Riding with the window down…

The Great Global Warming Swindle is officially a documentary, but according to the definition…

doc-u-men-ta-ry [dok-yuh-men-tuh-ree, -tree]
noun
1. a film or TV program presenting the facts about a person or event that purports to be factually accurate and contains no fictional elements or interpretation.

… I have to take issue with that classification. This is most definitely an interpretation.

While I am by no means saying that all of the science is bad… all I am saying is that, like the global warming alarmists, the “its a naturally occuring thing” lobby also bends the truth. Unlike the greenies though, the motivation cannot be explained away by wanting a better living environment.

The film makes some good points about the earth’s natural heating and cooling cycles, but then makes wild leaps when suggesting that because of these cycles its okay to continue to pollute our planet. Channel 4 has been called a “fair and balanced” response to the UK’s BBC, but one has only to follow the money to see who funds these hack science pieces in order to understand their goals.

RATING 5 out of 10

I just returned from Peaceful Warrior… wow… I am speechless. Okay, well maybe not speechless - stunned into temporary silence. The film is nothing more than a self-help book set to film. Film is even a stretch as it looks like it was shot on Super 8, projected against a wall, and then filmed with a camcorder. I have watched bootlegs that look better.

The story is literally every self-help guru’s quippy one-liners set to a story. Okay, story may be a reach - an Afterschool Special maybe. The writer, Kevin Barnhardt, of such illustrious writing credits as General Hospital clearly hasn’t seen a movie since the early 80’s. The funny thing is that he is currently writing John Rambo, the latest in the Stallone series where Rambo is “recruited by a group of Christian human rights missionaries to protect them against pirates.” HAHA I am not making this up.

It is a real shame that this film is so bad because being a fan of all of the self-help gurus, I know this could have been done well. A lot of the ideas and philosophies put forth in the film are good, they just end up silly in this presentation.

I do like the new look for Nick Nolte… sure beats the mugshot. His character which was one part Mr. Miyagi, one part Yoda, one part Santa Claus, and one part creepy old dude was a bit too over-the-top.

All in all, this is a pretty bad film.

RATING 3 out of 10

I have to take a second and, in the name of international relations, thank my good friend “The Mescan” for his assistance this past week. No, the Mescan is not from Mexico… he’s actually a German-born American that has been a good friend since my early college days. I said international relations - not US/Mexico relations.

That aside, he was extremely helpful this past week as he took time out of his schedule to come help me organize some part of my life in preparation for adding some new duties. The trip doubled as a fact-finding mission for him because toward the end of May, he will likely be moving to Houston.

He will be looking for employment and let me say, friendship aside, you will not find a harder working, more honest person. He has a background in the home medical field, but will fit in well in any job that allows him to help people. If you’d like his resume, let me know.

He made his first appearance in the RWTWD back in ‘04 as the Best Costume Ever. (he’s the one that isn’t a psychotic dictator)

Its update time once again. As usual, some people are making progress and some people are pretty much either doing nothing or just not reporting.

Start - nickname - current
——————————–
240lbs - The C-Dogg - 231 (-9)
203lbs - Mighty Mike - 203 (*)
210lbs - The Dark Diver - 210 (*)
305lbs - The Anti-Host - 303 (-2)
295lbs - The Gimp - 298 (+3)
198lbs - The Mescan - 195 (-3)

Combined weight loss: 11 lbs
% of group goal (396 lbs)achieved: 2.78%

* has not turned in an updated weight If we do not get some participation soon from these guys, we will be replacing them with someone who is interested in their health.

NOTE: Actually, a new member Podcast Mike will be joining the group shortly. Welcome aboard!

I love it when I get an injury… theres just something cool and manly about warm blood running down your arm or leg. Don’t get me wrong, I am not particularly into pain… actually, I am usually more injured than I realize because I have a pretty high pain threshold. But when you are out sweating in the sun, as I was today, and you look down and see your arm bleeding, it feels good to realize that you never noticed yourself getting cut at all.

