Archive for April, 2012

Book Review – Gene Hackman & Daniel Lenihan’s “Wake of the Perdido Star”

It’s time to raise anchor and set sail for a high seas adventure as Gene Hackman (yes, the actor Gene Hackman) and Daniel Lenihan take us on an around the world sailing trip in Wake of the Perdido Star.

Wake of the Perdido Star begins in Hamden, Connecticut, in 1805.

There, seventeen-year-old Jack O’Reilly lives with his parents, Ethan and Pilar O’Reilly.  Times are tough for the O’Reilleys as his father, a talented gunsmith, had a frequent problem of speaking his mind and angering the wrong people.  His actions have had their family on the move from town to town for the past few years.

Times are even tougher for the O’Reilleys as Ethan’s mouth got his family evicted from their current residence.  With nowhere else to go, Ethan accepts his wife’s offer of traveling back to her homeland in Cuba and her family farm.  Pilar had received a letter a few months ago claiming that her family’s farm was doing exceptionally well.  So it’s off to Cuba for the family living in Connecticut.

The O’Reilly family packs their belongings and makes a lengthy trip to the seaside town of Salem, Massachusetts.  The family ultimately finds and makes passage with the ship Perdido Star, which is scheduled to sail to Cuba with the tide the following evening.

While in town, Ethan tries to sell the family’s two horses, only to get taken and forced to accept an unfairly low offer right before the ship is scheduled to depart.  While his father sulks about his stupidity on the ship, Jack O’Reilly sets it upon himself to extract some revenge.  The seventeen-year-old races against time as he brutally attacks the two men who robbed his father, and then he freed his family’s horses, taking them to a farm outside of town.  Jack raced back to the Perdido Star moments before it cast off on its southerly voyage.

Upon boarding the Star in Salem, first mate Quince essentially takes Jack under his wing, allowing him on the upper deck despite Captain Deploy’s attitude against it.  Quince’s many years of sailing and tolerable attitude towards the youth make it a solid relationship.  Although Jack isn’t an official part of the crew, he certainly feels like one throughout the voyage. Read more…

Grout Bully (grout cleaning & painting) – A Marketing Review

You turn on the light and take a few steps into the bathroom.

Pausing for a moment, you glance around at the tiny room itself.  What should be sanitary to near hospital conditions is far from it.  There’s a foul stench that hangs in the air, a thin layer of grime on the tiles, and sadly, there’s still a brown stain in the middle of the floor thanks to cousin Bill’s gross aiming error during last week’s Spicy Burrito Party.

Let’s leave the other messes in the bathroom aside and concentrate on the grout for now.

How do you clean the grout or outright change its color?

Doing a job like that properly can take hours of tedious and precise labor.  Cleaning the grout is one thing; changing its color is another project in itself.  Calling some contractors for an estimate could always work, but you know that it’ll probably be expensive.

Isn’t there a quick and easy way to clean the grout?  You know, take a few shortcuts here and there and claim to have a quality finish.

What’s this?  Grout Bully?

Grout Bully website — www.GroutBully.com

Really?  Is it so?  Does it have a flashy commercial that’ll make you want to order the product right away, never thinking twice or having second thoughts about it?

Grout Bully TV commercial

Let’s take a closer look and see what the TV commercial is trying to sell us do-it-yourself wannabes.

Grout Bully TV commercial — Scrub, scrub, scrub, all day long . . .

The Grout Bully TV commercial opens with a woman trying to clean the grout lines on her kitchen floor.  She keeps scrubbing away but that grout still looks like it matches the tiles’ color.  Can anybody help this poor woman and give her a quick and easy way to clean her grout lines? Read more…

Movie Review – Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Captain America: The First Avenger is the final prequel movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before the superheroes return in the highly anticipated movie, The Avengers (2012).

Although it was released last in the series, Captain America: The First Avenger is chronologically the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as 95% of the movie takes place in 1943, whereas the other four movies primarily take place in modern times.

Captain America: The First Avenger begins in Norway in March of 1942.

Nazi officer Johann Schmidt (played by Hugo Weaving) and his men invade a castle in Norway.  The Tower Keeper tries to hide the Tesseract, but Schmidt finds it hidden in a mural of Yggdrasil (Norse legend of Tree of the World).  After finding it, he has his men open fire on the people in the castle, killing all witnesses.

