Stardate 59566.28 - Reviews

Dawn of the Dead (remake) - Two thumbs up!! The ending was not "Hollywood", the characters were well acted, and it was just tongue-in-cheek enough to be fairly humorous. It was pretty gory, however, and is not for the weak-stomached.

Bridget Jones - Edge of Reason - Two thumbs down. Not good. Couple of funny moment, but it was such a huge deviation from the book that we really didn't like it.

Also went to see The Waifs at Joe's Pub Monday night. Terrific show!! They have one final concert tonight, and then they are off for about 12 months. The lead act, Ben Weaver, who is married to one of the Waifs (Donna), was not very good, in my opinion. I bought his CD hoping that the studio version of him would be better...it is not. In fact, it is worse than him live. Sorry Donna and Ben! At least Ben got my $15. The two people we went to see the show with both loved The Waifs so much they both purchased the double live album at the door on the way out.

Stardate 59544.37 - Baby Girl on the Way

While we have not made a general announcement via e-mail or anything, my wife is around 21 weeks pregnant right now and we are expecting a baby girl in November 2005 (approximately stardate 59866). Perhaps I will write about that experience here.

While everything seems good so far we are still a little apprehensive after previous pregancies did not work out. So far, however, all seems well with this one.

Stardate 59536.01 - Another Movie Review

Forgot to add:

The Chronicles of Riddick

Thumb sideways - Cheryl did not watch this one either. The first movie, Pitch Black, which was not set up for a sequel, was really good. Making a sequel was a bit of a stretch, and the ending is a little over the top.

Stardate 59535.53: Naples Italy

It has been some time since I have written here, so I will put in several separate entries so that people can ignore the ones they don’t care about. You hear that, my 1-2 readers? Don’t just read the first article below. There are several new ones.

Recently spent 15 days in Europe on business: Germany, Belgium, and Italy. Now, I love Italy. Cheryl and I spent 2 weeks in the north on vacation with another couple and we all absolutely loved the country. The other couple even went back this year for another 2 weeks. But I have to say that Naples is not the north. Not even close. Naples is a pit. Awful. Hot, crowded, dirty, polluted, and miserable to try and get anywhere. We found a small area of pretty good restaurants, but it required a shuttle ride from the hotel and a taxi ride back.

I was do disappointed as I loved the north so much and I was so excited to be back in Italy with someone else footing the bill but Naples just plain sucked. I guess you can use Naples to launch off to other islands nearby that are nice, but I recommend no one spend any time in the city of Naples.

Stardate 59535.53: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

It has been some time since I have written here, so I will put in several separate entries so that people can ignore the ones they don’t care about. You hear that, my 1-2 readers? Don’t just read the first article below. There are at least two new ones.

This is the most stupid situation I can imagine. Wait…no, GW did win a second term.

Here is the deal, the software for GTA had code in it, that only when coupled with a third-party software modification, adds sex scenes. Every idiot senator and lawmaker seems to be going after the game's maker, Rockstar Games Inc. Bear in mind that the game is rated “M”, so that only people 17 and older are supposed to purchase it. The “M” rating covers “intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and/or strong language”.

First, the idiots think it should be rated “A”. I think the modification should be rated “A”, but the game by itself DOES NOT CONTAIN the sex acts. So “M” is appropriate.

Second, the idiots say that people under 17 get the game. Blame the parents. Blame the retailers. Do not blame the game maker. Blaming the game maker for people underage getting the game is like blaming the MPAA or Paramount when a theater in Wisconsin permits 14-year olds into a “R” movie. The fault is with the theater, not the MPAA or Paramount. Likewise, don’t blame the game maker if the stores are selling it to underage buyers or if parents are purchasing it for their kids.

Third, where are the damn parents? To all you parents out there…YOU have the responsibility to monitor your kids games, TV, movies, Internet use, book reading, etc. Don’t blame HBO for a series like Deadwood, and don’t blame Rockstar Games for GTA…blame YOURSELVES for not monitoring your kids more closely.

This whole situation really pisses me off. Lets focus on people breaking the law by…oh I don’t know…maybe leaking the names of CIA operatives, and focus less on video games.

