Movie: Casino Jack

Do you remember Jack Abramoff? I mean it's been several years since everything transcended, but it was a HUGE deal. The whole scandal really opened the public's eyes to just how much control big money lobbyist had in DC; legislation has a price tag.

Kevin Spacey always does a phenomenal job. He's already been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor.

"Season of Over-Indulgence" Campaigns

Have you noticed all of these ad campaigns leading up through the Christmas season that keep promoting this phrase "season of over-indulgence"?

First there's this campaign for Pepto:


Then Acura really hit it hard. This is like a montage to all the different ads they had using the phrase:


I just bring it up, because, although they say it like this is a commonly understood description of the season, I don't think I've ever heard the phrase before this. I mean I've heard the priest stand up at the pulpit and preach on the trouble of an overly commercialized, secular season and how we need to focus more on the religious origins. But I really don't think I heard this described as a season of over indulgence before.

I think it's kind of cool though. The campaigns aren't just promoting their own products, but they are creating a much needed mentality in consumers that this is the season to spend, spend, spend. This is certainly a mentality retailers need from consumers in light of all that has happened.

GM Thankyou Commercial

Thank you! Seriously, that's kind of all any of us really wanted. Just some acknowledgement that all of these "too-big-to-fail" companies failed and the burden fell upon us the U.S. tax payer to save their ass.

Don't play it around like you did with the last spring's commercial and pretend you it's not a big deal and you have it handled. Just say it. You royally screwed the pooched and you are heavily indebted to the American people for saving you.

Why can't we get this same acknowledgement from the banks? Instead of being all indignant and voicing some bull shit arguement about how you were owed the bailout because of how important you are to the economy and that without we would have all suffered. This is true to a good extent, but ultimately the fact still stands you failed epicly costing the rest of us dearly.

All Done!

Done!!! All finished! No more tests, papers, projects, presentations, nothing.

I'm actually not sure what I'm going to do now. Of course we are going to have to celebrate, but I have like 3 hours until we can do that. Then when I wake up in the morning I have a whole day of down time. I don't know. I have nothing I have to do, but I suppose I can do whatever I want. No worries just get to enjoy it now.

Mark Madoff Death

Bernard Madoff (left) with his wife Ruth and son Mark, who was found dead in his New York apartment. Photograph: GI/BM/Getty Images

Eldest son of the infamous Bernie Madoff, Mark Madoff, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment hanging from a dog leash two years to the day of his father's arrest.

The departed Madoff had not been charged with any crimes associated with his father's financial embezzlements, but investigations had been on going to discover any of his involvment with the scandal.

Snow

So all unholy, arctic-tundra hell decided to descend upon Des Moines today, and I am not leaving this warm room of my for ANYTHING ... except for like finals or something kind of important.

Seriously though, everyone I see walking around out there is having to walk backwards into the wind. I knew we weren't going to make it through December in Des Moines with out snow, but it is just piling it on out there.

I'm going to tell you, when I was little and lived in Kansas, I loved snow; thought it was the most amazing thing in the world. You could build stuff out of it, chuck it at people, slide down a hill really fast on it, and sometimes it would even help you to get out of school. But up here, this is like a horse of a totally different color. This stuff is rough, frigid, icy evil. Of course all of the Minnesota kids think I'm being a pansy, but it is really, really cold.

Celebrity commercials

Have you noticed there has been a lot of television commercials lately with big name, A list actors appearing in them. Like there's this one for Google TV with Kevin Bacon:



Then Planter's Peanut has this new ad campaign with Mr. Peanut being voiced by Robert Downing Jr



It's just a little bizarre. Normally when you see an actor appearing as a character in a television commercial is a sign that their career has tanked and you have this, 'Oh yeah, hey. I wondered what happened to them,' moment - doing the narration voice over for something like a car commercial is different - but you don't get that with these.

They're quirky. The humor in them gives you the feeling that, what with being big shot celebrities and always doing big-budget, Hollywood movies, they took these up on a fling; a fun, little 'what-the-heck.' Bet they still got paid like crazy even for this little bit of performance.

NY Times: 14 Actors Acting

14 Actors Acting

You got to check this out. This is these fantastic collection of some of the best actors out there performing without saying a word. There is even a clip of Michael Douglas, which honestly at this poitn may be one of his last performances on tape. Everything is so delicate.

Body language makes up like 70% of our communication, but we become so used to it through out our lives that we often stop to concious recognize. We receive all these messages and transmit them outwards often not acknowledging the reason why people make us feel certain ways and vice versa.

Watch these videos. The slightest tuck or jut of the chin or raise of the brow communicates volumes. The Vincent Cassel one is pretty good. It's like a Gene Kelly homage.

