New TV Series: Over There

I watched this new series last night - Over There - The episode had several short stories presented in staggered format; a story was presented about an interrogation in Iraq, a kid who lost his leg and didn't want to take morphine and a man whose wife was in Iraq attending a spouse support group consisting of all women. It was this last story that touched me the most. When he breaks down in the group and tells about his recent visit to the grocery store (commissary -sp?) where he's unable to put back food he almost buys for his wife (who is over in Iraq), I felt at least part of his pain. All in all, I think it was a good show. The action shots were very TV-produced special effects in style, but they got their point across. I think the show will do well, but it's not necessarily compelling television. There are some shows that I will sit down to the TV specifically to watch. This show is just one I'll watch if it's on while I'm vegging out.

OMG STFU Already!

Not happy with the assault on GTA: San Andreas, an attorney in Florida is now going after The Sims. Why? Because it may be possible to view the smooth, un-detailed bodies of Sims in Sims 2 with the use of a cheat code. That's right, visual depictions of the smooth shape of a human being, WITHOUT GENITALIA OR NIPPLES, has the objections of some idiot in Florida with too much time on his hands. Perhaps next he'd like to withdraw all of the dolls in the universe, slapping ratings on Barbie and Ken. Hell, why stop there - what about all of those cartoons that depict naked animals on TV...(Bugs Bunny - you need to buy some pants, dude.) After all, last time I checked, Looney Tunes was rated G. Even my V-chip is incapable of locking those nasty naked critters from the eyes of my child.
People, people, people, will you all please just SHUT THE HELL UP!? Here's the link: Jackass attorney tries to make fool out of himself - succeeds..

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I am a fan of the original movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I've seen it about eight or ten times. I have a tape of it I recorded off of a movie channel preview in 1987. I've seen it in outdoor theaters, movie theaters and on my big screen at home. I love the Oompa-Loompa songs and I think Gene Wilder was a genius. So, of course, Saturday found me in a seat at the local theater where I watched Johnny Depp play Willy Wonka for Tim Burton's version of the book. I also happen to be a Johnny Depp fan, so I tried my best to keep an open mind with this movie, and in fact, the actors, with one exception, did not disappoint. I think they did a wonderful job playing their parts.
The movie had one horrible disappointment, however. The Oompa-Loompas failed to impress at all. The big singing, dancing numbers were interesting, yes. But, the words they were singing were impossible to hear. The modulation of the music was handled terribly, and the impact of the Oompa-Loompa's songs was destroyed by poor production. The original movie did this right. The original Oompa-Loompas were scary, comical, clownish and frightful, and had IMPACT on the audience. The production numbers Tim Burton envisioned were not clownish and frightful. They were clownish as perhaps children see clowns. They were not dark, evil clowns, but instead a funny little production number.
I don't blame the Oompa-Loompa actor (that may have saved Tim money, but it made it worse, really), but instead blame the production team who chose the effect they presented. I also blame Tim a bit, seeing as how he doesn't seem to really understand that clowns are supposed to be frightening to adults. There is a duality in their existence that he has severely missed. Overall, the movie just wasn't dark enough. It could have been, and all he needed to do was hire a bunch of little people, dress them up and make them sing in clown make-up.
My vote goes to the original.....all hail Gene Wilder.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Of course I waited in a book store until midnight on Friday to pick it up. Of course I've finished the book before the weekend was out. I'm a Potter geek through and through. I love the books. No, I did not dress up as Voldemort or a Death Eater. No I didn't even wear an 'I am Voldemort' T-shirt like some of the geeks that showed up. If you're not a Harry Potter fan, you may not know what you're missing. They are some well-written and engrossing tales. Go ahead, try one. What could it hurt?
This book isn't the best one of the series. In fact, I felt that there were too many marginal characters involved in the story, and the author could have explained a few things about some of what was going on. Even though I'd read the first 5 books in the series, I don't remember exactly why everyone is mad at Percy or who Fleur is. A short paragraph would have helped, although it may not have been following the style of the series. Two years is a long time to wait and expect us to remember the previous book. No, I didn't go back and read #5 before hitting the bookstore.
The thing that has made the last few books interesting though is the British author's penchant for killing off major characters in the story. Although this particular kill-off I felt was transparent. There was way too much fore-shadowing from the middle of the story (but I won't ruin it for you).

