Archive for September, 2014

Atlanta Exotic Bird Fair 2014 at the North Atlanta Trade Center

On Sunday, my wife and I took some time to visit the Atlanta Exotic Bird Fair at the North Atlanta Trade Center.

This was my visit to a bird fair as my allergies normally require me to keep a small distance from our feathery friends.  The idea of being enclosed inside of a large room with probably hundreds of chirping birds just never sounded that appealing.

As it turns out, the experience at the Atlanta Exotic Bird Fair was fairly entertaining, especially with some of the interesting birds that were on display.  I was surprised by how many of the sellers either had birds just sitting on top of their cages or tables, and that people were free to pick up and hold them.  We’re talking about birds that ranged in prices from under $60 to $800 and beyond.

Here are some photo highlights from our visit to the Atlanta Exotic Bird Fair.

The exotic birds weren’t our main purpose at the Atlanta Exotic Bird Fair, although many of the birds were really interesting.  My wife did have fun holding several of them.

We were actually here to help my mother-in-law (MIL) and sister-in-law (SIL) make an expensive purchase. Read more…

Movie Review – The Mummy’s Hand (1940)

Back in 1932 the audiences were terrified with The Mummy, a horror film that involved an ancient Egyptian priest being brought back to life, and his quest to kill a modern woman so that he can reincarnate an Egyptian princess.

The Mummy was a hit with the audiences.  Not only did the film provide thrills and chills, but it also involved the ancient Egyptians, one of the oldest known civilizations.  And mummies, pyramids and tombs are just plain awesome as well.

It was just a matter of time before The Mummy would receive a sequel.  More Mummy films would be made, but, unfortunately, none of them would be a sequel to the original film.

Released in 1940, The Mummy’s Hand is a new Mummy film that’s part remake/ripoff of the original film, and part original story.  The Mummy’s Hand does involve a similar back story and even uses footage from The Mummy, the main story has been changed to present an original film.

Directed by Christy Cabanne, The Mummy’s Hand stars Dick Foran as Steve Banning, an archaeologist in Egypt who is down on his luck at making a major discovery.  Wallace Ford is Babe Jenson, Banning’s sidekick, and Peggy Moran plays the role of Marta Solvani, Banning’s accomplice / partial love interest / damsel in distress.  Tom Tyler plays the role of Kharis, an Egyptian mummy still alive after thousands of years.

The Mummy’s Hand begins in modern times (1940) as Egyptian Andoheb (George Zucco) arrives at the Hill of the Seven Jackals to answer the summons of the High Priest of Karnak (Eduardo Ciannelli).  The elderly priest is dying and has decided to tell his follower, Andoheb, the story of Kharis (Tom Tyler).  The two of them gaze into a pool of water and the high priest explains that Princess Ananka died and Kharis tried to resurrect her body by using tana leaves.  Kharis is caught in the act, and as punishment he is mummified alive and buried underground with tana leaves.

The high priest informs Andoheb that the secret to controlling Kharis is through the tana leaves.  During each full moon, the leaves can be cooked and converted into a fluid which can then be administered to Kharis and to keep him alive.  If Andoheb would need to restore movement to Kharis so that he could be used to attack people, for example, then Andoheb would need a bigger dose of tana leaves.  The priest cautions that too many tana leaves will give Kharis uncontrollable power. Read more…

Movie Review – The Invisible Man (1933)

Back in 1897, science-fiction author H.G. Wells introduced the world to The Invisible Man, an optic scientist who was able to make himself completely invisible.  The scientist is unable to reverse the effects, and he goes insane and on a killing rampage in the English countryside.

This story was made into a film of the same name in 1933.

Directed by James Whale and produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr., The Invisible Man stars Claude Rains as Dr. Jack Griffin / The Invisible Man.  Co-starring in the film are Gloria Stuart as Flora Cranley, William Harrigan as Dr. Arthur Kemp, Henry Travers as Dr. Cranley, and Edward E. Clive as Constable Jaffers.

