Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Ripley Gets Around

They're re-releasing Ridley Scott's excellent movie Alien in the theaters on Halloween night. Actually I should say they are just releasing it because this is the never-before-seen director's cut of the best movie in the Alien series. I was thinking though, that Sigourney Weaver's bad girl character, Lt. Ripley, really got around. If you think about it, she liked to bed guys as often as she could. Listen to this: In Alien, she does Captain Dallas. Remember she took it personal when the Alien had Dallas for breakfast. In Aliens, I'm pretty sure she did Corporal Hicks. There was a lot of flirting going on so you know they found a few minutes to do the nasty. And in Aliens 3 (aka Aliens Cubed) she did the doctor like the day after the prisoners found her in the pod. And to drive home my point, from Ripley's viewpoint, all of this happened to her, all three of these lays plus whoever else she managed to shove into a broom closet with her, in just a matter of weeks. Weeks because she spent most of her life in stasis due to the deep space travel. Three guys in three weeks? Newsflash: Ripley's a whore! She knows how to get what she wants. Dead aliens and a few boy toys along the way to keep things interesting for her.

I won't even bring up Aliens Resurrection. That's not even the original Ripley, she was just a freak. Although Ripley's underlying behavior was there when she was tonguing that nasty alien.

Monday, October 27, 2003

I'd Like To Tivo My Life

I bought a Tivo DVR last Monday and it's my new favorite toy. I've been thinking about picking up a DVR for sometime but couldn't convince myself I really needed one. They are the future so I knew I would have to get one eventually. What convinced me to finally get one is the amount of time I realized I could save by having one. It's very easy to skip through commercials as well as the boring moments of a show. And since time is money and I like to FF a lot, it should have itself paid off in no time.

My favorite shows to record this season are: Stargate SG-1, 3rd season of 24, West Wing, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Sealab 2021, Simpsons, South Park, MST3k, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, WWE shows (Raw and Smackdown) and Justice League. I've been watching too much TV though and my video game responsibilities have been neglected as a result. Sorry Star Wars Galaxies.

The specs on my Tivo is Tivo DVR Series 2, retail $350, $300 after $50 mail in rebate. It has a 80 Gb harddrive which translates to 80 hours of piss-poor quality or 24 hours of best quality. It "dials" in using a USB wireless (802.11b) adapter I bought at Wal Mart to replace the phone line it was using for the first few days I had it hooked up. To go with my theme of naming the nodes on the network in my house, I suppose I'll call the Tivo Rembrandt.

DJI 9635, SP5 1033, NASDAQ 1878
CD in my stereo: Pink Floyd Echos Vol 2
Last movie I saw in the theater: Kill Bill Vol 1
Last movie I saw at home: The Ring

Friday, October 24, 2003

"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into."
-- Jonathan Swift

Thursday, October 23, 2003

Joke Joke

An elderly man attends the funeral of his elderly wife. After the ceremony, the pallbearers pick up the casket and carry it down the aisle. On the way out, they accidentally bumped the casket into the wall and a moan came from inside. They opened it up and unbelievably the woman was still alive!

Amazingly she lived for another 10 years and then died (again). They had the funeral, the same pallbearers from 10 years ago picked up the casket and once again carried it down the aisle. As they approached the door, the husband yells, "Watch that wall!"

Wednesday, October 22, 2003

Muhammad Bush

President Bush needs to convert to Islam and build a nice big Mosque in the center of Baghdad as a gift to the Iraqi people.

Monday, October 20, 2003

Bipolar Weather

This fall weather has been interesting. I drive to work in the mornings with the heater on and drive home in the evening with the AC on. The comedian Lewis Black would say, "...and my balls can't take it anymore."
"Jimminy Jillickers, it must be Obvious Day at Camp Stupid!"
-- Shake Zula, the microphone rula

DJI 9735, SP5 1040, NASDAQ 1918

Friday, October 17, 2003

"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
-- Bertrand Russell

DJI 9721, SP5 1039, NASDAQ 1912

Thursday, October 16, 2003

"How can you tell when fish goes bad? It smells like fish either way."
-- Jim Gaffigan

DJI 9801, SP5 1050, NASDAQ 1947

Wednesday, October 15, 2003

State Under Construction

You know your state loves the orange barrels when the detour from one construction site takes you through another construction site.