Wikileaks Arrest

They caught him! Julian Assange handed himself in the other day to British authorities where he will be extradited to Swizterland for several related charges of sexual assualt. There is a good possibility he may then be extradited to the U.S. for disclosing of classified documents.

Now I've said this to several people already with the same excitement I have above written, and the response I seem to get is that they are bummed by it. They view this as the capture of a nobel Robin Hood figure. Really?

The guy's a little shit. All the stuff he revealed were legitimate government secrets and in doing so all he did was complicate diplomatic practices. It's not like he released the Pentagon Papers. For everything I've read and heard, he basically just released a bunch of gossipy crap that countries were saying behind each others back. I'm not saying this on the basis of some ultra-conservative source like a Fox News or Glenn Beck. I'm saying this based on reports from New Yorker magazine and NPR. He essentially released the People Magazine of world politics.

The problem with this is we need to do things behind other countries backs and say things to one and say something else to another. That's how politics works. Don't be naive! All of do the same thing in our regular lives. You say crap on people in your community all the time behind closed doors that you make a smiling face to when out and about. WikiLeaks is not a whole lot different than the little kid who doesn't know when to shut up and just babbles out all of the gossip he picks up from his parents.

Worst of all many of these reports were released without any concern for the security of foreign operations. Those reports disclosed the names of foreign informants who are now in serious danger for their lives. Assange is not a vigilanty for the truth protecting us from the secracy of the government. He is a reckless gossip publisher.

Movie: True Grit

This may appear familar to John Wayne fans. The story is actually based on a 1968 Charles Portis novel of the same name, but was first made into a film in 1969 staring the Duke. The film won an aging Wayne his first and only Academy Award for his protrayal of Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn.

What I love with new production is the brilliant assembly of actors. Apart from Hailee Steinfield, here playing the film's heroine, Mattie Ross, each of these leading actors has had experience with Western, cowboy-esque characters with great success. Jeff Bridges, here filling the place of Wayne, received an Academy Award for his leading performance in Crazy Heart along with many many other recognitions. Josh Brolin and the Coen Brothers collaborated a few years in the making of No Country for Old Men that won 4 of eight Academy Award nominations. Hopefully the Coen brothers can keep Brolin on this track and away from a Jonah Hex performance. Then Matt Damon, who appeared in Geronimo: An American Legend and All the Pretty Horses.

I normally really object to remakes of classic, but this just has such tremendous potential cast. It's the perfect cast with a pair of directors capable of handling the art with a brilliance that will bring it to new levels.

Vibram Ban

The Knapp Center weight room has banned the Vibram Five Finger. This matter is so freakin' ridiculous that I couldn't even find another article relating to the subject or any kind of picture to go along with it. You know why? Because the Vibram glove is FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!

The arguement is that, 'yes, we understand that if you drop a 45 lbs. weight on your foot your going to break it no matter what you wearing, but our concern is in the event you drop a 10 lbs. weight on your foot you won't have any kind of protection.'

First off how much of a jackass do you think I am or anyone else in that weight room is for that matter is to drop a 10lbs. on their foot or at least move out of the way in the event that it happens?

Second the Vibram glove provides just as much protection up top as any other commonly worn shoe. Most people come into the weight room wearing tennis shoes. Now put some thought into this. A tennis shoe was not designed with the intention of protecting your toes from falling weighty objects. The whole toe area is covered by fishnet. Fishnet! and a weak one at that. This is not a material design to absorb shock. This is a material design to be light and air out the stinky feet of active tennis players and runners.

So, will I stop wearing the shoe. Hell no. I don't have anything else to wear, and I'll be damned if money is being spent on a new pair of shoes before these have had their use. I'm just going in the back and avoiding the attendant.

Final Are Approaching

You know when there are those days leading up to a school break, you tell yourself 'Oh that big project' or 'Oh that big paper that's do here in a few weeks, I do all of it over the holiday break.' Yeah that never happens. It's impossible! Teachers never seem to understand that a break is meant to be... a break! You completely check out. How can you compell yourself to sit at your desk (or the desk you had when you where a little kid, because your big kid desk moved with you to school) and actually work when there is just something celebrating and welcoming back going on all around you?

Today each of my professors made sure to sneak in a reminder that finals are only TWO WEEKS AWAY. Two weeks! Really?!? Two weeks to catch up on all those chapters and finishes those projects and keep up with regular homework. Oh my goodness. I'm going to have a heart attack here.

Thanksgiving - Much Needed - Break

Ah it was a good break. It's just good have that brief little bit of time to take you out of the grind, where you just get to sit back and enjoy loved ones. There's just tons and tons of good food. No one has seen each other for so long and so there are bunch of stories to tell and new ones to hear. Thanksgiving just has the overwhelming ease and relaxing feel to it.