The Invisible Man begins on a snowy night as a mysterious man, Dr. Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) checks into a room at The Lion’s Head, an inn in the English village of Iping.  His appearance is rather startling as he’s wrapped in bandages around his head, he’s wearing dark glasses at night, and his hands are hidden behind gloves.  Despite his strong request for a room with a warm fireplace, the innkeepers, Mr. Hall (Forrester Harvey) and his wife (Una O’Connor), furnish him with a room and a hot meal.  The patrons at the bar speculate that the mysterious man recently escaped from a prison, and that’s why he’s hiding at the inn. Read more…

Book Review – Vince Flynn’s “Pursuit of Honor”

Last week while on vacation in Florida, I finished reading Pursuit of Honor, the tenth book in Vince Flynn‘s series of stories involving CIA operative / superhero Mitch Rapp.  This story involves the pursuit of the terrorists responsible for the attacks that took place in the previous book, Extreme Measures.

At the end of Extreme Measures, a group of Muslim extremists led by Karim Nour-al-Din bombed several restaurants in Washington, D.C., killing 185 people including several members of Congress and their staff.  The terrorists then launched a follow-up attack against the National Counterterrorist Center.  That attack was ultimately stopped by Mitch Rapp and Mike Nash.  The dead terrorists were tossed out the building’s windows before the terrorists’ suicide bomb vests could detonate and destroy the rest of the building.

Pursuit of Honor begins several days later in New York City as Mitch Rapp tracks Glen Adams, an inspector general of the CIA, and learns that Glen has been giving out classified information.  Glen sees himself as a liberator, but Mitch Rapp and his colleagues see him as a traitor to his country.  Glen is abducted by Mitch and taken to a secret CIA facility in northern Virginia where Glen is fully interrogated.

Meanwhile, the three Muslim extremist terrorists, Karim, Hakim and a Moroccan named Ahmed, have tracked west to a small town in southern Iowa.  Instead of trying to flee the country immediately after the attack, when security would be at its highest at the airports and border crossings, Hakim’s plan had them hide in a small town for a few weeks until the security had decreased.  The terrorists could then leave the country to the north through Canada, or they could work their way south to the Gulf of Mexico and escape that way.

As long as they kept quiet and used their heads, then escaping from the country should be fairly easy.  Hakim was an educated person who had traveled extensively through the U.S., knew how the laws and customs worked, and could speak English with an American accent.  He was the one who used a dummy corporation to purchase an old house on the outskirts of town for he and his companions to hide for a few weeks.

Unfortunately, Karim, the aggressive leader of the group, is a hothead who refuses to listen to Karim’s advice.  Karim insists on killing everybody in their path, and it’s Karim’s stupidity and over-aggressiveness that ultimately leads to their downfall. Read more…

Book Review – J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers”

Today I finished reading J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Two Towers, the second book in his epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings.

Technically speaking, The Two Towers is actually composed of two books from a series that includes an introduction, a prologue, and six “books”.  The Two Towers consists of Books III and IV.  These two books are parallel and occur simultaneously in the overall story.

Book III – The Treason of Isengard

As we remember from the events in The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo Baggins is on a mission to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom in the land of Mordor.  Should the One Ring fall into the hands of Saruman or Sauron, then the fate of Middle-earth would be doomed.  Accompanying him on this dangerous mission are a team of people including Gandalf, Aragon, Boromir, Legolas and Gimli.  Samwise, Merry and Pippin, fellow hobbits from the Shire, have also accompanied Frodo on his mission to destroy the One Ring.

At the end of the previous book, the Fellowship was attacked by a gang of Orcs, and Frodo decided to head off on his own.  Samwise couldn’t leave his friend behind, so he joined Frodo on a boat and the two of them sailed down the river to continue to Mordor.

In Book III, Boromir is attacked and mortally wounded by a group of orcs, the Uruk-hai.  The orcs have left and Merry and Pippin are missing, both of them presumed to have been kidnapped by the orcs.  By the time that Aragon arrives it’s too late to save his friend.  With his last words Boromir tells Aragon to defend Minas Tirith, Boromir’s home, from the forces of Sauron.

Aragon finds Legolas and Gimli, and the three of them decide to chase after the Uruk-hai and to try to rescue the kidnapped hobbits.  They take off running and follow the tracks left behind by the orcs.

Meanwhile, Merry and Pippin are trapped with the orcs and are forced to keep running with them.  The orcs have orders to take their hobbit prisoners back to Mordor for interrogation and most likely horrific torture.  Luck favors the hobbits when the orcs are passing through the land of Rohan and the Uruk-hai are attacked by horsemen known as the “Riders of Rohan.”  The two hobbits are able to slip away and escape while the horsemen kill the orcs and burn their bodies. Read more…

Movie Review – Alien vs. Predator (2004)

It can be argued that the Alien creatures from the Alien films, and the Predator hunter/ warriors from the Predator films are not only the most horrific, but also the most fierce and lethal creatures in the world of science fiction.

