of the month.  It’s a quick install… then functions 100% within Explorer, and seems to adhere to the KISS rule.

Want to create an ISO?  Well… stick in the CD… open "My Computer"… right-click the CD drive… and select "Copy CD to Image File".  All of the rest is mostly self-explainitory… check out the site for more detail.

Now… keep in mind, that the tool is still in Beta for it’s 2nd release.  There were some complications with the arrival of XP Service Pack 2.  However, it looks like the app hasn’t been updated since November… so it’s hopefully going strong!  (I’ll let you know as soon as I work up the ballz to actually install XP Service Pack 2 on my machines.)

Many may not agree, but I think it’s a nice little tool.  Some people want a pretty GUI with stimulating animations to keep them entertained.  Me?… I don’t have that kind of time.  This is the ISO Creation tool for me.

"You only have any rights because the rest of us pretty much agree that you have them." - Dean Esmay trying to quote Jerry Pournelle & Larry Niven, from the book Lucifer’s Hammer. (He doesn’t have the book handy and is paraphrasing, but I don’t see how the original quote could be much better!)
He then goes on to cover what is rhetorical trick.

America was founded on an idea known as “natural rights,” at least as part of our founding myth. In truth not all of the Founders believed in the concept, but most went along with the general idea. From a certain perspective this concept of “natural rights” is helpful as a frame of reference, but really, it’s nothing but an intellectual tool. It’s a good way of getting people into the spirit of protecting each others’ rights, but ultimatey it’s nothing but sentiment.
…
As a matter of faith some may cleave to the notion that their rights come “ultimately” from God or some other higher source, or perhaps as some sort of elaborately worked out system of rationalization. But as a matter of pragmatism that is all superfluous; unless you believe that your Creator is going to take a direct hand in everyday affairs for you, you are utterly dependent upon our fellow men to protect your rights. To get your fellow men to do that, you’re going to have to get most of them to agree on what your rights are or, failing that, get them to agree that the system of government which protects those rights should be obeyed–which is six of the one and half a dozen of the other.

This is exactly why everyone should always be on the lookout for the rights of others. Because nothing else will. The nature of the government is to try to assume as much power as possible. This is because there are enough people out there who believe that the government should be in control of everything. We call those people assholes.
Right now the Big Thing© across the blogs is where Democrats at the Federal Election Commission now wants to regulate the internet for political speech. So if a blog, any blog, was to link to a politician’s website, they would be fined. If you said something to the effect of, “I like this candidate because…” you would be fined. This is all linked to that abomination of a law, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law.
LaShawn gives a little background:

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is considering applying the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 to the Internet. With the complicity of our own George Bush, Congress violated the First Amendment by making law prohibiting certain groups from campaigning for political candidates in the months leading up to an election and limiting “soft money” contributions, although Congress is prohibited from “”¦abridging the freedom of speech, or”¦the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government.”

A little background on what is causing all this. In 2002, the FEC exempted the Internet by a 4-2 vote, but U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly last fall overturned that decision. “The commission’s exclusion of Internet communications from the coordinated communications regulation severely undermines” the campaign finance law’s purposes, Kollar-Kotelly wrote.
Smith and the other two Republican commissioners wanted to appeal the Internet-related sections. But because they couldn’t get the three Democrats to go along with them, what Smith describes as a “bizarre” regulatory process now is under way.
So, because Democrat mob bosses during the last election figured out what done them in was the Internet and other alternative media, they’re going to try to sink the entire thing. They have a lock on the main stream media, and probably figure that if everything else was controlled, they would have more of a chance.
Well, I am now hanging on my press hat. The Pirate-King site is now officially a media outlet. Anything on these pages are either hard news, opinion, comics, or classified ads. Just in case the feds come knocking down my door, because my fellow citizens do not care about my natural rights to freedom of speech.

You know… I have never been one for watching WebCams.  It’s rare that I find one that can hold my attention for more than 2 seconds.  Then, this morning, I found this page:  http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/WebCams/

The Smithsonian National Zoological Park (of Washington, D.C.) has webcams setup around the Zoo for losers like myself who are stuck at work and can’t make it out to see the elephants.  Some of the cams could be placed better… some of them are hard to watch… but some of the cams are OK, and have shown me some decent moments with the animals… just keep in mind… it’s still winter.  At this time of the year, you’ll have better luck with inside-mounted webcams.

If you can’t make the time to visit… then take a few moments to stream them to your desk.

You’ve done it  alone. You’ve done it with friends. Now you can do it in the  Theatre.

   Stop with the Paul Ruebens jokes and get this. On the Daily Show with Jon Stewart Moments ago,it was announced that DOOM will be coming to the big screen in all of it’s sick Glory (currently rated R) Come August. And in the lead as the long descened nephewof the Late Great BJ Blackowicz (Castle Wolfenstien) ….

 The Rock.

Okay,I wasn’t hip on his acting career either at first. However,after seeing the Rundown,And the Remake of Walking Tall,(which I loved the original) I have to say…he’s not bad. For action movies. at least you can understand him. and hey,he’s done quite a bit of acting in the ww-whatever (god,yes I watch and I’m a grown man,guilty pleasure) SO,I’ll give it a shot.