Over in New York City, a skinny young man named Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans) is rejected for military service.  Apart from his frail build, he’s also full of health problems.  His pleas for being accepted for service fall upon deaf ears.  The medical examiner claims that denying Rogers for service is actually saving his life from certain death.

As we later learn, that was not Steve Rogers’ first time being denied for military service.  He’s known for using fake names and addresses to get into the service, but all of his attempts have ended in failure.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – (c) Paramount Pictures

Down on his luck, Rogers goes to a movie theater only to have to deal with an unappreciative bully making rude comments during the news reel.  Rogers stands up for what’s right and isn’t afraid to fight him in an ally behind the theater.  Naturally, the physically larger bully beats Rodgers again and again, knocking him down to the street.  But Rodgers keeps getting back up to his feet claiming that, “I can do this all day.” Read more…

Movie Review – Iron Man 2 (2010)

The next movie prequel to The Avengers (2012) and part of the massive Marvel Cinematic Universe is 2010′s hit film, Iron Man 2.

The first Iron Man movie came out of nowhere and blew audiences away with the arrogant yet fascinating genius of Tony Stark and his Iron Man powered suit.  The end of that movie had Tony Stark admitting in a news conference that he indeed was the Iron Man.

In the amazing world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the events in Iron Man 2 take place about six months after the first Iron Man film, and just after most of the events in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk.

Iron Man 2 begins in Russia where Ivan Vanko (played by Mickey Rourke) is tinkering with electronics and watching Tony Stark’s (still played by Robert Downey, Jr.) press conference.

Looking closely at the scene, we saw that Ivan had construction blueprints from Stark Industries, and his father’s name was on it along with Howard Stark, Tony Stark’s father.  Vanko’s father is with him and dies shortly after the press conference.  Ivan Vanko promises to extract his revenge against Tony Stark and Stark Industries.

Six months later, Tony Stark is busy jumping out of an aircraft in his Iron Man powered suit and making on hell of an entry for the newly re-instituted Stark Expo in Flushing Meadow, New York.  He removes the suit and gives a speech to the crowd about how he’s responsible for world peace.

Iron Man 2 (2010) – (c) Paramount Pictures

Upon leaving the Expo, Stark is handed a summons to testify before a Senate Armed Services Committee the next day.  Naturally, Tony Stark turns the hearing into a circus with his antics.  Senator Stern (played by Garry Shandling) demands that Tony turn over his armored suit to the government as it’s viewed as a weapon.  Tony refuses, claiming that the armored suit is his property and part of him, and turning himself into the government would be the same as indentured servitude. Read more…

Movie Review – Thor (2011)

Up next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and series of prequels leading up to The Avengers (2012) is Thor (2011), a superhero based on the Norse god of thunder.

Apart from roles in animated television shows and direct-to-video animated movies, this is Thor’s first appearance in a live-action movie.  And this movie was a great way to welcome the god of thunder to the big screen!

Thor begins back in 965 AD when Odin (played by Anthony Hopkins), king of the realm Asgard, goes to war against the Frost Giants of Jotunheim, to prevent them from conquering the Nine Realms and plunging them into a new ice age.

After a mighty battle Odin and the Asgardians defeat the Frost Giants and seize their source of power, the Casket of Ancient Winters.

After that we see Odin talking to his young sons, Thor and Loki, telling them the history of their people and showing them the Casket of Ancient Winters safely secured within the inner walls of Asgard.  He warns them that one day the day will come when one of them, Thor or Loki, will have to defend that peace that currently exists in the Nine Realms.  While the young Loki exercises concern for the Frost Giants, young Thor is already brash and arrogant about hunting and killing their enemies.

Odin tells his sons that although only one of them can be king of Asgard, they were both born to be kings.  The only question is which one will be worthy enough to assume the throne of Asgard.

Thor (2011) – (c) Paramount Pictures

Fast forwarding to the present day, we see a grown-up Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth) playing into the crowds of Asgardians as he prepares to approach the throne of Asgard.  During the ceremony, three Frost Giants suddenly appear deep inside of Asgard and attempt to retrieve the Casket of Ancient Winters.  Odin summons a Destroyer machine to kill the Frost Giants before they can escape with their prize. Read more…

Hot Booties (microwaveable slippers) – A Marketing Review

You’ve spent all day on your feet.

Finally arriving back at home, you pull off your shoes and then peel back your socks.  After surviving the nearly overpowering stench from between your toes, you sit back on the couch.

