The New Road

Congratulations Lori!

Lori finished the 37.5 mile Great Barrier Reef swim today, and put an extra mile in on doing it twice. She came in 4th place overall, and first among the women. And I think she is the first one to semi-officially go for it a second time. I'm totally blown away by the fact that she is putting in 6.5 miles a week at this point. I put in 7.5 during the last week of my swim and it damn near killed me.

Normally we swim seperately, but I wanted today to be something special, so I suprised her by going to the pool around when she started and we swam her first mile together. Not only was it fun to be with her, but we both took a minute off our average times by competing against each other. I wish I could swim with her more often. Unfortunately our schedules don't line up that well.

Good on yah Lori!

Down With Copernicanism

Apparently, not only is evolution evil and bad, but Copernicus was evil as well. Quoting from the Fixed Earth site:

The Bible and all real evidence confirms that this is precisely what He did, and indeed:

The Earth is not rotating...nor is it going around the sun.

And on, and on, like that. I love these rant sites. They are always formatted to be almost completely unreadable. In the old days, before the Interweb Tubes, this is the kind of stuff that insane people would hand you as a couple of photocopied sheets. Inexplicable rants typed on a Royal typewriter by a nut job and passed around as a way to see The Truth™.

These were always fun little rants to read on the train on the way home from work. It was always some wacky nonsense about evolution being demonic, or the early being flat. What's sad is that nowadays some of these things that used to be just the domain of lunatics are now mainstream political ideas.

What happens when we given into this notion that self-proclaimed religious zealots can say this science is wrong because it contradicts our thousand year old screed? What if the right is actually succesful in banning the teaching of evolution? Is teaching that the Earth doesn't rotate around the Sun next? How far do we take it? The bible doesn't say anything about TVs, should we destroy all those? It doesn't say anything about electricity, should we all live in the dark?

And what is it about Copernicus with this guy? Fundamentalists believe elvolution is evil because it implies that no intelligent creator fashioned man as a special act, thus un-hooking man from the notion of a divine creator and thus potentially alleviating a lot of sin. But the Earth rotating around the Sun? Why is that so important? I just don't get it, but then I really don't understand fundamentalism either.

Really Weird Dream

It's thought that one of the reasons we sleep is to give our minds time to take all of our experiences from the day and organize them into our long term memories, linking and reinforcing it's patterns. Last night I had a fitfull nights leep and I felt like I woke up (to some degree) in the middle of that process. Visually it looked as if I floating in a sea of icons, but not full icons, just fragments. It's as if I found the programmers debug access in my brain. As I got closer and closer to being awake it quickly drifted away. But for a moment it felt as if I got a glimpse of my own memory organizing itself. It was really cool. Of course, it's probably just another dream that really has nothing to do with anything, but that doesn't make it any less neat.

Green Wii

Not only is the Wii more fun to play than the PS3 and the XBOX 360, it's also greener. Turns out the Wii draws about a tenth of the power of the PS3 and the 360. Even when you are playing games it's only drawing about 30 watts. And when it's idle it goes down to 13 watts. Amazing.

On the video game note, Eric brought over his PS3 on the weekend. Megan and Lori were up with Pam, Yvonne and Josephine, so I was able to see a little of the consoles marquee title, "Resistance: Fall of Man". It was indeed technically impressive. Vastly superior to anything I'd seen on the XBOX 360. And the use of the big screen through HDMI, and the sound system over the fiber channel, is enough to give any hardcore gamer a serious case of the drools.

But is it fun? Certainly I don't think PS3 is the family console of choice. The Wii games are just a lot more fun for the family. And the controllers get you up and moving around. Frankly, we haven't stopped playing Wii Sports since the day I got it. And we still like it. The Wii has far and away recovered it's cost in just the few months we have owned it.

For a serious single gamer who wants long involved games that suck his (or her) life away for very long periods of time, and who have a killer TV and sound system, PS3 is the way to go. It feels far more polished to me than the 360. The graphics are better. The Blu-Ray DVD playback will knock your damn socks off. And the titles, while extremely limited in number, seem solid. Plus they compete on the network level by providing downloads and all the yadda yadda yadda rest.