Now I say that with the understanding that I sit from the position of a person who would no reason to feel otherwise. The whole production is done from the home I grew up in and I, I must confess, do very little to nothing to prepare for the grand event. The whole thing is so expertly cooridinate and masterfully orchestrated by my mother that from my seat as the lazy audience member that the whole elaborate festivities seem to go off without a hitch as if by some divine natural occurance.

No I rest of the men in my family seek out that day to go hunting, which is to say we traipse through miles and miles of alfalfa fields marching with guns in hand having only the rare occasion to fire them. Although! Although, this year we actually got to stur up some pretty good covies. We only came home with 2 quail and 1 pheasant, but part of that is do to the dogs losing a few. In the end, it's just kind of fun to be outdoors there getting to catch up with cousins and uncles and trade stories.

Sarah Palin - National Embarassment

There are those who will say that I am being cruel; who will that say I am being elitist harassing such a small town mother and America's (some of America's) newest sweetheart. But when this little lady and political pundits start having serious discussion about her being the next GOP presidential canidate, then we need to sit down and take a serious look at this the credibility of lady Palin.

The reason I'm bringing this up now is her recent comments on the Glenn Beck show gave me a brain aneurysm. You remember the scene in Billy Madison when Adam Sandler gives his answer for the contest about the poky little puppy and Principal responds: "Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it." Yeah same thing here.

Okay, so,Palin was on the show and Beck asked how she might handle the situation in North Korea. Palin responds, "This is stemming from, I think, a greater problem when we're all sitting around asking, 'Oh no, what are we going to do,' and we're not having a lot of faith that the White House is going to come out with a strong enough policy to sanction what it is that North Korea is going to do." Lady Palin goes on to add, "Obviously, we gotta stand with our North Korean allies."

That's not a slip of the tongue, all right. Don't defend that. Call it for what it is: the lady knows shit about foreign policy. Mrs. Palin I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

This is who folks think will be the next GOP presidential candidate? Really? REALLY? Let's serious look at this lady, and, again, I'm not doing this to be mean, but it's kind of coming to the point, unfortunately, that we are going to have to do this. This isn't American Idol folks. It actually does matter who becomes President. Like for real. It is actually kind of a big deal.

Because Tea Party die-hards would through a tissy fit and violating her private life or whatever even though she has made herself a public figure and that doesn't exist anymore, we're going to keep it classy and not even metnion how terribly, terribly dysfunctional her family home life is. So, let's just stick with how moronically she has displayed herself in her political life.

The GOP picks up this lady from Alaska in order to manipulate the female factor and steal hard-core Hilary backers away from the Democrat's tent. That's it. She's a female, kind of hot, and has political experience; nothing more. The Grand Old white guy's Party doesn't have to much to pick from to fit that criterial, so they had to take what they could get regardless of her level of intelligence or lack thereof.

Her and grand old white guy McCain lose, so instead of returning to fulfill her public service and duties as govenor to the state of Alaska she ditches everyone up there for big money working FOX, making book deals, and doing speaking tours. Don't give me that crap that it was the system and it was just too screwed up and inherently backed up for her to handle. It's Alaska, and no office but just based on how rarely Alaskan current events appear on the national circuit I can't believe it takes too much Machiavellian masterminding navigating the politics of the Last Frontier. This is not a woman who cares about this country or serving its citizens. This is a small town girl caught up in the momentum of her artificially inflated celebrity only interested in how big she can get and how much money she can make along the way.

Bernie Madoff Auction

Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

This guy screwed over the wrong people. They are liquidating everything and anything of the guy's in order to get their money back.

Over the weekend, the government held the 2nd Bernie Madoff auction and you have to check out some of the stuff on the list. They were offering up nail clippers, a collection of Rod Stewart CDs, a collection of board games, a bunch of Kosher cook books, even the wive's belly-button jewlery. They're selling off the man's underwear for Christ sakes.

Yes, the man was a (put your expletive), but this is just bizarre. With the first auction they sold off his set of Rolex and signature monogrammed Mets jacket. They were big ticket items that would obviously draw a crowd. This though. These are just little trinkets with the only really value being that they were once possessed by the immortally infamous Bernie Madoff. I mean it reminds of the bizarre relic collecting of early Christendom where kings and nobles clung to the ear of St. Peter or a tooth of Mary Magdalene.

It's a pair of boxer shorts and some weirdo is going to pay several hundred dollars for it.

Google Prompts Invasion

This is why I love NPR. You get bizarre little news stories like this that would totally go under the radar for any other news group.