From Sky and Telescope - The Brightest Blast:

Magnetars are neutron stars with magnetic fields so powerful that they could kill a person from 1,000 kilometers away by warping the atoms in living flesh. Magnetars can also unleash powerful flares that could kill at much larger distances.

That just sounds so incredibly cool… Makes a great new evil superpower.
“I have so much power I can warp your atoms from 1000 miles away! And don’t make me use my super-flare on your ass!”

At one time, I used to work for an IT Services company.  I worked with this company for a bit over 4 years, and during this time was usually sold off to client companies on long term projects.  Working for this company was alot of fun.  My colleagues were sharp, and fun to hang out with… and management was considerate and understanding.  After a little time there, management stuck the word “Senior” in front of my title, and started letting me have my choice of assignments.  It was a good time.  I would have probably stuck around longer, but becoming a new father forced me to seek out a higher salary.

One time when I was in-between long projects, I was sitting in the shop area enjoying a cup of java… and debating on what to work on.  Should I install a new pickup assembly in the LaserJet?… or should I replace the cooling fan in the Armada?… or should I keep surfing for another hour?  Anyway… my manager, Dave, came over and asked me if I would be good enough to cover a Help Desk assignment for a few weeks.  Ugh.  Help Desk?  Why don’t you just gouge out my eyes?  But… he needed someone in a hurry… and I like Dave… so I take one for the company.

Two weeks later, I’m sitting in the Help Desk area… counting the days until my release from this daily hell.  Putting aside the slew of mind-numbing and/or frustrating calls over the past 10 business days… I’m suffering because the coffee really blew in this place… so I’d been sustaining myself on Mountain Dew.  I’m not in the best of moods… <enter a phone call from Mr. Vice-President Snapperhead>.

<<RING>>

Me:  Grrrrrr.

<<RING>> <<click>>

Me:  Help Desk.  How can I assist you?

VP:  My name is John Snapperhead.  I’m the VICE-PRESIDENT in charge of Sales for the ENTIRE West Coast!!!  My laptop doesn’t work.  When my laptop isn’t working, then I can’t make any sales.  When I’m not making any sales because of a defective laptop, then you are getting very close to losing your job…. <<pause>>… WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?!?!?!

Ohhh…. I smile just thinking about it.  Let me remind everyone right now… at this time, I work for an IT Services company.  I’m a contractor.  This place could “fire me” today… and I’ll be working someplace else by tomorrow morning.  What does this mean?  Mostly that I don’t care… so I’m not about to take this guy’s personal brand of abuse… so BRING IT ON!!!

Me:  Oh… thank you… I needed a good chuckle.  OK… let’s see if we can fix your problem.

VP:  You know… you’re really rude.  I don’t appreciate your attitude.

Me:  What attitude?  You’re the one who started with the threats…

VP <coldly>:  Let me speak with your manager… now.

Well… let me insert, that my manager on this client assignment is a good guy.  He rose from the ranks, and doesn’t take any sh|t either.  We got along famously from moment one.  I transfer the VP over to him with the details.  About 10 minutes later, the call comes bouncing back to me.

VP:  Let’s try this again.  I need my laptop fixed.

Me:  OK.  What seems to be the problem?

VP:  It doesn’t work.

Me <heavy sigh>:  Can you be a little more specific? 

VP:  I can’t work.  My laptop is broken.  What part don’t you understand?

Me:  I understand that you laptop is broken… beyond that, we seem to have a breakdown in communications.

VP:  Dammit… Let me talk to your manager again.

Me:  Hold on.

Once again… the call bounces to my manager and back to me.  The VP has once again been calmed down.

VP:  Now how are we going to fix this situation.

Me:  OK.  Go ahead and power on your laptop and tell me what happens as you do so.

VP:  No.  I’m not going to spend hours on the phone with you while you talk me through ridiculous “tests”.  I know you people just do that to us to make us feel like we’re accomplishing something.

Me:  Ooooo-kaayyyy.  Then how am I supposed to figure out what’s wrong with your laptop?

VP:  You’re not.  You’re going to send me a new laptop.

Me <cocking an eyebrow>:  No.  That’s not going to happen.  We’re the help desk… not a warehouse. 

VP:  You will send me a new laptop immediately.

Me:  Once again, the avenues of communication are breaking down…

VP:  You are very rude!

Me:  Indeed.  Would you like to speak with my Manager?!

VP:  Yes… I would!

Me:  PLEASE HOLD!!!

Volley… volley… it’s like watching Tennis, ain’t it?!?!

OK… let me sum this up.  If I tell the entire story, I might inadvertently use up all of Chad’s web space.  After another hour of this comedy, since he won’t tell us anything about the problem… the VP finally agrees to ship the laptop to us.  Two days later, I unpack the laptop.  It’s filthy… it’s grimy… it won’t power on… and I’m not sure, but it’s entirely possible that the VP might have wiped his a$$ with the touchpad.  Taking it to my manager, we share a good laugh… and then call the VP up to inform him that he’ll be receiving a bill for about $2,000 dollars.