If Sony drops the price substantially I might actually think about getting one to replace the DVD player. The Blu-Ray DVD output is just so jaw-droppingly insanely sweet that it's almost a shame to not have it hooked onto the TV.

Back in the pool

I went for a swim for the first time in a couple of weeks this morning. I was going to do intervals. But I wanted to make sure my distance swim was still together, so I did a mile in my usual time.

As I was leaving I looked at the big board to see what was up. I was a little shocked because the progress line goes from left to right, and there were a whole lot more people on the far right in the done area than I remember. So I checked the log book and it turns out the new people are all at zero and they were put there for what must be artistic reasons. So the results still stand, I came in third and Lori will very likely come in fourth. Mark, the guy behind Lori, is apparently away on a long business trip, which is why his numbers haven't moved since I finished.

While I was standing there the coordinator of the race approached me and we got to talking about it. I mentioned that I had come in third and she said that she was excited that people were looking at it as a race and were serious about finishing. Apparently they have had a lot of trouble getting people to finish. She is also looking for a way to honor the people that have finished to provide more incentive. Which gets me to wondering if there is some easy web-based option for putting up race results and racer bios.

Top Gear (extra)

Chongo points out that the YouTube video of the Top Gear segment that I referenced yesterday has been pulled at the request of the BBC. Here is my summary of what was on the video.

Top Gear is a BBC car show with three hosts. Most of the time they spend reviewing cars that range from the ordinary to the extraordinary super car. Sometimes they do little challenges like racing across Europe to deliver a food product, or something like that.

This particular segment was another one of these challenge type deals. In this case the three of them start in the woods in rural Alabama. They are stinking hot and sweaty and standing in front of three cars, one for each of them. The central host is given the card with the challenge on it. The challenge he says, is to get out of Alabama, and to get one of the other hosts either arrested or killed.

They obviously wonder how, and it's revealed that each one will paint a slogan on another's car. You then see them cogitating and painting, but it's not revealed until they are on the road what the slogans are. They include; "Hillary For President", "Nascar Sucks", "I support man love", etc.

They drive down the road and get beeps and hollers as you would expect. But then... They need to stop for gas. They drive in and almost immediately get into trouble. The woman who runs the station comes out and yells at them about being gay, and how they are in a hick town, and on and on. Then she goes off and says she is going to 'get the boys'.

At this point things get really nasty. People start throwing rocks at the camera crew. They decide they are going to leave. One gets away clean. But another has to go back to give the third a jump. While executing the jump a truck shows up with about six burly guys and it looks like it's going to get ugly. Thankfully they get the jump going and get out.

At this point most of the video is blank and all you hear is the CB traffic between the cars and the production crew. It's pretty clear that they are genuinely shit scared. Using the last sparks of their intellect they pull off the road and wash the slogans off the cars then get back on the road.

That's where the video ends.

I'll iterate what I said earlier, I honestly think this could have happened anywhere. If I were to drive down Calle Ocho in Miami with "Viva Castro" painted on the side of my car I think it wouldn't go well. It's just a question of matching the offensive slogan with the locale.

Disneyland Runs

I got an email this morning from Active.com telling me about the Disneyland 5K, 10K and Half Marathon runs. They actually go through Disneyland! That is really cool. I'm thinking about doing the Half Marathon. I'm not a good runner, but hell, it's worth a try.

Maybe the 5K too, if I can get Lori into it. It's in September, so there is a lot of time to train. And in the 5K I think I could do it with Megan just walking, semi-jogging, or up-shoulders, or in a running stroller. It's called a "Family Fun Run" so my guess is that a lot of young kids will be there. I'd love for Megan to have a t-shirt that she earned from some sport event early on in life.

My mom never shared her love of running with me, so I had to learn about exercise late in life. I like that Lori and I are setting an example for Megan by talking about working outs, going to workouts, and doing fitness videos. And Megan seems to like it too. She loves doing some of the yoga moves with Mom in front of the TV.

Speaking of Lori and fitness, she is doing awesome. She has moved into fourth overall in the 37.5 mile swim, and she has a 10+ mile lead on the nearest woman. She's doing usually around a mile and a half a day, and on most weeks multiple two mile swims, which is awesome.