So I was listening to All Things Considered the other day and they had this for a story. Here's what happen. Now we have all had a moment where Google maps totally screwed us with directions, and you're not sure why you got off at that exit, or why you've been told head south for the past 20 minutes when you need to be north, or WHAT THE HELL! it say's it's right there!

To Google Map's credit, it is understandable. These are computer geek, search enginee folks who have respectively mapped (and continually update as best can be) the entire earth. It's quite a remarkable feat when you consider the arduous, painstaking work geography used to be. And, in truth, despite the occasional screwup, I never leave for a trip without my Google directions.

However, a recent Google hiccup lead to an international iccedent, when the website accidently mislaid the Nicaraguan/Costa Rica border offering Nicaragua more than it initially thought it had. Operating on the belief that anything on the internet MUST be true, the Nicaraguan government proceeded to invaded the disputed area. This issue is currently being brought before the UN Security Council to handle the disput. This is why they call military intelligence an oxymoron.

Crossfit

There is this workout and diet program I just found out called CrossFit, and I've been looking into it more and the whole thing looks really cool. The whole thing is about building natural, applicable strength, as opposed to traditional body building where you just isolate a muscle group for the day. Like normally you have a day where you just wail on you biceps, but with CrossFit the lifts and exercises require the movement be carried out through your body thus synergistically strengthening your muscles. This allows for a more natural development and a strength that can more applied to real word use, because, honestly, how often in life do you run into a situation that you have to start curling something.

For this reason CrossFit is widely used by special unit police, the marines and other military outfits, and mixed martial artist. It's design is best suited for combat conditioning and developing that elite physical condition. It operates on gymnastics, olympic lifting, sprinting, and advanced calisthenics.

I've posted a video of the Fight Gone Bad workout. It was designed for a MMA fighter to stimulate the experience in the ring. At the end of it he went off and pukes and said that was like a "fight gone bad."



It's a whole lifestyle change. CrossFit advises the Paleolithic Model for Nutrition which operate under the assumption that human evolution has not caught up with modern food processing and consists primarily of green vegetables and lean meats. There are gyms that are CrossFit certified and have all that stuff you see to do the exercises, but it is also possible to tailor the workouts of the day down to fit your means.

It's kind of funny, a guy in one of my classes actually brought up in conversation that he owns his own CrossFit gym a month or so ago. I walked away not thinking much of it except how cool it was that a guy my age owned his own gym, but then like a week or two ago I go to Chicago, see my uncle, and he tells me all about CrossFit and how he's been getting into it.

CrossFit Website

Trader Joes in Des Moines

We got a Trader Joes in Des Moines! It opened up Friday. I was out of town for much of the weekend and didn't get back until late Saturday afternoon, but when I got there it was still just overwhelmingly packed. I could barely move a cart through the aisles. You had to know what you wanted, where it was, and couldn't second guess your choice. There is a good and bad to that. Yes the popularity is overwhelming, but it does demonstrate that the Des Moines market can sustain a Trader Joe's and makes sure it and all of it's gourmet goods at competitively low prices remain available to us.

Trader Joe's is a grocery store with gourmet and organic food at prices that in some cases would give Walmart a run for its money. The whole thing is just dazzling to see it all there before you. I went to get a gallon of organic milk and they had expiration dates there not until November 23rd! That may be an odd thing to remark about to some of you all, but I mean usually you're lucky if you can get an expiration a 6 days a head of when you buy it. I got two.

Above is the Youtube famous Trader Joe's song, highlighting all the things we love of these unique shop.

Lombardi - The Musical

Most people who hear the idea of making the legacy of Vince Lombardi, football coaching god, into a Broadway play would think of it as being about as likely a blend as oil and water. But a lot of football fanatics, sport historians, and even former members of the 1966 Green Bay Packers, winners of the first Super Bowl, coached by Lombardi are calling it excellent. Guys who have to be pulled to their own kids' recitals are planning trips to New York all around seeing this show.

Lombardi the Musical

Obama on the Daily Show

This was really cool. If you didn't get a chance to watch it, they will be replaying during it the day but there also is a link below.

Both just demonstrate a good understanding of how an intelligent conversation is supposed to go, and it wasn't because Stewart took it easy on the President. He called him out on a lot of the disappoint people having been experiencing with this presidency, but the President handled it all very affably.

You see so many people come on TV these days just ranting like a crazy persons; getting all flustered and nonsensical when faced with the possiblity of intelligent conversation and they are unable to come up with a proper response without getting all red in the face and shouting. Even politicians - well especially politicians what with the freakshows that are popping up for candidacy these days - usually have trouble with this. Is it really that to listen to another person, and, then, having given proper consideration and forethought, offer a response that is both relative and tactful.