But which creature is the best in the galaxy?

That’s a question that sci-fi fans have been debating since the late 1980s and the emergence of the Aliens Versus Predator comic books.  In 1986 the movie Aliens showed us how a squad of Colonial Marines and all of their firepower was wiped out by a nest of Aliens and the Queen Alien.  In 1987 the movie Predator showed us how an intergalactic Predator easily killed most of a group of commandos.  But what would happen if a Predator or a small team of Predators took on a group of Aliens?  Who would emerge as the victor?

The 2004 film Alien vs. Predator attempted to answer that question.  In Alien vs. Predator, a small group of humans are used as pawns so that the Predators can fight the Aliens in an ancient ritual as a rite of passage.  The only catch is that if the Predators lose, then *everybody* will lose.

Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, Alien vs. Predator stars Sanaa Lathan as Alexa Woods and Lance Henriksen as Charles Bishop Weyland.  For the rest of the cast, you might recognize a face or two, but it’s doubtful.  Virtually all of the secondary characters are nobodies in Hollywood.  But that’s not necessarily a negative on the film itself.

Alien vs. Predator begins on October 10, 1904, at a whaling station in Antarctica.  We see as one of the workers runs in terror and tries to hide in a building.  He thinks that he’s safe until a Predator extends its razor claws and approaches.  Just as the Predator is about to kill the man, suddenly an Alien jumps out and attacks the Predator.

Fast forward to today (2004).

When the low Earth orbit Weyland Corporation Satellite PS12 passes over Antarctica and detects an unknown heat bloom on an island just off the coast of Antarctica.  The information is passed through Weyland Corporation and the company’s founder and CEO, Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen), organizes a team of people to investigate it.  He uses his extensive reach (and funds) to recruit a team of specialists including an experienced ice explorer named Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan), an Italian archaeologist named Sebastian De Rosa (Raoul Bova), and Dr. Graeme Miller (Ewen Bremner), a chemical engineer. Read more…

August 2014 Exercise Results

Another month has passed, so it’s time to go back and take a look at my exercise results.

Early in the month I had to visit my doctor for some blood work.  It’s nothing really, more of a formality for our health insurance company to give us a lower rate for being what they consider to be “healthy.”  For the most part my test results came back fine, but I do need to work more cardio exercise into my workout routine.  I should also cut back on the soft drinks and find an alternate beverage.

Grrrrr.

Sodas are my guilty pleasure.  I’m still going to drink them, but I’m drastically cutting back on how much of it that I drink on a weekly basis.

Anyway, I changed my workout routine so that I’m focusing more on using my exercise bike each week.  After each bike session I’m then doing basically half of what I would normally do with my strength training equipment.  I’m also doing my solo sessions with the strength machine, but now it’s a ratio of two cardio days to one strength training day.

So far this new workout routine seems to be working rather well.  The only downside is that my total number of sit-ups has dropped for the month (on my strength training days I do a total of 200 sit-ups, and only 100 for my cardio days).  What I might do is add 50 more sit-ups on my cardio days.  We’ll see how that goes.

August of 2014 exercise results:

Exercise bike totals (cardio):

– 9 sessions; 45 minutes each

– 405 minutes (6.75 hours)

– 91.9 miles

– 4,599 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.6 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 8 sessions; ~ 30 or 90 minutes each

Total number of sit-ups:

– 1,700

The new exercise numbers aren’t terrible.  Hell, I had the same number of cardio sessions as in July, and my total number of miles peddled and estimated calories burned slightly increased.  So far the only downside is that because of the reduction in strength training days, my total number of sit-ups decreased by over a thousand for the month.  Again, that’s one of the reasons why I’m going to be increasing my number of sit-ups on the cardio days.

Now it’s on to September.  Unfortunately, I’m already in the negative as I caught a cold at the end of August.  It’s still lingering in my system and throwing off my exercising.  On top of that, for one of the weeks this month my wife and I will be away on vacation.

If I’m going to have anything resembling decent workout numbers for this month, then I’m going to have to really push myself.