Top Gear Nearly Killed

One of my favorite British TV shows, Top Gear, almost gets itself killed by writing slogans on the sides of their cars and driving through Alabama. I'll let you see for yourself what the slogans are. It starts out funny but gets ugly quickly. Honestly, this isn't just the South, wiriting some of that stuff will get you in a lot of trouble in an rural area of the country. And there are some slogans that would get you in deep shit in the inner city as well.

Nouvelle Bistro

Lori and I had a date night last night, so we went to the Nouvelle Bistro in Fremont. The cuisine was a asian fusion. I had a satay to start, then the duck for a main. Lori had coconut shrimp to start and a filet mignon for the main. The food was absolutely superb, exceptionally well spiced, cooked to perfection, and displayed beautifully. We had desert as well, but it was uninspired. Clearly they don't concentrate on the deserts.

Half way through the meal an old friend from Certive came in with a party of six. He sort of noticed me and I tried to make eye contact with him, it didn't work. So after the meal I went by the table and re-introduced myself. Lori and I had spent a lot of the time trying to remember his first name, she got it first, and we were right. Which was handy. Turns out he now runs two food companies making a juice and a protein bar. I think I'll be checking out some of those bars. They look good.

Money Trumps Peace

When Bush actually speaks from his true beliefs it's worth listening. Example in point, this choice quote from a recent press conference:

let's put it this way, money trumps peace, sometimes.

At least he is being honest for once.

1/2 Hour News Hour

Recently I watched video from a conservative meeting of their intellectuals. One got to talking about how they were getting lampooned effectively by the shows on Comedy Central, and that they ought to "buy their own show". The reason I was watching the video was to get a peak at a tacit admission that the whole conservative movement was never a grassroots thing, but a big show that was bought by big business fat cats. That's how the American Enterprise Institute got started. It's a gravy train.

So, as per usual, ask a fat cat and yea shall receive. There is a new show on Fox called the "1/2 Hour News Hour" which is a complete rip-off of The Daily Show. Have a watch for yourself on YouTube. They have a live audience, but the comedy is so bad they have to put a laugh track on top of it. It's like watching M*A*S*H, with the laugh track, but without the funny.

I haven't watched the whole show, but I did hear another segment that had Rush Limbaugh appearing as the President in 2008. It too was shockingly bad. Rush Limbaugh, like Ann Coulter, is only a comedian because it provides legal protection against hate speech. He isn't actually funny. Take this joke from Rush; "We all remember Cindy Sheehan's cross country shooting spree."

Rush, remember that old saying, "in every joke there is a grain of truth". Yeah, that's what's missing here. Cindy Sheehan has never been associated with gun violence. She is a peaceful protester. Something like this would have been better; "We all remember with horror when Cindy Sheehan teamed up with Leo Buscalia for a cross country peace, love and hug spree. It took weeks to get the smell of patchouli out of the country." It's at least somewhat in character for her. Killing, violence, death threats, these are only funny in your demented mind Rush. They aren't funny to sane people.

I actually wish Fox all the success in the world with their new show. I hope that conservatives learn to lighten up and laugh a little at humor that doesn't involve torturing and killing their enemies. Fox needs to move beyond stealing the set design and the format of The Daily Show, to the humor itself. Jon Stewart lampoons everyone; conservatives, liberals, the media, and himself. And he takes time to set the jokes up. That set up time, by the way, is called the 'news' and it's often some of the best on TV.

Honestly, what has happened to Fox? They used to be really good at making the propaganda seem half way real. Now it's just half-assed cheesy crap. Is their heart still in it?

Update: You can see the crappy Rush Limbaugh clip here. Ann Coulter is in it as well, who looks more anorexic and frightening than usual. I also like how Rush makes a joke about medications, given that he eats Oxycontin like they are M&Ms.

Everybody Votes Channel

This morning Nintendo released a new service on the Wii, the "Everybody Votes Channel". It's a polling system where questions are submitted by the community with simple two option answers. One of the questions this morning was "Which is a more romantic Valentine gift?" And the two answers were "Chocolates" or "Flowers". I went with chocolates, given that it's what I got Lori.

The answers are then sent to Nintendo to be tallied and we will find out later which won. Another cool feature is that you can try to predict what the answer will be, and I guess you get a rating as to how good your predictions are.