But your feet are still aching.  Putting them up on a footrest isn’t working.  Neither is slipping into a warm pair of socks.

Time is ticking and your feet are still pulsing with agony.  Help!!!!

What’s this?

Hot Booties?  Really?  What the hell kind of name is that?

Hot Booties website — www.OrderHotBooties.com

Sure enough, there just may be an easy way to relieve your feet of their aches and pains.  According to the people behind the Hot Booties product, the answer is as simple as microwaving a pair of their slippers.

Hot Booties TV commercial

Now that you’ve seen the TV commercial, let’s take a closer look and see just what the people behind Hot Booties are trying to sell us.

Hot Booties TV commercial — Starring Tim Goewey and Taylor Baldwin. 

You mean to tell me that Tim Goewey is starring in this commercial?  The very same Tim Goewey that sold us that wacky Fushigi Ball not too long ago?

Holy crap!

Now we know that this is an awesome product if Tim Goewey is one of the pitchmen.  Where should I send a check for the Hot Booties??? Read more…

Movie Review – The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Another Marvel Studios movie review, and another character introduction to The Avengers (coming soon!).

Or rather in this case, it’s more of an anti-hero.

The Hulk character was first introduced to comic book fans in May of 1962.  In the comics, Dr. Bruce Banner was accidentally exposed to the blast of a gamma bomb that he invented.  The gamma radiation transformed Banner, allowing the monster inside of him to wreck havoc whenever the scientist became angry or emotionally unstable.  Once the situation calmed, the monster would recede and the human form of Banner would once again take control.

Fast forward to 2008.

The Incredible Hulk movie tells a slightly different story about the accident that led Dr. Bruce Banner (played by Edward Norton) to become the big green monster known as the Hulk.

The opening sequence of the movie shows us how Bruce Banner was part of a military experiment that went wrong.  General “Thunderbolt” Ross (played by William Hurt) met with Dr. Bruce Banner regarding an experiment to make soldiers immune to gamma radiation.  The experiment (which was really part of a secret “super soldier” program) failed, and Bruce Banner was bombarded with gamma radiation.

Bruce’s anger transformed him into the Hulk, and he subsequently destroyed the laboratory, accidentally injuring his lover, Betty Ross (played by Liv Tyler), in the process.  The Hulk then fled while being pursued by the U.S. Army.

The Incredible Hulk (2008) – (c) Paramount Pictures

The film opens five years later in Brazil. Read more…

Movie Review – Iron Man (2008)

With the highly anticipated release of The Avengers in two weeks, it’s time to review the previous Marvel superhero movies that culminate into The Avengers.

First on the list is 2008′s hit movie, Iron Man.

Iron Man tells the story of how Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey, Jr.), wealthy inventor, engineer and CEO of Stark Industries, becomes the Iron Man.  He goes from being a millionaire womanizer and playboy into a masked superhero.

Iron Man beings with Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) showing off the latest of Stark Industries’ weapons to military officials in Afghanistan.  The missile, nicknamed “Jericho,” is capable of an incredible amount of damage spread out over a large area.  We see an example of the Jericho missile as it launches and destroys nearly half a mountain in a massive display of firepower.

Tony Stark’s logic seems simple:  Bring a bigger stick to the fight and nobody is going to challenge you.  His latest weapon is shown to be a success.

While riding in a humvee with some soldiers, the convoy is ambushed by a terrorist group called Ten Rings.  They kill all the soldiers, and Tony Stark is critically wounded in the attack.  It takes some emergency surgery in a cave network to save his life.  The only way to save Tony Stark’s heart from the shrapnel is with an electromagnet built directly into his chest.

Iron Man (2008) – (c) Paramount Pictures

The man who saved Tony is Dr. Yinsen (Shaun Toub), another captive of the Ten Rings terrorist organization.  After waking from his surgery, Tony Stark learns that the Ten Rings leader wants him to build them one of his Jericho missiles.  Initially refusing to build it, Tony is tortured until he reluctantly agrees. Read more…

Samsung’s Smart TV – Is Technology Being Used Against Us?

Recently I saw a television commercial for Samsung’s new Smart TV.

The TV commercial showed off a variety of features from voice commands to gesture control technology.  Visiting the company’s website allows us to see that the features go way beyond that.  Apparently the built-in camera can go as far as recognizing users and logging them into Internet-based applications such as Facebook and Skype.