Stardate 59535.53: Movie/Play Reviews

Have seen a bunch of stuff recently:

• Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Two Thumps up. Hysterical movie that both Cheryl and I really enjoyed.
• The Replacement Killers. Thumb up. Cheryl was away when I rented this, but I enjoyed it. Mira Sorvino is hot, hot, hot.
• War of the Worlds. Two thumbs down. Stupid ending that came about way too quickly, horrible lack of motivation for the characters (particularly the idiot son), and a really stupid Hollywood move at the end that removed all credibility the movie may have tried to squeak by with. Awful, awful, awful. Yes, the special effects were good, but they are good in everything now.
• The Outlaw Josey Wales [1976]. Thumb up. Cheryl missed seeing this one. A retired USMC Colonel recommended this one to me, so I added it to our Netflix list. Couldn’t believe I had never seen it. One critic said “best movie of 1976”. It was quite good.
• Kidnapping Caucasian Style (Shurik's New Adventures) [1971]. Russian movie with English subtitles. That way Cheryl and I can both enjoy it. Two thumbs up. Very silly, but funny.
• Avenue Q. Saw this on Broadway. Thumbs up all around…me and my Mom and 2 relatives. I now have to go back and take Cheryl. I also MUST find the soundtrack now.
• Catch Me If You Can. Two thumbs up. Liked it more than I thought I would.
• The Beach. Liked the book somewhat, did not like the movie. If you did not read the book, you will not get the movie. Two thumbs down, or maybe sideways since we had read the book.
• The Day After Tomorrow. Two thumbs up. Another one I did not expect to like as much as I did. Living in NYC makes this one even more interesting.

Stardate 59395.68 - Trip to Finger Lakes

Just got back from a terrific trip camping at the Finger Lakes. We stayed at Taughannock Falls State Park with its knifing 215-foot freefall waterfall in the Cayuga Lake area. We did some great hikes, and took in a couple of cool wineries. We ate dinner almost every night in Ithaca, home to Cornell University. It is a very cool college town, with really good food. We even ate at the famous Moosewood restaurant, although it was weird paying money to eat a meal out that we've probably cooked at home from one of their cookbooks. The best wineries that we went to were Thirsty Owl Wine Company and Lucas. Didn't like Americana - the server gave off a bad vibe. Also went to a hard cider place that was really cool with very nice people: Bellwether Hard Cider. We had perfect weather except for a very cold first night (thank goodness for 20 degree sleeping bags!) and a rainy final night (so we had to pack up everything wet and then dry it out in our Manhattan apartment!). It was just five days (Wed - Sun) but it was a much-needed break from work. Speaking of which, I have to get back on the clock.
Excalibur out.

Stardate 59333.11 - Hitchhiker's Guide

Went to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Saturday. Two thumbs up! This rating is despite the sound problems the theater we went to see it at was experiencing. The music was too loud, and the voices were too soft. I have never worked in a movie theater, so I don't know what causes this situation, but it was very annoying. I did see that the movie hit #1 over the weekend, which was a big surprise to me because my theater was only 50% full at 1630, while the line for The Translator at 1600 stretched for a block (which is why we saw Hitchhiker instead).

On Sunday we went hiking in the rain. Got home in time for the sun to come out. Big shout out to the Mianus Gorge. Close to NYC, and pretty cool hiking. It is the first land project of the Nature Conservancy (which we support), and it is the first Natural History Landmark designated by the US Federal Government.

Excalibur Out.

Stardate 59324.46 - Recent Activities

We recently took a day trip to Cold Spring, and had a great time! Very cool place! And pretty close to NYC.

We’ve also been to see a couple of plays recently.

1. Doubt was not as good as the hype. I guess I'd give it a thumbs-sideways. Cheryl says thumbs down. And it was more than 90 minutes long with no intermission. I know movies are that long and you don't get a bathroom break, but there is something different about a play.
   
2. Midnight and Magnolias was not so good. More lines were flubbed than I expected, and the acting was a bit over the top. Thumbs down. Cheryl says thumbs down as well.
   
3. We also saw an interesting work in progress entitled MORBIDITY & MORTALITY This one was very interesting, and as a work in progress the actors still had their scripts and the venue was quite small and intimate. Very cool, but the ending may need a little work. Two thumbs up.

This weekend I think we will see the Interpreter and do a little hiking.

Excalibur out.

Stardate 59297.33 - April Update

Looks like I am down to posting about once per month. I started this as an experiment as I was not up to speed on blogging (becoming management has a way of sucking all your technical skills out of your head and replacing them with schedules of meetings after meetings after meetings). It takes a lot of work to do this on any type of regular basis, and to be honest, I'd rather focus my efforts on my D&D game or on playing computer games in my off time. I also don't have any readers of this blog as far as I can tell.