Repair Your Own Major Appliance

Cost for GE Repairman to come and LOOK at your broken washing machine: $69
Estimated cost from local repairmen to replace broken lid switch on washing machine after paying him to look at it.: $125 - $200
Cost of new part from online RepairClinic.Com - $32 with shipping.
Satisfaction of repairing your own major appliance faster than you can get a repair guy to your home: Priceless

Folks, this website is GREAT. You just go to the website, select your make and model number, and select what's wrong. They tell you how to open the appliance (where's the stupid clips!!), how to figure out what's wrong, and then give you pictures of the parts before you order them to know you're getting the right replacement part. The part was $23.95 and with 2-day shipping of $7.95, I had the part and installed it in 5 minutes.
Granted, I'm not afraid of a little electrical repair, but this made my job so much easier, and with the right parts in hand, my repair job wasn't just two wires connected with electrical tape when I was done. I replaced the lid switch and it looks exactly like it did before I started. And just think, no ass crack was involved at all.

GreenZAP - Send No Money

No posts for a month - wow. Now that Greenzap is open, I would recommend that you not go giving them any money (even if you have rewards coming to you) - Take a listen to this radio interview. It's GREAT - they've waylayed these guys, and asked them direct questions, to which there seem to be no good answers. Listen yourself before sending money to GreenZAP or filling out any Bank information on their website.

Posted New Game Analyses

I've posted new games I've played. I pulled the PGNs from GameKnot (UPDATE: STAY THE HELL AWAY - THESE PEOPLE ARE UNPROFESSIONAL AND DISCOURTEOUS) and fed them to Crafty 19.17 for 10 seconds a move. I only analyzed my own moves for mistakes. If you're interested in my weaknesses in play, it might help you. Just pull up my chess games page and walk through the commentary. No human comments in there yet.

Lost My Chess Tournament

I played in (and lost both games at) my first chess tourney today. The pressure was unbelievable, even when I was winning (during the second game). The 'never sure' about your moves is amplified by the addition of a clock and time and performance pressure. I need to learn to listen to the little voice in my head a bit more. Both times that I made the fatal error, I had thought about the thing that got me in trouble. In one, I had even written down a potentially saving move as an option on my scorecard. I know that I poo-pooed one potentially game turning move without adequate analysis (time pressure, or just tired after an hour of play?)...
If I want to win at tournaments, I'm going to have to work on my stamina, and also work on my own ego/assurance levels so that I don't question my self so much in the opening moves, allowing myself more time toward the endgame.
Well, I'll try not to be TOOO hard on myself, even though my first opponent was 11 years old, and he beat me....sigh. Of course, I beat myself. After giving up a pawn, I viewed my game as hopeless, and didn't try as hard as I should have. Had I hung in there, I may have been able to recover the game...but the psychology of losing that pawn to a stupid tactic (discovered attack/zugzwang combo) that I had already THOUGHT to myself that I should have moved out of before-hand, was too much for me.

I hate Chess

I hate Chess - I hate losing Chess. I suck at chess - I'm sick of losing. I hate Chess - I hate losing Chess. I suck at chess - I'm sick of losing. I hate Chess - I hate losing Chess. I suck at chess - I'm sick of losing. I hate Chess - I hate losing Chess. I suck at chess - I'm sick of losing. I hate Chess - I hate losing Chess. I suck at chess - I'm sick of losing. I hate Chess - I hate losing Chess. I suck at chess - I'm sick of losing. I hate Chess - I hate losing Chess. I suck at chess - I'm sick of losing. I hate Chess - I hate losing Chess. I suck at chess - I'm sick of losing. I hate Chess - I hate losing Chess. I suck at chess - I'm sick of losing.
There - got that out of my system.....

Take Control of Your Life

Following in the footsteps of a fellow blogger, I have cancelled my Everquest accounts, both of them. I haven't played in many months, and still have half a year left on one subscription, but I've turned off the billing for both of them. Damn it, getting your out of control expenses in line is one of the first steps to financial maturity, and it's about time after 38 years that I take some steps. I also moved some debt from 11% to a 0% for a year credit card. I am TAKING control. Next step is to get rid of my Blockbuster-by-mail subscription. Netflix did it so much better, anyway, but I don't really need to watch so much TV.
It's spring - time for some spring cleaning don't you think? Sony has had me on their Everquest-drip for too long, if you ask me. It's worse than crack, because they keep improving it to make it better for those who stay on it the longest. The nail in the coffin? Veteran Rewards which give increasing skills to people like me who've been around 6 or 7 years. That's right - I started in 1999! Ugh - no more. I need to concentrate more on fewer things.