DJI 9812, SP5 1049, NASDAQ 1943

Monday, October 13, 2003

Columbus Day Worthless

It's ok to go ahead and drop Columbus Day as a U.S. holiday. I have nothing against the man, but what did he do? He got lost and we toast him for his incompetance. We celebrate an accident.

Everyone's open today except the government. What happened there?

DJI 9764, SP5 1045, NASDAQ 1933

Thursday, October 09, 2003

"The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children."
— Clarence Darrow, American attorney (1857-1938).
Arnold is a Kennedy Puppet

First off, my view. I'm glad Arnold won the position of governor of California. I like it whenever anyone can shake up the political establishment. When Jesse Ventura did it for Minnesota I thought that was great and just as great when Ross Perot made an impact on the Presidential race as an Independent. He did a lot for that party, including getting Ventura elected many years later.

Arnold Schwarzenegger won the governorship thanks in a large part to his wife, Maria Shriver. Arnold even credited her with the win in his victory speech. It does not happen too often that a husband and wife can team up to get one of them into office but that's what happened here. Therefore, this is what I think went on behind the scenes.

Maria originally was against her husband running for governor of California, until her politically powerful family the Kennedys laid out a plan so cunning, it made Maria reconsider, change her mind and throw all of her support into her husband's running not to mention campaigned as hard as he did for it. If that is true, then I think Maria's family made a deal with Arnold that if he ran for governor, they would make sure he would win. For anyone who don't think that the Kennedy's have that much power, you can just stop reading now. So why in the world would a historically strong democrat-affiliated family be so enthusiastic to put a Republican into a powerful political position such as the governor of California? Because they have plans for their little girl Maria.

Expect the next governor of California to be Maria Shriver. That's right. Nobody's looking this far ahead except the Kennedys. I wouldn't be surprised if Arnold actually leaves after the rest of this term or the next either as part of the deal with the Kennedys or gets bored and wants to return to acting or both. Maria would run for the position and easily win if Arnold can keep the state together for a couple of years. No problem.

Now the real eye opener. You thought I dropped a bomb about Governor Shriver? Just wait. Maria Shriver as governor of California is just a stepping stone as it was for Ronald Reagan. That's right, Maria for President of the United States. You balk at the idea, I can hear you scoff, but the U.S. political atmosphere in many environments lately changes faster than Superman in a phone booth.

The Kennedys want to be back in the White House and since all of the men keep dying off, why not use their most prominent female? So Maria to run for President within the next decade or so, unfortunately she'll follow in the fate of her two uncles and be assassinated either before taking or while in office. Actually I don't know if that's going to happen but isn't Sirhan Sirhan close to parole? Ok now it's a conspiracy theory but the Maria for President will happen.

I get in these kinds of moods on my birthday. 31 today.

DJI 9717, SP5 1043, NASDAQ 1924

Wednesday, October 08, 2003

Gooobah nah torrrrial

Two people are responsible for putting the thought in the minds of the California people to not automatically discount the idea that Arnold Schwarzenegger could win governor of the state: Ronald Reagan and Jesse Ventura.

DJI 9640, SP5 1035, NASDAQ 1897

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

Sports, Governors and Video Games Oh My

Not much going on. Colts had a huge victory last night against the Super Bowl Champs Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football. They set an NFL record by scoring 21 points in the last four minutes of the game. Impressive. I'm sure most of the Bucs and Colts fans missed the comeback because it was 21 - 0, Bucs over Colts at halftime. A lot of people went home or went to bed after that and are waking up today to hear about a big surprise.