Daily Show - Obama

World Series

This is a real dark horse combination this year heading to the World Series. The Texas Rangers will be going up against the San Francisco Giants starting this Wednesday at AT&T Park.

What is really unique about this is Giants have never won since moving to San Francisco, and the Rangers have just never won a series, period. This is the Rangers first Pennant in fact. So its a series of firsts either way to be sure.

The story of the Rangers is pretty great. They beat the titanic NY Yankees powerhouse (who have had far more than their share of World Series titles to say enough), but not only do they beat them, the Rangers freakin' trounced the Yankees. Four games to two, Texas finished up the final game 6-1. What is more the final out that rapped up the 9th and clinched the League Championship for Texas was against Alex Rodriguez. This was a sweet revenge for Texas fans who were devastated when Rodriguez left the Rangers in 2004 to trade up for the big money Yankees.

New Vibram Shoes!

I got them! And they are AWESOME! I got the KSO brand as you can see above. These are meant to be the most versatile of the vibram brands. These things can be use for running, trekking, rock climbing, exercise, calisthenics. Pretty much the only thing they are not recommended for are water sports, but I don't think it would be that big of a deal. There is a specific vibram brand that is designed purposefully for water sports that is thermally insulated, but I think that is the only advantage.

It feels amazing to run in these things. It is exactly like running barefoot but with none of the sharps pains of the random acorn shell or tiny rock. It gives you're calves a heck of workout that I wasn't getting with traditional running shoes.

I just like wearing these things around the house, too. I'd love it if these things became more widely accepted. I get some funny looks and questions asked when I just wear them out and about. I think the black is pretty stylish and conservative though. I'd like to see the day wear I could wear these with a suit to work some day.

Gym Etiquette

The gym is unique in that it's this intense bee hive of activity with a ton of people moving all around, back and forth, and almost no one is talking. Everyone has their little iPod ear buds in they are like "in the Zone, chief" or whatever and just totally concentrating on what they are doing. As a result, there becomes a tremendous amount of nonverbal communication that takes place. Etiquette and gym behavior is extremely important, because the way you handle yourself there speaks volumes to everyone else using the facilities.

1. Always remember: You belong in the gym. No matter gender, age, physical condition always be confident in your presence there. This is often an issue with people looking to get back into shape. They quit, because they become come to a new environment and feel awkward in having to figure out all of the new equipment and intimidated by everyone else moving with such purpose and no sound. Have no worries with this. There is nothing wrong with investigating a machine. Take a full analysis before using it, so when you do you have established a mental ownership of the equipment.

That being said. The gym is a community, not a one rooster chicken coop. And, while you should move with confidence and purpose, you must still be conscious of your fellow gym members and respectful of there needs.

2. Space. This can be difficult, because, after while a with all of the lift and swinging and pushing of objects, the whole scene just becomes one big cluster-cuss of activity. Try your best to consolidate you exercise into one, minimal local. Keep all of your accessories in this space: exercise sheet, bottle, dumbbells, etc. This is your territory. Others ought to conscious of your designation of space, just as you must be very conscious of others'. Even if a person is at rest, try to anticipate the range of motion the exercise will require. Do not set up in between a person and the mirror in a way that blocks his line of sight. Often people use direct eye contact with their reflection as a means of concentration. Interferring with this can be terribling obnoxious.

3. Pick up. As mentioned, accessories are used to mark territory. When you leave dumbbells by a bench or plates on a barbell you are signalling that you are still using these things. If you are finished using these things, immediately put them away as they are meant to be put away. Otherwise you piss several of your fellow gym members off who have been held up waiting for weights or benchs to free up only to find they have long sense been out of use. Miscommunication is extremely aggravating. Also make sure dumbbells are placed back in their proper order and plates are placed on their proper peg with equal quantities on either side. This ensure easy, organized use for the next user.

4. Clean. If you get up from a bench and see a sweat patch, clean it up. Honestly, that's just gross. Take 3 minutes, spray the bottle, and wipe it up.

5. Talking. Should you chose to talk, be conscious of whether someone has buds in their ear. If they do, do not become offended or even surprised when they do not react to your comments. They probably just can't hear you. Tap them on the shoulder or motion in front of their line of sight. DO NOT interrupt someone as they are amping up into the zone for the lift. This can take a good 90 seconds or more and the whole process with have to be restarted if you interrupt. And of course DO NOT interrupt someone while they are lifting. There is a big heavy object above their head, and you want to casually chat about the Chiefs game?! Come on.

D+ Campaign

There has been a tremendous amount of controversy regarding the D+ campaign. The general consensus nation wide is that was worst possible idea the University could have come up; alumni were extraordinarly pissed; national media routinely mocked us; Creighton slapped "If we can't beat a D+ school, who can we beat." Yeah ... it stung.

