Archive for May, 2012

“Hater” – The Last Resort When Losing An Argument

Lately I’ve been noticing a rather negative trend in online discussions and other venues.

I’m not getting into the whole “haters gonna hate” crap manifested from the hip hop culture.  This is about the term “haters” and its saturation of today’s society.

Despite the ongoing efforts to end hate and racism and everything alike, the term “hater” is being used more and more frequently these days.  What strikes me is that the people who tend to throw around the term “hater” don’t use it to acknowledge an actual act of hatred (such as from a racist organization), but it’s frequently being used as a way for them to end their side of a discussion or argument.

“You’re just a hater.”

That’s it.  Case closed.  The invisible brick wall has been built to try to end the conversation, blocking out facts, logic, and all other points of view in the discussion. Read more…

SUBTROPICAL STORM BERYL – A FIRST LOOK

It looks like the 2012 Hurricane Season is off to an early start, folks.

As of right now, SUBTROIPCAL STORM BERYL is spinning and churning in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina.  So far the storm has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph with a minimum central pressure of 1001 mb.

Although its present movement is to the north at about eight knots, the forecast from the National Hurricane Center is calling for the storm to make a turn to the west-southwest and increase its forward speed within the next day or two.  The computer models show consensus of the storm striking somewhere between northern Florida and southern Georgia by Sunday evening.  However, a deep trough is expected to cause the storm to stall and then head back to the northeast and into the Atlantic Ocean once again. Read more…

Movie Review – Chronicle (2012)

How often have you wished for super powers?

Wouldn’t it be fun to have complete control over physical objects, moving them (and yourself) with the power of your mind?

Get ready for that and more with one of 2012′s hit movies, Chronicle.

Take note that Chronicle is presented in a documentary-style format, with most of the movie being viewed / filmed from the main character’s personal video camera.  Don’t worry.  It’s not a shaky-style, motion sickness inducing format like seen in The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield.

Chronicle takes place in Seattle, Washington.  We’re introduced to Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHann), a senior in high school who begins to videotape his life.  Andrew has a troubled life at home with a mother slowly dying of cancer and an alcoholic and violent father.  Disabled from work, his father is frequently at home, further adding to Andrew’s troubles.

At school, Andrew is a social outcast and frequently targeted by bullies.  He eats lunch alone, sitting outside on the school’s bleachers while athletes and cheerleaders practice on the field.  When people see him videotaping everything like a creep, he’s bullied even worse.

Andrew’s cousin, Matt Garetty (Alex Russell), takes him to a rave concert in an effort to meet people.  Andrew brings along his camcorder and continues documenting how he has no personality and is a complete loser.  While videotaping a girl dancing on a table, the girl’s boyfriend threatens Andrew and makes him leave.  Andrew’s crying to himself in the parking lot when Steve Montgomery (Michael B. Jordan), a fellow senior in high school, persuades him to bring his camera and see what he and Matt found in the woods.

Chronicle (2012) – (c) 20th Century Fox

What Steve and Matt found is a dark hole in the ground that emits a strange sound.  Matt and Steve climb down the hole to investigate the sound, and Andrew quickly follows.  What the three of them discover is a mysterious blue object emitting some kind of strange energy.  The camera goes blank just after the discovery. Read more…

Movie Review – The Grey (2012)

Every once in a while we’re treated to a gripping and suspenseful story of survival against Mother Nature.

We’re not talking about chasing tornadoes in Oklahoma, battling against sudden climate change and extreme cooling in New York City, or even being isolated on a tropical island in the South Pacific with only an athletic ball to keep company.  What we’re talking about is enduring a plane crash and then facing the brutal elements in an Alaskan tundra.  Throw in a blizzard, unforgiving terrain, and just for the fun of it, very hungry wolves.

Released to the theaters this past January, The Grey is not only a thrilling but also chilling tale of survival set in the vast wilderness of Alaska.

The start of The Grey introduces us to John Ottway (played by Liam Neeson), a wolf hunter who works for an oil company in northern Alaska.  His job is to protect the workers from menacing wolves throughout the area.

Before I go any further, take note that this is a fictitious movie.  Yes, a pack of wolves can be dangerous to a human being, but wolves generally will not attack a person unless the wolves are startled or threatened by the person.  The way that the wolves behave in The Grey is mainly for entertainment purposes only, and not how they normally behave towards humans in the wild.

The Grey (2012) – (c) Open Road Films

After shooting a wolf, we then see Ottway and other oil workers boarding a regional airliner for a flight back to Anchorage, Alaska.  The men work long hours and spend two weeks in the field.  The workers are discussing their plans while boarding and settling into the aircraft.  We also see the airport’s ground crew de-icing and preparing the aircraft for a flight into the dangerous winter weather. Read more…

Movie Review – Battleship (2012)

What do you get when you combine a massive amount of CGI, an unoriginal plot, and just about every politically correct cliché in today’s military-themed movies?

The answer, folks, is the action-filled and utterly craptastic movie, Battleship.

Yes, it seems that not even simple board games are safe from the clutches of Hollywood.  Unfortunately, this really isn’t a surprise these days.  Oh well.

Battleship (2012) – (c) Universal Pictures

Battleship begins in 2005 as a dorky scientist at NASA announces the discovery of an Earth-like planet outside of our solar system.  They blast out a signal to the planet using a massive communication array and further boosted via satellites in outer space.  Gee, I hope the extraterrestrials can not only receive the signals in a timely manner, but also understand them and their origins and pay us a peaceful visit. Read more…

Preventing Tip Fraud & Credit Card Theft at Restaurants

These days it’s very common to whip out the ol’ credit card and pay for a meal at a restaurant.