Now… we don’t necessarily want the money.  The company will cover the replacement of the laptop provided that the damage wasn’t malicious.  However, this VP is awfully tight-lipped, and doesn’t want to tell us what foolish act led to the laptop’s current condition.  So… we are taking this as a personal challenge and are going to make him to tell us.  We need the laugh.  This phone call is a strict bluff to force this VP to admit his mistakes.  At this point, the Manager and I are almost drunk with POWER…

So what happened?

Vice-President Snapperhead, in charge of Western-type Sales, was entertaining some clients.  He took them four-wheeling in his jeep… which led them over some damp, sandy beach terrain.  Well… he decided to stop… and managed to get the jeep stuck in the wet sand.  Not wanting to lose a sale from looking foolish, he called up a towing service and left the jeep behind.  Hailing a taxi, he took his potential customers out to dinner with the expectation that his jeep would be dropped off at his home in an hour or two.  Also… he left his laptop in the jeep… but it was safely tucked under the seat.  That always fools those pesky thieves, dont’cha know.

All in all… it was a NEARLY flawless plan.  Unfortunately, he overlooked one small detail… the TIDE.  When the tow truck arrived, the driver decided to come back later seeing as the jeep was submerged.  In my opinion, he should have been damn happy that he still had the laptop.  Otherwise, he would have been paying for it.

Ohhh… I laughed so hard… then I went to celebrate this bit of comedy by taking an extra long lunch… and quested for a decent cup of coffee at a Wawa.

I’ve been looking at just about every feed reader I could find in the last few days.  What is a feed reader you may ask?  No problem!

A feed reader is generally a program that runs on your desktop (although it can be web based) that goes out to all the news, blogs, etc., sites that have constantly changing content, and download the new stories for you right to your desktop. 

If you have ever seen links like this:,  or a little orange block that says XML then that site will syndicate its content to feed readers, also known as RSS readers, since RSS was the first standard.

So you can have all three hundred and forty seven blogs you read on a daily basis, along with feeds from Fox News (not CNN because they don’t even give you a story synopsis!), slashdot, and who knows how many other sites out there.

Back to the point at hand… So I’ve created a single list of the fifty some feeds that I read regularly, and imported them into about a dozen different RSS readers and used each of them for as long as I could stand it.  For some reason, all of them, including the commercial software, all felt like beta software to me.  Most are based on the .net platform from Microsoft, which means they’re slow, take forever to load, and hang for no apparent reason sometimes.  The slowest and the least useful were almost immediately removed.

What I was looking for was a clean outlook style interface.  Some blogs only publish an excerpt, or the first two-three sentences.  To read the entire article, you have to click something to open up that articles web page.  That process has to be easy to do, typically by just doubleclicking the subject line instead of single clicking it to read the excerpt, which would preferrably open up in the same window.  And when the full page is opened it makes a lot of sites barf because of errant javascript code.  The feed reader should not make you click several times per article to clear out this error.

Next on the list has to be an easy way to add new feed sources.  This should almost be automatic by simply clicking a single button.  I’d like to see one of these readers come with IE and Firefox plugins so that when you are browsing normally, a new feed is but a click away.

So I narrowed down the list and finally found one I am relatively happy with.  Its open source, free software, has a nice interface with only a few minor quibbles, and seems to be rather speedy.  It is also undergoing active development, which is nice.

The winner is, RSS Bandit!

Yes, it does have a few flaws still.  The one I would like to see is that when opening up the normal HTML full article page, it can open up just in the standard window instead of using a new tab.  But at least it uses a tab, which is pretty nice!  So far this is a big winner.  Give it a try, I think you will like it.  I just keep finding more and more little things I like about it!

You know, I was actually starting to think that the world was becoming a more educated place.  I was starting to think that the average user was a bit more savy then they used to be.  Today has changed my point of view…

It’s only 2:30pm EST.  Our desktop crew is operating light today, so I’ve been lending a hand.  I’ve worked 4 tickets today.  One was a file restore… actually a valid (and sane) ticket.  Here’s the description of tickets 2, 3 and 4:

2… User can’t access the network.  I arrive to discover that she has her modem plugged into her data port.  Wanting to save face, she tries to explain to me that it was working before, and then suddenly stopped… I proceed to ask her what voo-doo she had been using to make that happen.

3… User called wanting to know how to make a CD with some of his files on his laptop.  I asked him what model of laptop he had (to see if he has a burner in it)… and he tells me that "it’s a Windows XP laptop".  No, I correct… what kind of hardware is it… he responds with "It’s a black one".  Told him to call the Help Desk for further assistance, and instructed him to make sure that they know that he has one of the black laptops.

4… (and my personal favorite)… User is having trouble with an application and decided to troubleshoot the issue himself.  I had him write out the steps he took for me in advance.  Here’s what he wrote…

Can’t open Access database.  Got an "unsafe expressions" error.  Thought it might have a virus, so I looked around on the computer for files I didn’t recognize.  Found alot of strange files in the C:\Windows\System32\ folder.  Got rid of most of them.  Now I can’t get into system.  Virus must still be on the machine.  Please clean.

We live in a pretty crazy world sometimes…