I know Megan will love it because she loves all of the Wii channels no matter how pointless. She always wants to check the weather, or scroll through the news. Plus, she loves making decisions about things. So this will be right down her alley. It will probably give her even more incentive to start to read.

Yoga

I've been getting more into Yoga in the last couple of weeks. Going to a course in Mountain View with Joe and Elizabeth really helped. The course was great, and the instructor was excellent. The current challenge I have with myself is to accomplish the Upward Facing Bow Pose and hold it for ten seconds. I can get myself up in the air, but after a few seconds I collapse.

Toyota FT-HS

Am I the only one who thinks the Toyota FT-HS looks awful. Don't get me wrong. I love the specs on the thing. It's a hybrid. And it goes like a cut cat. But the body styling... Ugh. It's reminiscent of the Aztek. And not in a good way.

New Title, New Look

I decided that the title Driving Sideways really doesn't represent my life the way that it did, almost too appropriate, when I started this blog many years ago. Looking back on it, it's clear that I was kind of in a slow drift. I was living more in the past than in the present, with my head going here and there instead of locked in towards the future.

With all of the changes I've made it only makes sense that I would change the blog as well, and so I have. The title The New Road comes from an Indigo Girls song, Fill It Up Again, where they sing, "... What's this trip going to cost me this time? The devil I know is starting to look awfully kind. But the new road is an old friend. Fill it up again." And I have really liked that line since the first time I heard it. It speaks to me of embracing the ever-changing world of the present and the future. The road reference also plays into the theme that life is in the journey and not the destination.

I'll be making some more changes over time based on the new title and the theme. For the moment I'm pretty happy with the new look. It's fresher and more interesting than what I had before.

One thing I really like about this is that the blog will now act as a daily reminder to me of what how I'm trying to get my life firing on all cylinders and going in the right direction. That I'm trying to keep focused on the future, keep moving with all the changes that come along, and to realize every day that it's the little things along the way that mean everything and that I can't accomplish absolutely everything.

Absolutely Not Thinking

Neil Cavuto interviewed Client Eastwood about a number of things. They talked about Iraq, and that was interesting. But Neil also asked him about Million Dollar Baby, saying that he has thrown for a loop as a conservative because of the assisted suicide. Clint responded that the suicide in the movie was there to make you think about the issue.

This thinking thing, it's a problem for conservatives. The only way to hold an ideal as absolute is if you don't actually spend the time to think about it. Because thinking involves questioning, and absolute ideas can't be questioned. But I'll tell yah, anyone with any real life experience understands that the death with dignity issue is a lot more complicated than conservative philosophy allows for.

Conservatives will get a stark reality check when it's their terminally ill mother or father who is in extreme pain and wishing for the release of death. I doubt they will feel as absolutist then. One hopes that they learn from their experience and stop trying to press their absolutist philosophy on the rest of us who understand that end of life issues are very complex.

Pelosi's Plane

The Pelosi Plane scandal is the stupidest thing I've heard the Republicans come up with in some time. And that's really saying something. What are they complaining about again? The fact that the air force wants to give Pelosi the type of plane required to fly to California because the White House says so? And Pelosi herself would be fine flying coach? Yeah, that's a scandal.

Well, given that it costs $300,000 to fly the plane over to California. Let me see. $300,000 into the $12 billion stolen from the Treasury by the Bush administration and sent to Iraq, is 36,000. So why don't we just get the stolen $12 billion back and the cost of 36,000 of those plane trips will be covered.

Republicans, try to wake me up when you have a real scandal. Blowjobs, small time embezzlement deals, unrequested plane upgrades, these things aren't scandals. They are just silly, just as Tony Snow says. Give us all a break, sit down, shut up and take your medicine like the good little crooks you are.

Star Trek Remastered

I decided to have a go at watching one of the newly remastered editions of Star Trek (The Original Series). In case you haven't heard of this they are taking all of the original shows, cleaning them up, and adding new effects to the space scenes. You can get them on iTunes for $1.99 a pop.

I have to say, they look a lot better than I remember. The digital effects aren't overwhelming at all, they fit in nicely. And the quality of the non-space scenes is extraordinary.