It’s easy.  It’s convenient.  And depending on your credit card provider, you may earn cash back or other bonuses just for even using the card.

So what about when dishonest workers try to manipulate the credit card slip and reward themselves more of a tip than you intended?

That, my friends, is fraud, and it can easily be used to steal money from you if you’re not paying attention.

Last month I experienced this fraud / thievery when I took my girlfriend and one of our friends to a local Applebees restaurant.

While the service was slow and tolerable, the food itself was pretty good.  I enjoyed my burger, and my companions each enjoyed their meals.  The only downside was the slightly poor service despite the restaurant being mostly empty.  It wasn’t like the waitress was overloaded with busy tables or fussy customers. Read more…

Movie Review – The Avengers (2012)

What do you get when you combine the mighty forces of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and the Hulk?

The answer, my friends, is The Avengers, a major motion picture that combines the Marvel Cinematic Universe into one massive movie.  What started in 2008′s smash hit Iron Man has grown tremendously and culminated into The Avengers.

Before seeing The Avengers, you’re best off seeing Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011) and Captain America (2011).  With all of the back stories and references to the previous movies, you’ll get so much more out of The Avengers if you’ve recently seen the other Marvel super hero movies.  That is, if you’ve seen the movies and little teaser clips after the credits in the movies, too.

What about The Incredible Hulk (2008)?

Although The Incredible Hulk is a great movie, very little of it is mentioned in The Avengers.  The production crew even switched actors and this time around it’s Mark Ruffalo playing the role of Dr. Bruce Banner, and not Edward Norton.  Basically, all you really need to know about The Incredible Hulk is that Bruce Banner gets angry and transforms into the Hulk, and he destroyed part of Harlem in New York City during a rampage in the previous movie.  That’s about it as far as The Avengers is concerned.

The Avengers (2012) – (c) Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The Avengers begins on a distant world as Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston), makes a deal with the Other (Alexis Denisof), the leader of a race of aliens.  If Loki is able to provide him with the Tesseract (seen in Captain America and after the credits in Thor), then the Other will provide Loki with an army of aliens that he can use to conquer the Earth. Read more…

Book Review – Newt Gingrich & William R. Forstchen’s “To Try Men’s Souls”

The other day I finished Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen’s American Revolutionary War story, To Try Men’s Souls: A Novel of George Washington and the Fight for American Freedom.

While the book’s lengthy title implies that it covers a large portion of the War for Independence, To Try Men’s Souls primarily focuses on Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River and the surprise attack on Hessian troops in Trenton, New Jersey.  Despite it covering just that one segment of the war, the book does an excellent job telling the tale and showing just how much soldiers sacrificed to pull off the surprise attack.

Throughout school those many years ago, the American Revolution was frequently discussed in history / geography / social studies classes.  However, those classes never went into detail about the troops or battles.  We were just taught a few key facts here and there, such as Thomas Paine’s article Common Sense being a key factor for pursuing independence, the “Indian-style” attacks used by American forces, and some general tidbits here and there about the war.

It was the American Revolution that made us into an independent country, but, oddly enough, the details of the revolution and battles were rarely discussed in the classrooms.  It wasn’t until reading books outside of the classroom where I finally started learning the details of one of if not the most important time period in American history.

As it was stated earlier, To Try Men’s Souls primarily focuses on the Christmas evening crossing of the Delaware River and surprise attack on Hessian troops stationed in Trenton, New Jersey at dawn on December 26, 1776.

You have to remember that the American forces were looking very bleak by Christmas of 1776.  The previous months had been one forced retreat after another as the British and Hessian forces pushed them south out of New York City and New England.  While the Americans had previous success at the start of the war, the last few months saw one failure after another as the army dwindled down to just a few thousand soldiers still in fighting condition.

Soldiers were starving, lacking anywhere near adequate clothing, not being paid, and the vast majority were even without proper footwear.  In the freezing winter, more than two-thirds of the soldiers were forced to wrap their feet in loose fabric or walk completely barefoot.  The paths and roads often turned red from blood as ice and other conditions ripped and tore open the soldiers’ unprotected feet.  While the soldiers were starving and without proper clothing and shelter, Congressmen were warm, well-fed and cozy in their lodgings in Philadelphia (sound familiar?).

To make matters worse, the enlistments for most soldiers was set to expire at the start of 1777.  The American military was set to destroy itself by then end of 1776 if something drastic didn’t boost their morale and save their fighting spirit. Read more…

Wild Eagle (B&M Wing Coaster) at Dollywood

This past weekend my girlfriend and I had an opportunity to visit the Great Smoky Mountains.  This included visiting Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and as you can guess by the title of this article, the Dollywood theme park.

As some of you may know, Dollywood is a small theme park created by music legend, Dolly Parton.  This is essentially her park, and she’s been known to make occasional visits and say hello to the guests.  The park is clean, the workers are friendly, and there’s plenty of live country and bluegrass music.

And for the past few years, Dollywood has been making a name for itself in the world of roller coasters.  It’s been making a BIG name, and the park’s coaster collection just recently took a giant step forward.

“Wild Eagle” is the latest addition to the growing number of roller coasters inside Dollywood.  This is a custom-made Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) creation that not only seats riders four-across, but it seats them on the sides of the track.  In fact, there’s no coaster car above or below you.  This creation is known as a wing coaster, and believe me, it’s an AWESOME  experience!

This past Sunday we rode the Wild Eagle coaster twice at park opening.  Later that afternoon there was a massive line of people waiting for the ride. Read more…