But I want to speak to the defense of this misfit slogan, despite it already being dropped like a 2 ton sack of crap by the University. The original idea wasn't all that bad. The administration and all the up-'n-ups knew the risk of running a joke, and the campaign actually was planned fairly well out. If you were a upperclassmen in high school, you would receive this folder with the now infamous logo and the slogan, "A D+ school and proud of it." The student's thinking, 'What the hell? That's freakin' weird." So they look inside and there is all this really well prepared material explaining the D+ means that when you come to Drake you get more than just a education; you get an enriching experience adding substance and quality to your life and your personal development. I'm heavily paraphrasing, but yeah.

The problem happened when on the website it totes this D+ slogan, and a person from the associated press or an alumni read it with none of the explanation of the folder's material. They are stuck at the 'What the hell? That's freakin' weird' stage.

The problem I have though, is that Drake knew this would be a risky campaign; they knew they would be poking fun at themselves a bit. But as soon as people start laughing, they back down leaving people to perceive the whole move even more so as a regrettible mistake. The campaign says "D+ and proud of it," but Drake hardly went into this full heartedly. If you're going to doing something outlandish, then of course people are going to laugh at you at first. The buffoons who graduate to brilliance, are those who dismay the nay-sayers and plow forward with the confidence of and self-assurance of an entity that knows it is ultimately right and has the vision to see the end goal.

I still like it better than the fruity little song and dance routine Yale whipped out.

Price for No More Weezer

This is so totally bizarre. Apparently ther is the huge internet campaign gaining ground raising money to pay the alternative rock band Weezer to break up and never produce music again. Dedicate Weezer fans have begun to feel that their relationship with the band has developed into an "abusive" and one-sided one. Ever since the release of the band's Pinkerton album, fans in the campagin have felt that they have been again and again built up with anticipation and hype only to be hit hard with disappointment when the new album is released.

The campaign is working to raise $10 million to put an end to what they feel is the perpetuation of crap from the band they love.
The No Weezer Campaign

Bees + Apartment

There are bees in my apartment! Specifically in the sunroom, but I am completely unable to figure out how they keep getting in here. They JUST, KEEP, COMING. There is always one just ramming over and over again into the windows, so it's really not that big of a deal. I mean I haven't been stug by anyone of them. The one above (this was at night when the sun was gone) starting fly room while I was doing homework and land on my desk and freak me out.

Usually though they keep flying into the window until they die, so there becomes this pile up of dead bee bodies around the edges of the room. The whole thing is just bizarre. Again I haven't been stung and they mostly stay to the windows, but what the hell's the deal. Just have bees buzzing around your head while you're tryin to study is freakin' weird.

Iowa Real Estate Convention

I spent the other day at the Iowa Real Estate Convention hosted by the area CCIM chapter. It went fantastically! I really want to get into commercial real estate outside of college, and since we do have any kind of real estate education program at Drake like they do at UNI or even any course you can take, I've really just been trying to take the initiative to reach out to professionals and earn my our kind of education outside of the classroom. Which think I've kind of got an advantage in that sense over the UNI students. UNI has an excellent real estate program up there, but a classroom understanding of the industry is never as valuable as a real world, first-hand understanding of it. Plus, at the convention I was the only Drake student there, so I had reach out to people and build as many connections as possible, while a lot of the UNI folks there kind of stuck together at times. I have a fire lit under me, and you can't beat that.

Really, though, the whole day was just tremendously beneficial. If any students or prospect students read this post, my main advice for you, if you want the career of your dreams, you have to actively go reach out to the business community. They love to young faces there especially students. Many of the professionals in the area are more than happy to help you succeed, but they are not going to know about you until you take the initiative to introduce yourself.

Movie: The Fighter

This is just a great combination. Marky-Mark does fantastic in these under-dog roles fighting to the top; think Invincible or even Rock Star. And, then Christian Bale! He's dedication to performances is remarkable. Look how frickin' transformative he has been here. He has completely altered not just his voice and persona, but his entire physical appearance for the sake of authenticity.

Apart from Rocky V, boxing movies are just always great. There is a nostalgic beauty to the sport. I love a good MMA fight, but often in the grappling you lose visual power of the strikes and blows that really comes across with two prize fighters sparring apart from one another.

Dream Town

It is already becoming depressingly gray and dreary here in Des Moines - Which I want to go off on a tangent about that. Why are the best universities in places with just gawd-awful weather? Why isn't Hawaii State like an ivy league school? If I were some all-star, hyper-brilliant professor, I'm not spending my winters in Cambridge or anything like that. - Anyway, the gray is descending upon us.