Plus the shows aren't bad either. Shatner isn't nearly as bad as we all remember. And the plot, at least of the one I watched (Balance Of Terror) was very engaging. Event though it was clearly limited by time and budget constraints.

I think the original series certainly stacks up well against the later shows. It beats almost all of Enterprise hands down. It beats the first season of Next Generation handily. But then the only Trek that I think is any good are the Borg episodes of Next Generation, the arc shows in DS9, and the later "Seven of Nine centric" episodes of Voyager.

There is a lot of good retro TV on iTunes available relatively cheaply. The only thing I wish they had but they don't so far is the third season of Babylon Five, which was some of the best Sci-Fi ever produced.

Vegetarianism: My 15 year mistake

My fifteen years as a vegetarian was a mistake. For me. I now realize that having gone back to eating meat. Which I find has had enormous health benefits for me in even this brief period of time. And I'm of the mind that my vegetarian diet had a lot to do with some of my medical issues around the time of my first weight loss.

I've given the vegetarian diet a good turn. Fifteen years is a long time. But it just doesn't work for me. Going vegetarian while remaining in the basic American cuisine groups; American, Italian, Mexican, just doesn't make any sense. The vegetarian options in those cuisines are diet busters chock full of carbs and fat. The only tenable vegetarian diets I can see that might work for me would be all Indian food, or a full-on Vegan style whole grains, steamed rice and tons of legumes and tofu affair. And both of those options just don't work for me.

One of the reasons I initially went vegetarian was to get out of a cycle of daily lethargy that had sunk into my life. I felt really slow after consuming beef, so I blamed that. I did feel transiently better, but that could have been psychosomatic. I think the real problem was that I wasn't getting any exercise at the time. Now being back on a consistent exercise schedule, and being off caffeine, I have a nice energy arc through the day.

On the social conscience aspect of vegetarianism. Let me first say that my primary reason for being a vegetarian was health. And it was only after reading books like Fast Food Nation, that I found another good reason for being a vegetarian. But... I'm still going to eat meat anyway. Though I despise the factory farming techniques used to create the meats for McDonalds and the rest of the chains. I just won't eat at those chains. In fact, I'm pretty picky about where I eat. I prefer Mom and Pop local places, which I think pay more attention to their food products.

Obviously I speak from only my personal perspective. I think everyone has different body types and so different diet requirements. But for me, I'll be staying with meat for a while.

So, all in all; what a shame. But at least I'm a big enough man to know when I was wrong, admit that I made a mistake, and hope that other people can learn from it.

On a lighter note

Maxim has put together clips of some of the worst movie love scenes. They are really funny, shocking, horrible, nauseating, etc. The pages load safe for work, but clicking on the movies will result in something likely not safe for work.

Swim finished

I finished the Great Barrier Reef swim. If it were a race, which it's not, I would have come in third overall, and third among men. Lori is currently fifth overall, and first among women. Go Lori!

The last two miles were actually some of the best I have swum in some time. I gave myself a bit of a break yesterday after doing the two miles in the morning. And I went to bed right after Megan which gave me a really good nights sleep.

Today I concentrated on widening my shoulders and creating a longer form in the water. As a result my stroke count went down by one, and I felt like I was in this slip stream moving through the water. It's times like that when I really wish the pool were longer.

I wanted to do something somewhat special for the last length of the last lap of the last mile. So I did that whole length with just one breath. I didn't think I could do that. Turns out I could and it was actually quite easy. My lung capacity has obviously gotten a lot better.

Man, if you had asked me a year ago if I would be able to swim 37.5 miles in a month (give or take), I would have never said yes to that. Even six months ago, when I struggled just to get across the pool once, I would have balked at such a notion.

But that's how it is I guess. The human body is an amazing thing in how it can adapt and change to meet the differing requirements we put on it.

Ah, well. Back to running and biking for a little while. I have to get a lot better at those, otherwise the tri-athlete thing is going to be more like uni-athlete.

What were once conspiracy theories...

Are now becoming matters of public record. Like the case of the Bush administration sending $4.3 billion dollars in cash into Baghdad, right after the fall. Where did the money go? Who knows. It came in in literal palettes. Bundles of cash, wrapped in plastic, taken from the Treasury, loaded on C-130s and flown into Baghdad. There was so much cash, they were playing football with it on the airfields.