Today is the California governor recall election. It's probably going to be close and exit polls may not be able to predict the winner before the polls close. They don't want a repeat of the Bush-Gore 2000 Presidential election. The accusations against candidate's Arnold's womanizing and harrassment come at a very interesting time right before the election. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Davis supporters sat on the info until the courts decided when the recall election would be held.

Mrs. Lock and I have been playing a lot of Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance. We're getting pretty far, we've made it to the lizard folk part - chapter 3 of the game. I've got a 12th level dwarven fighter and she has an 11th level sorceress with a mean ball lightning spell.

DJI 9653, SP5 1039, NASDAQ 1907

Friday, October 03, 2003

What Does A Liberal Media Look Like?

This is a topic I bring up in response to Rush Limbaugh's thick headed statement that got him fired from his brand new ESPN commentator job. He said the Philly Eagles Quarterback Donavan McNabb was over-hyped as an excellent athlete by the media because they want to see a black QB succeed. In the fallout surrounding this comment that cost Rush his job, there were accusations of racism, but I think they missed the point. If Rush wanted to make a racist statement, it would have been Donavan McNabb is only a superior athlete because he is black. They're on Rush for the wrong reasons.

I was more upset at his crack at the media being some sort of conspirator in pushing its liberal values on America by promoting a black QB. Yes and that's why he got league MVP last year. Now the media influences the NFL. How ridiculous does that sound? In his defense though, when he talks about this subject, he always says 'the liberal media,' not just media because of course he is part of the media too. So when he refers to just 'the liberal media,' he must mean that guy Carl who produces that communist party flyer in his basement somewhere in Utah.

So why does Rush Limbaugh think the media is liberal? Why would a destitute person think a poor person is rich? All things are relative and for a right wing conservative like Rush, anyone with a centrist view would seem liberal. He's also upset that the media won't exclusively promote the conservative ways. Of course they don't, the media represents society. Most of society would need to be conservative for there to be a chance for the media to have a conservative agenda. And I don't mean 51 percent majority, I mean like 90. The media is the cart, society is the horse.

A glaring point that's hard for me to miss and one I wish Rush could answer is: If the media is so liberal and it reaches everyone and has massive influence on the country that he thinks it does, why aren't the masses being persuaded in liberal ways? If the media has that much influence on the population, why do we have a conservative President and a conservative Congress today? I just don't think the media is as liberal as he thinks it is. If it's true, we should have had a liberal government for the last 100 years and no one would be interested in listening to Rush speak so market demands wouldn't let him have a successful talk show. The media is not perfect but I just don't think it's anymore liberal than it is conservative.

And also to suggest that this industry has gotten together and been able to agree on one agenda (promote liberalism) seems to be another ridiculous point conservatives make. The media companies hate each other. They are fierce competitors, there's no way to get them to agree on one consensus other than try to deliver interesting news. Nobody can manipulate the whole industry to deliver one message. And these are reporters not motivational speakers. They're not going to convince anyone of anything they don't want to believe.

So you have a bunch of conservatives with the same agenda, who can agree on a set of ideas, organize their own meetings, setup think tanks and whine that the media is too liberal. This is the same media made up of a thousand companies, each operating their own way, doing whatever it takes to turn a profit since it is ultimately business. You see a conglomerate of companies who don't have the power to organize secret meetings every week with every media outlet on the planet and get everyone to agree on how they can brainwash the masses. How can I not be skeptical about this?

You find me an instance of the media being liberal and I will find two of them being conservative. I happen to know that people only see what they want to see and I'm just choosing not to see anything (declare the media slanted one way or the other) until it's obvious.

Call me a Doubting Lock but isn't it possible eight years of peace and prosperity in the Clinton years has paved the way for a ferocious conservative backlash. How can I take anyone's word for it?

Happy 30th Birthday to Mrs. Lock!
My wife not my mom.

DJI 9663, SP5 1039, NASDAQ 1890