To survive this, you got to have a dream spot, someplace warm and beautiful where you can go to in your head. I want to tell you about this place, Dunedin, New Zealand. Mark Twain visited in 1895 and had this to write about the city, "The people are Scotch. They stopped here on their way from home to heaven - thinking they had arrived." What you see there is the sandy white shores of St. Clair Beach, well known for some of the worlds best surf. The city and its paradise-like beaches are wrapped around by these sweeping, astoundingly green hills. In an article from The New Yorker I read recently they described it as "a cross between Ireland and Fiji." That's heaven right there man.

Someday I'm just going to get up and go. Save up and leave it all behind; open a little hotel or boat shop and spend all day by the sea.

Cell Phone Issues

Okay, here's what happens. When I go to the gym I put all my stuff: workout gloves, exercise sheet, protein shake, keys, wallet, and blackberry in my draw string bag to run over there. The new bottle I have for my shake is really great, but you have to be sure the lid fully clicks closed, which I am not used to only because the previous bottle was a screw top.

So my dumb mistake, I head to the gym one day and reach into the bag only to find everything soaking wet and bottle popped open and pouring out the shake. EVERYTHING is soaked in a chocolaty mess including my blackberry. I completely lose it! My entire life is on that little fellow. I cannot afford to lost the information on. I borrow a friends phone to call my dad, and fortunately he has a solution. Mom had discovered a trick for saving the life of a blackberry, when she had experienced a similar disaster.

As soon as you can get you hands on it, get yourself a plastic zip bag full of dry rice. Open up the blackberry, take out the battery, and put the phone hardware and the battery in the bag of rice. Within a few hours, the blackberry will have returned to its initial vibrance.

The only problem I have no is there is little grains of rice in my phone. I have gotten a lot of it out, but the damn thing still rattles. And I think there's something wrong with the microphone. It's not a big problem and certainly a significantly improved alternative from just having the thing fried. I have to really project and use my stage voice, which isn't really a problem, but I guess I'm just a little worried about becoming that super obnoxious guy who's talking too loud into the his phone annoying the hell out of everyone else in the crowd. Whatever

The Sun is Back in Philidelphia

It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia premiered the other night for its new season, and it was of course ... AWESOME! For those who haven't seen the show, you freakin' need to. You are totally missing out on some rarely available top quality television. Thursday nights, 9 o'clock, FX. My best description I can offer is that it is like Seinfield, if all the characters in Seinfield were alcoholics living in complete squaller.

Anyway the first episode had just a bunch of crazy shit happen. The super hot tranny that Mac was on and off with for a little bit got married to the big black guy from the Miller High Life commercial. And yes, I realize I just said a tranny was super hot, but only the character is a tranny. I defy you to say that Brittany Daniel is not one of the hottest women out there.

But back to the show. Dennis called up a chick from highschool or something and just makes the rash decision to marry her. Problem is Dennis is a cold, heartless bastard and this girl wears kitten sweaters and has this terribly disgusting dead tooth at the back of her mouth, so after the first day he's already really regretting it.

Then, just to complete the whole thing Charlie and Frank decide to have a civil union so Charlie can get on Frank's health care plan and Frank can trust Charlie to stop Dennis and Dee from pulling the plug on him when he has is next heart attack.

Oh and Dee, to follow through with the pathetic saddnes that is her life, has started having an affair with a former high school all-star athlete now extremely overweight and married with two kids.

Glad to have the gang back.

Movie: Red

Here's what I like about the idea of this movie. Yes it is a movie about hitmen, which I certainly enjoy, but, what's more, it's a movie about an older generation of hitmen (or hitpeople to be fair to Helen Mirren) who are still astonishly brilliant at what they do, while including a cast of actors of an older generation who are still astonishly brilliant at what they do.

I mean look at this line up. You have Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, and Jon Malkovich. All of these actors have had a long, lustrous career of excellent performance, and they continue to deliver. Like Ernest Bourgnine says (also brilliant) in the clip, "They don't make 'em like that anymore."

Return to "The American"

I had mentioned this movie earlier in the year and want to return to the discussion of it here, because I've been reading the reviews of it and was shocked by how critical they have been. This film is freakin' awesome! The cinematography is absolutely beautiful, George Clooney is definitely going to get nominated for his performance in this thing.

The movie is filled with these vast landscape shots of the Italian country side. It reminds me of Wayne Theibaud landscape minus the heavy texture and bizarre colors in that the people treking across them are so miniscule in relation to the rest of the scene and do so along an unbelievably thin line at the very bottom of it all.