Where did it go? Who knows. That's what Paul Bremmer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, says. Nice.

This is just the beginning of the Iraq fraud that could be uncovered. I remember a GAO report from about a year after the start of the war that said that eight billion dollars had been sent over which was completely unaccounted for. Eight billion! Just in the first year.

What amazed me at the time was that I would switch over to Fox News and hear about the "Oil For Food" scandal, which, at it's worst was I think around $30 million, as this huge deal. When in reality eight billion was being bilked from the American people as those shows aired.

Two more to go

Two more miles to go until I'm done with the 37.5 Great Barrier Reef swim. Oh, man. This last half has really been tough.

I realized why my pace has basically doubled (or more) for the last half of the swim. It's because of the line chart that shows everyone's positions. If it weren't for that I probably would have gone at my regular leisurely pace. But seeing that I could finish in third has really put a fire under me.

Ben Stein

Off and on I have found Ben Stein to be on target. I'm a fiscal conservative, and he tends to bend that way on some policies. Of course, then he goes around a says nutjob shit that supports the lunatic fringe of the Republican party, like this sweet treat:

"I'm not a big fan of Al Gore. I really think he should be a subject for testing of mental disease drugs."

Was that even meant to be funny? I really can't tell. Republican humor just escapes me. Threatening torture, maiming or death. When has that ever been funny? Maybe Ben should be looking into mental illness drugs to treat his own problems. In the meantime... Fuck you, Ben.

Catch and Release

Lori and I had a rare night out together, so we went to see Catch And Release, the new movie from Jennifer Garner. I probably could say romantic comedy, but that's odd, since it's more drama than comedy, as it starts with a funeral.

Overall, I enjoyed it. It's more my type of film than a straight up romantic comedy. I like character pieces like Garden State, and this movie was more in that style. As with those types of films the locale plays a role, and here Boulder is given excellent coverage. This could easily pass for a Boulder tourism film if they wanted to attract good looking slackers.

On the acting side, Garner did really well. I thought she played the transitions the character goes through really well. Kevin Smith was a fun side kick, doing his usual self-deprecating best. Though I think he stretched it a little more than usual. Timothy Olyphant, who Lori assures me is as sexy as he's made out to be (I don't think so), was very good. Sam Jaeger was left out in the cold in the script and did his able best to get back into the picture. Juliette Lewis seemed to be having a lot of fun with her portrayal of a ditsy massage therapist.

Turns out Garner was pregnant when she made the movie which accounts for her slightly less than perfect physique. Which I don't mind. It's just unusual to see her at anything less than 0% body fat form.

Yeah, as I say, overall a nice nuanced piece played with a deft hand. If anything perhaps a little too light as it will probably roll straight out of theaters in a week or two, then into DVD in a couple of months, to a lukewarm reception. It's one of those movies that's a weekend popcorn, under the blanket with slippers and a dog, type deal.

Yoga class

I took my first formal yoga class in more than a decade on Sunday. It was only the second time I had ever done it. This class was so much better. I'll probably take a few more classes. Maybe at the new Union City sports complex. But if that's too clinical I may go back to this place.

What I really enjoyed was the atmosphere. It was like a combination massage and workout. It was warm. The people were friendly. The instructor was really nice, and had a good combination of funny and smart that made it all entertaining.

The instructor brought a harmonium and at the beginning and the end played a loud interval that we them chanted an Ohm to. It was impressive how thirty people chanting ohm on queue and on note can be a very moving and powerful experience.

Group singing or chanting is very powerful. I think that's one of the most powerful tools of religion and the church. It's the power of the physical structure of the building, and the ritualized singing and chanting, which when brought together can be awe inspiring.

Finishing off the swim

I'm trying to wrap up my part of the 37.5 mile swim this week. Hopefully on or before the 37th day. Where today is the 33rd. I did 1.25 this morning. My hope is to do 2.25 tonight. Then 2 on Tuesday and 2 on Wednesday. And that would be it. Fallback would be none tonight, then pick up the 2.25 on Wednesday night (brutal.) And then the fallback from that would be to do 1.25 on Thursday morning and the final 1 on Thursday night.