Here are a couple of bloggs I have started reading regularly that I really enjoy. I offer them up as suggestions:

http://blog.scifi.com/battlestar/ - Ron Moore's Battlestar Galatica Blog - Updated after every new show. He provides a lot of information from background on specific episodes to political commentary to thoughts on Star Trek. And one of my personal pet peeves/interests on these types of shows, he published the "official" rank structure for BG.

http://www.wilwheaton.net/ - Wil Wheaton (yes, that Wil Wheaton) talks about everything from his appearance on celebrity poker shows to auditions to his family to the recent death of one of his cats. Surprisingly good. I had my doubts when he started writing a column for Dungeon Magazine, but it was so good I checked out his Blog and have been hooked ever since.

Those are the two big one. I also use RSS to keep up to date with Federal Computer Week and SciFi Wire (news), but not sure who else is interested in that combination. Oh, and I'm a huge fan of Tell Me About It - advice for the under 30 crowd (even though I passed that age many years ago).

Lunch over...back to work.
Excalibur out.

Stardate 59190.9 - How to Fix Outlook

I mentioned in my previous post that I had an issue with Outlook. I have no idea if these blogs are indexed by something like Google or not, but since I found a solution to a DVR issue on a blog via Google, I thought I'd post my solution so in case anyone else was having the same problem they could benifit from my lesson learned. Here is the message I sent to my co-workers:

I found this today when taking a look at possible culprits for my Outlook problems. The "NsOlExt" extension is for the smart card reader. So if you turn this off, Outlook is supposed to behave normally again but you won't be able to sign or encrypt anything using the card reader, I think. I “unchecked” NsOlExt and shutdown Outlook. It locked up and I had to kill the process. I then restarted Outlook, ran it for a while, then shut it down. It shutdown with no problems at all. FYI, NsOlExt stands for Netsign Smartcard Outlook Extension.


Here is the article I found on-line that pointed me in the correct direction:

Solution Title: Outlook 2003 hits 100% CPU Utilization at Shutdown
Date Asked: 02/21/2004 03:32PM PST
Date Answered: 02/22/2004 06:51AM PST

A new installation of Office 2003 and having problems with 100% CPU utilization at shutdown and it ends by killing the process in task manager. I have tried a variety of things to include:

1) Validated the .PST file is in good shape by attaching to it on my other Office 2003 (Outlook).
2) It sends/receives just fine and CPU % is 0-1% when idle
3) Created a new profile with no change in behavior
4) Made sure word was not the default editior - it was but changing it made no difference
5) Uninstalled Outlook component from Office 2003 then reinstalled it with no change

Other note, I spent a couple hours on the phone with Microsoft today working on an Office Update issue, that now works. The computer had Office XP on it and this was an upgrade in place shift to 2003. Part of the MS support approach was to remove the registry entries and anything relating to Office and then reinstalling.

I went into ADD-INS (TOOLS >>-> OPTIONS >>-> OTHER >>-> ADVANCED OPTIONS >>-> ADD-IN Manager) and there were two. I left the "Exchange Extensions" one checked and unchecked the "NsOlExt" one. After that all my problems appeared to have been resolved. Of course, I have no clue what "NsOlExt" is and wonder if anyone can tell me the implications of having disabled this.

Regards,
Brent Obenour

https://secure.experts-exchange.com/register.jsp?query=NsOlExt&clearTAFilter=true&srid=T%2BeITY8ilr%2F9ZkKH5Y%2FLyw%3D%3D&redirectURL=%2Fsearch.jsp%3Fquery%3DNsOlExt%26searchType%3Dall%26Submit.x%3D0%26Submit.y%3D0&registrationSource=10

Stardate 59165.46 - Random Thoughts

What has been getting on my nerves recently, you are wondering? Actually, not too much recently. Just trying to find time to work on my D&D campaign and keep work to a minimum...not an easy task these days.

I am having Outlook issues right now after I installed a smart card reader (litronic) and software, but my team's technical support is looking into it. I assume I just need some updated software, but it is painful as Outlook crashes a couple of times a day now.

Yep...boring times right now.

Stardate 59040.48 - Idiots on Planes

I just returned from a business trip to Germany, and I am constantly amazed at how stupid people are. Typically, the people I see on planes act as if they have never been on a plane before. Maybe they have not, but I don't think so. I know that I fly a lot, and I can still occasionally forget that I am wearing my one belt that always sets off the metal detectors, but most people flying these days seem to have absolutely no clue. Couple of reminders for you idiots on planes:

1. No electronic devices during take-offs and landings. So don't put your damn walkman on while we are parked at the gate and then fall asleep. Especially don't get pissed at the flight attendant when s/he wakes you up to tell you to turn it off.
2. Same goes for reclining your seat. Keep the damn thing up, or stay awake.
3. I know that the jury is still out on cell phones, but unless you are on the phone with the President, turn the freak'n thing off when they tell you. Don't try to hide it by turning your head and pressing your face against the window. End your call and turn it off.
4. CHECK YOUR DAMN BAGS. I fly a lot. I mean a lot. And I have had my bags misplaced maybe 4 times over the past 9 years. If your bag can fit a medium-sized dog, check it. Don't try to cram it into the overhead...especially not over my head.
5. Take your turn getting off the plane. For overseas flights, I am usually in business. So we already have a head start on those people in coach (and I am one of those people whenever I am traveling on my own dime). Don't push past me to get to the door sooner. It won't save you 60 seconds. And as fast as I walk, I'll probably pass your ass on the way to customs anyway.
6. And a last irrational, pet peeve of mine...keep your shoes on for take off. If the plane goes off the runway, you won't have time to put them back on before you are jumping down a slide for the cold, hard earth. I take my shoes off too, but only once we are so high up that it doesn't really matter.

Sometimes I think everyone else exists simply to piss me off.

Here is a temple to Selune I designed with the Dundjinni program. I am posting it here because I have run out of personal home page space from TimeWarner RoadRunner. They only provide 5M and I am already out of space.


Temple of the Cresent Moon (Selune): Ground Floor

Temple of the Cresent Moon (Selune): Upper Floors

Here is a temple to Selune I designed with the Dundjinni program. I am posting it here because I have run out of personal home page space from TimeWarner RoadRunner. They only provide 5M and I am already out of space.

Stardate 58990.31 - Perspective

I know that airline travel stinks. I am Platinum with American so I always, always try (and usually succeed) to get upgraded to First Class for all my domestic flights, and my company policy lets me fly business internationally. And I know that lost luggage sucks...just read my note about August, Georgia and my luggage woes there. And I know that the issue with Delta and USAirways is big news. Thousands of bags of luggage lost is a big deal. But the TV news reporters keep following up the terrible events in southeast Asia and the huge death toll with people crying in airports because they have no luggage. And I keep thinking...it could have been much worse. You could have been on a beach in western Thailand. I know that the people in the airports feel crappy, but there has to be some perspective. And the TV news isn't helping the people in the airports when they are shown immediately after survivors of the disaster in the Indian Ocean. Not sure who is to blame, or even if anyone is, but the justification for people's misery is in start contrast when they show 25,000 dead and follow that up with someone who was without luggage for the weekend.

The betahat blog

the betahat blog

Brother-in-Law's Blog.

Stardate 58983.18 - Happy Holidays!!!

No-one reads my blog, but happy holidays to any random reader who stumbles upon this note.

Stardate 58950.07 - Augusta Georgia

Just took a horrible, horrible trip to Augusta Georgia. Left Monday with lots of rain all over the East Coasts. Flights were delayed, and I ended up getting into Augusta late. My baggage didn't make it. I went to the hotel, but missed it in the rain (and the directions were awful). After a stop at a gas station, I found the hotel. Yes, men can ask for directions if it is late and they are pissed off enough. I checked into the hotel at about 2300, and the wonderful stink of cigarette smoke wafted out of my room as I opened the door. I called the front desk, and they told me they were full and that was the only room they had. Bastards...if my reservation is for a non-smoking room, that means you HOLD a non-smoking room for me. I will never stay at a Microtel ever again.

My luggage finally made it at 0845 the next morning. Of course, my meetings started at 0800 so I was a little late. Every time I was back in the hotel I kept my window open to air out the pit. Oh, and Microtel doesn't charge you that extra $1-2 for items like shampoo, they expect you to bring them along. Great.

Went to downtown Augusta for dinner Thursday night. What a pit. Nearly abandoned, with only a couple of restaurants open. I thought this was supposed to be the main drag, but it was empty. Like something from Dawn of the Dead. We found an excellent restaurant (one of 2 we saw open) with cheap, cheap food and beer (compared to NYC). But the place really was deserted.

And I left on Thursday, in the rain again, and tried to get on the Atlanta to LGA flights from 1430 until 1730, when I finally got out of there. And of course, my luggage once again did not make it onto the same plane as me.

All in all, a pretty crappy trip. I don't recommend Augusta as a tourist stop.

Stardate 58892.76 - Went to South Korea

Got to travel to South Korea for business. Really liked it. Great local food, I stayed at a great hotel, and I got to do a lot of sight-seeing in Seoul. Next time (if there is one), I'll venture further out from my base of operations.

And I know I was staying at a nice hotel when Colin Powell checked in the day before I left.