The TV also comes with an abundance of features and applications, and additional ones can be downloaded from Samsung’s website.  Without a doubt, this is the next generation of high-definition, Internet accessible televisions, something that will set the standards for future televisions.

As a whole the Samsung Smart TV sounds pretty slick.

But when you look a little bit deeper, these features can easily be used against you as a person and as society as a whole.

Samsung Smart TV – TV commercial

Does this advancement in television seem like innocent entertainment, or do you see other issues that seem downright sinister?

Read more…

Movie Review – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

We thought that the Indiana Jones movies ended with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade back in 1989.

As much as we hoped and pleaded for more Indy movies, it seemed for the longest times that a fourth movie just wasn’t going to happen.  But then serious rumors were flying around the Internet, and in 2007, the fourth Indiana Jones movie was finally being filmed.

Big questions were being asked when the project was officially announced to the public.  Was Harrison Ford too old to return as Indiana Jones?  What would the plot be for the movie?  Was it really a good idea to make another Indiana Jones movie after all of these years?

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull premiered on May 22, 2008.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull begins in 1957 with a kidnapped Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) being taken to a U.S. military base in the southwestern desert.  The Soviets had captured Jones along with his friend, George “Mac” McHale (Ray Winstone), and brought them to a structure known as “Warehouse 51.”

Leading the Russians is Dr. Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), a psychic warrior and person with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and power.  She is able to persuade Indy to search for a special magnetic box in a warehouse filled with thousands of boxes.  The reason she needs Indy’s help is that Indy was one of the scientists called upon to assist the U.S. government with a crash that took place back in 1947.  An extraterrestrial spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls (2008) – (c) Paramount Pictures

Using gunpowder, Indy is able to quickly locate the specific box in the warehouse.  Irina Spalko and the Soviet troops open the box to discover a mummified alien corpse.  Indy snatches a rifle from a Russian soldier and attempts to keep them at bay only to discover that his longtime friend and trusted accomplice, Mac, is really a Soviet agent.  Mac double-crosses Indy and holds him at gunpoint. Read more…

Movie Review – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Five years after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones returned for a third (and what was then) final movie in the legendary film franchise.

While the Temple of Doom was a dark and evil film, Last Crusade ended the trilogy on a lighter and more uplifting note.  And when it premiered on May 24, 1989, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade proved to be not only a smash hit, but an epic conclusion for one of the most successful movie trilogies of all time.

This time around Indy brings along his father, Professor Henry Jones, Sr.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade starts back in 1912 as young Indy (River Phoenix) is just a thirteen-year-old Boy Scout.  As he’s out with his fellow scouts in the mountainous terrain of southern Utah, Indy and his friend go off and explore some caves.  They hear some digging and quickly discover a gang of robbers.  The robbers, as Indy explained to his fellow Boy Scout, discover a cross that belonged to Coronado.  “It belongs in a museum.”

Indy quietly snatched the cross from the robbers, but he’s spotted and the robbers give chase.  The young adventurer rides horseback and flees to a circus train.  There he dodges and escapes above and through the different animal cars, trying to lose the robbers.  It’s in a boxcar with a lion where Indy meets his destiny with his trademark tool and weapon:  the bullwhip.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – (c) Paramount Pictures

After escaping from the robbers, Indy runs home and tries to show his father Coronado’s cross.  Before he gets a chance, the other Boy Scout returns with the town’s sheriff, and to Indy’s surprise, the very robbers that he was fleeing.  The sheriff sides with the robbers and Indy is forced to give them back the cross that once belonged to the legendary Spanish conquistador. Read more…

Movie Review – Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

The success of Raiders of the Lost Ark spawned a need to bring Indiana Jones back to the silver screen.

Raiders was a smash hit with Indy battling evil Nazis and pursuing the Ark of the Covenant.  But something new had to be done for a sequel.  Perhaps something exotic and much, much darker.

Enter Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Originally called Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death, Temple of Doom takes Indiana Jones to the Far East of Shanghai, China and then the exotic lands of India.  It’s in India where Dr. Jones comes face to face with a Kali-worshipping thuggee cult fond of brutality, child slavery, and human sacrifices.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom actually takes place a few years prior to the events in Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Temple of Doom begins in Shanghai, China, where Indy is meeting with Chinese gangsters and selling the remains of a long lost Chinese emperor.