How did I do it? I’m not sure. I was working on the fence gate to the back yard and certainly could have done it there between the broken slats, hauling off the gate, and all the rusty nails. Or, I could have done it while planting my tomatoes, peppers, or canteloup although I am not sure how. It was just cool looking down through strands of sweat-soaked hair and seeing the rivulets of blood running through caked-on potting soil and compost. I should have snapped the photo before I cleaned it up… it looked cooler.

Click to play, right-click for direct MP3 download

#528 - Role reversal as the Anti-Host takes charge and the “references” fly. The Mescan joins in the fun.

(Time: 19:59)

LINKIES

The Girl with the Crooked Smile - Sunshine Variety Club

Texas Copperheads Official Podcast
MikeyPod
World of Warcraft
CastBlaster
The Abortion Con
Idiocracy
Poseidon
Kurt Russell
Shelly Winters
Gene Hackman
Ross Perot

Get Your Light Up - Coconi

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I have been griping the past couple weeks about needing some new walking shoes. Mine are about six months old and the support has long since broken down. Because I use them every morning on my walk with Lou, it

#527 - Monsters of the Midsection feedback, EJ in Mexico, a plea for phone calls, and Yeah Yeah music!

(Time: 14:40)

LINKIES

Yeah Yeah (Stomp the Bleachers) - Wylde Bunch

Podcast Ready
iTunes
Texas Copperheads
Texas Copperheads Official Podcast
MikeyPod
Chiapas, Mexico
The Abortion Con
Monsters of the Midsection
Lone Star Gridiron

Yea Yeah - Matt & Kim

Call in and leave a voicemail for the show! 206-202-3644 or 281-394-4952

Direct MP3 Download
Subscribe in iTunes
RSS Feed

Subscribe at PodcastReady

While futzing around this weekend, I came up with a new logo for our “Monsters of the Midsection” group.

That’s right… I think I may have kicked the Twitter bug. If you don’t know what Twitter is, I suggest hitting the link as this post is not about that. Be warned though… it can getcha!

I think part of my cure was the fact that the Twitter site has been so incredibly slow over the past week, but part of it is because the “cool” wore off. Maybe its because I tend to go overboard with things and going overboard with Twitter can use up HUGE amounts of time. Regardless of why, I haven’t posted more than one or two items a day for the past several.

There are a few other things that made it not very useful. The postings ranged from silly, inane, comments that have nothing to do with the intent of the service to over-the-top detail about lives that I really didn’t want to know that well. Also, I am NOT a SMS user (phone text messages.) I am slow, the phone screws me up by trying to help me, and it seems ridiculous to text someone when I can call them on the same device that we are using to text. If someone was going to text me “CU at the pub on 8th ltr,” I would much rather have that person call me so we can talk… I prefer real interaction with inflection and tone.

I have to admit one of the appeals of Twitter is the “star gazing.” It is cool at times to watch the stellar bodies of geekdom as they go about their days. I am left with a few thoughts though… it seems like Leo Laporte’s tweets often switch into “I gotta look cool” mode. Robert Scoble’s entries, although entirely too numerous to think that they are caused by anything other than a deep-seated psychological issue, are informative and interesting to read. Jason Calacanis seems to be a little of both - when he’s good he’s real good… etc.

Heck, what do I know? After all, its just meta- or micro-blogging… they aren’t doing anything in 140 characters that I don’t do here every day. I think I’ll go tweet about this entry.

Okay, we have been officially going for about ten days… where do things stand?

Start - nickname - current
——————————–
240lbs - The C-Dogg - 232 (-8)
203lbs - Mighty Mike - 203 (*)
210lbs - The Dark Diver - 210 (*)
305lbs - The Anti-Host - 305 (*)
295lbs - The Gimp - 295 (*)
198lbs - The Mescan - 196 (-2)

Combined weight loss: 10 lbs
% of group goal (396 lbs)achieved: 2.53%

* has not turned in an updated weight