After I'm done I'll probably pass on swimming for a week or two to concentrate on the bike and running. Then when I get back in the pool I'll do more interval work to increase my speed, and try different strokes. Apparently the really important tri stroke is the freestyle where you keep your head out of the water. That ensures you don't get a foot to the head, or run into anyone. But I'll work on side stroke and breast stroke as well.

Smokin' Aces

Avoid "Smokin' Aces". Whatever you do.

Even on DVD.

Even on HBO.

The trailer sets it up as a "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" type of movie. But while that movie had an excellent script, great editing, and solid acting. This movie had none of that. The script was a mess. There were good ideas, but they were all horribly executed. The editing was horrible. On the slow scenes they lingered too long. And the action was cut so roughly, it was almost impossible to figure out what was going on half the time.

The acting wasn't horrible. It was passable for this type of movie. But none of the characters was tasked with anywhere near a remotely likeable personality. And a film that's trying to be a fun, edgy, thrill ride should have that. Jeremy Piven plays it way too far. After a while you wish someone would just shoot him so that they could roll the credits and you could go home. Andy Garcia was wooden and awful. Ryan Reynolds just overacted the hell out of it. He clearly was grasping for some meaning in a character that had no coherent story arc. Ray Liotta wasn't half bad, but his role was so limited that it would be tough to have screwed it up.

Seriously, about three quarters of the way in, I was ready to walk out. It was that bad.

Overall, a miserable film. Well deserving it's 26% Rotten Tomatoes score. And it gets a person peeve award for me for having a trailer that advertised a completely different type of movie from what was on the celluloid. Fuck you Universal!

Full contact swimming

I decided to do a couple of miles at the pool tonight before going to see "Smokin' Aces" for some brain candy. Everything was going great for the first mile. After that a second man entered the lane. No problem. We split it down the middle. He was a pretty bad swimmer, but we had some fun now and again racing for small segments.

At about a mile and a half we were at the far edge of the pool at the same time. So he takes off like a bat out of hell. And I do a flip turn and start coming up on him. Pretty soon we are side by side. A wall, if you will. Heading towards the near edge of the pool.

Next thing I know, there is a huge blob in front of me and something hits me in the head. Turns out a lady decided to jump in, but didn't want to wait until we got to her to have us commence circular swimming. She just heads straight at us. Or more specifically me.

Crash! I reel back, everything locks up. After a second or two of just stunned (with a little curse tossed in for good measure), I check to make sure she is ok. Then we get everything sorted out I swim back to the edge. But every muscle is now on fire from having pulled the emergency brake.

On the next time around the guard came over and asked if I had seen her. I said, "No." I really hadn't. I was in the zone. And I did a flip turn which offers very little visibility of the far edge of the pool. So she gave the woman a little talk about proper lane etiquette and how to join turn a split line with two people, into a circle swim with three. Something you would think she knows about since she was going into the fast lane.

When I got back to the locker room I saw that I had more than my muscles strained by the encounter. There was centimeter long scratch just above my eye probably made by her finger nails on the down stroke.

Note to self; when splitting the lane, always take the left side. The right hand portion of the lane is the crash zone. This has happened to me twice now. It's never happened to Lori.

Cheese Bagels

The last time we went to get bagels Megan asked me if she has always eaten cheese bagels. Yes, she has:

Since before she could even walk.

Dogging

I hear a term I have never heard before, and I just have to know what it means. Today's slang term; dogging. So what does it mean? Turns out it's a two-fer. Let's go to to the Urban Dictionary for a look.

The first definition is:

(British) The act of having sex in a public place, especially in parks.

Ah, yes. I see. (I actually picked the cleanest version of it I could find.)

But if that's the first, what could possibly be...

In Warcraft III, (either Reign of Chaos or Frozen Throne), the practice of, when playing the Orc race, to select the Far Seer as the first hero and repeatedly "hero rush" the opponent's base using summoned Spirit Wolves to attack, usually targeting the workers (orc peons, human peasants, night-elf wisps, or undead acolytes).

More geeky? Classic. I am glad to know that the term was held over between, uh, Reign of Chaos, and Frozen Throne. Or vice versa.

Never has a single word been used for more clearly disparate purposes.