It’s there in Club Obi Wan where Dr. Henry Jones, Jr., a.k.a. Indiana Jones, (Harrison Ford) meets “Willie” Scott (Kate Capshaw), a performer and dancer at the club.  But as Indy and Willie quickly discover, the Chinese gangsters poison and double-cross Indy.  A massive fight ensues with Indy battling the Chinese gangsters and fighting for the poison’s antidote, and Willie trying to get her hands on a priceless diamond.  Indy and Willie escape through a window and land in a car being driven by Indy’s pint-sized friend, Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan).  The kid drives the trio to the local airport while Indy has a gun battle with gangsters in hot pursuit.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) – (c) Paramount Pictures

Indiana Jones, Willie Scott and Short Round safely arrive at the airfield.  They think everything is fine as they board a charter aircraft (complete with livestock), but as we see, the pilots work for Lao Che (Roy Chiao), the Chinese crime boss Indy was fighting back at the night club.  The two pilots parachute from the aircraft over southern Asia, leaving the three adventurers alone in the sky and running out of fuel. Read more…

Great Plains Tornado Outbreak Aftermath – April 14-15, 2012

Two days ago, an area from northwestern Oklahoma to southeastern Nebraska and Iowa experienced a deadly tornado outbreak.  The damage occurred right in the heart of the Great Plains and its infamous “Tornado Alley.”

Storm Prediction Center storm reports – April 14, 2012

.

Storm Prediction Center storm reports – April 15, 2012

So far the National Weather Service has confirmed 41 tornadoes out of the 156 reported during the outbreak.  The vast majority of tornadoes struck central and southern Kansas.  The only reported fatalities came when an EF3 tornado hit a mobile home park in Woodward, Oklahoma, killing six people.

Tornado probability outlook issued on April 14, 2012.

What makes the April 14-15, 2012 Great Plains Tornado Outbreak interesting is that the National Weather Service began issuing statements warning of extremely dangerous weather two days in advance of the outbreak.  Normally those kinds of warnings are only issued 12-24 hours before the weather develops. Read more…

Just A Little Bit of Luck . . .

. . . at some point.

That’s all we need right now.

My girlfriend and I have been going through quite a few tough times lately.  Not with our relationship, but rather events in general surrounding us.  It doesn’t help matters that pretty much all of those events are out of our control.

For a moment I was actually believing that something good was on its way.  There were a brief series of good events, a minor setback or two, a full day in the hospital on Easter Sunday, and then slow progress and improvement this week.

And then in the mail today — BAM!  More bad news.

There was no explanation for it.  No reasoning behind it.  Just plain old bad news.  It’s hard to blame it on bad luck since this kind of news has been semi-frequent for the past few months.  It’s just that this particular case seems so odd since the events leading up to it went so well.

Throw in the fact that today is Friday the 13th and there you go.  While I’m a superstitious person with some events, I don’t consider this to be an evil day in general.

At some point we need a little bit of good luck to help us out of this rut.  That’s all.  We can make the rest of it work from there.

Until then, it’s time to keep working on the problem(s) and see if any positive solutions materialize.

Book Review – Clive Cussler’s “The Chase”

Last night I finished reading Clive Cussler’s novel, The Chase, part of the Isaac Bell series of novels.

Opening and closing in 1950 on a lake in Montana, The Chase primarily takes place in 1906 San Francisco and the surrounding area.

Banks throughout the region are in turmoil.  A particularly brutal bandit nicknamed the “Butcher Bandit” has been robbing banks and killing the workers.  He strikes without warning, disappearing immediately after the crime and leaving the local sheriffs no evidence.  To further complicate matters, each town seems to have a different description of the possible suspect.  The Butcher Bandit is thought to have killed at least thirty-three people and amassed a small fortune.

It’s up to the elite Van Dorn Detective Agency and lead detective Isaac Bell to stop the Butcher Bandit and bring him to justice.

Isaac Bell is the latest of heroes by author Clive Cussler.  He’s an intelligent person, ready to use his firearms as likely as his fists, and backed by a large family fortune.  He’s also an adventurer and automobile enthusiast, much like one of Cussler’s most famous characters, Dirk Pitt.

Highlights in The Chase include fantastic descriptions of steam locomotives and train companies, terrific action sequences, and the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  The earthquake occurs in a pivotal part of the story, setting up the ending and elaborate train chase across the western part of the United States. Read more…