All of the reviews are basically complaining that the trailers made The American look like a big action flick like the Bourne series, and the lack of high intensity, martial arts fight scene is what disappoints. First I really don't feel the trailers made it look like a huge action movie, it seemed, like I said, to be another of George Clooney's series of mildly depressed, mid-life crisis males as he did in Michael Clayton and Up in the Air.

The other thing, I feel this approach was just a much more accurate depiction. I realize I don't have too much knowledge of the life of a profession killer, but I really doubt there are too many out there that are anything like Jason Bourne, Agent 47, or Leon of The Professional or any of the other outlandish hitmen Hollywood has given us. In so many movies the assassin is able to just swing his weapon from the hip and in one swift motion and put one between the target's eyes. In The American George Clooney seeks up behind his targets taking several panicked steps forward before pulling the trigger. You can see the fear radiating from his eyes and the adrenaline pumping through him.

At the end of the film, Clooney is badly wounded in a final, four shot, half second exchange of gunfire. It is very likely this is the first time he has every been shot, and it is clear he does not know how to handle such a situation. He does not have the McGyver like innovation Jason Bourne demonstates for recovery from his wounds or the doctor's knowledge of Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men. Clooney's character, while certainly above that of just a regular guy, is still very much human.

So ignore all of these bullshit reviews. This movie is EXCELLENT!

Big Money Puppet Masters

"Next!" Udo J. Keppley

I want to preface this discussion: I have no problem with the traditional Republican platform. There are several sound, intelligent arguments under it, but the GOP we have today is miles away from the traditional platform. The party has gone off the deep end and succumb to the lunacy of this Tea Party crap. In fact, I would bet you dollars to doughnuts that Ronald Reagan, arguably the greatest president of the 20th century and an icon of Republican values, couldn't even get the GOP's nomination in this climate, but instead would face unrelenting criticism from Limbaugh and Palin.

My frustration with the Tea Party is that it fails to act on the behalf of the types of citizens who have fallen victim to its manipulation but insteads serves to overtly benefit the interests of profit charged conglomerates. The Tea Party has terrorized ill-informed voters into following tow by playing off their fears and lesser qualities of characters. It uses the worst in people to do the ground work of the economic elite. Grass roots movement my ass! This is all the con of a ungodly powerful few; specifically Charles and David Koch.

To better make this point I would like to refer you to an article published a few weeks ago in The New Yorker, Covert Operations by Jane Mayer. The article details the political involvment of Koch Industries, "the largest company that you've never heard of." This according to executive vice president and co-owner, David Koch, who along with his brother, Charles Koch, seem pretty content with that title as they have used their secrecy and ungodly amassed wealth to convertly impact the course of politics and public opinion in the interest of furthering their profit margins. The whole Tea Party movement is really the result of their multi-billion dollar investment over the decades to develop a idealogical ground force.

Through the creation and development of seemingly neutral and generic sounding thinks tank and charity groups, the brothers have been able to funnel ridiculous sums through the system in the promotion of an idealogical agenda that serves only the interest of their pockets. Koch is a massive oil conglomerate, the second-largest privately held company behind Cargill. The company has oil refineries in Alaska, Minnesota, and Texas along with upwards of four thousand miles of pipeline. In addition, Koch is the parent company of Brawny paper towels, Dixie Cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among others. The brothers are deeply and openly opposed to personal and corporate taxes and public services that follow and government regulation of industry; specifically environmental standards.

Despite near universal acceptance by the scientific community that global warming is a real and approaching threat and that fossil fuels play a significant role in its increase, the Koch brothers have gone to outlandish efforts to prevent any environmental legislation to address the problem. From 2005-'08 the brothers themselves outspent ExxonMobil on a tremendous scale in lobbying against regulation. Additionaly, while formaldehyde has been shown and recognized by the medical world to cause cancer, David Koch has spent hundreds of millions lobbying the EPA not to recognize the chemical as a "known carcinogen," all beause formaldehyde is one of the company's widely produced products.

This whole Tea Party bullshit does not have the interest of the working, blue collar Joe at heart. It is all a front companies like Koch behind to better satisfy their greed. I mean take a person like Sarah Palin. That damn bimbo does give a shit about hockey moms or the working class. If she did, she would of stuck to her duties in Alaska and fought on their behalf, instead of abandoning them for big money book deals and speaking tours and a fat salary with Fox.

Libertarins always talk about their fears of giving the government power. But with a government of the people that power is the power of the people that is being denied. Citizens pulling together to bring about democratic representation is the only weapon we as common individuals have against the economic elite hiding away in the shadows of their ivory towers. Many would say there is nothing wrong with what Koch is doing. All business lobby in their economic interest. The reason this instance is so unique is the immense wealth and thus influence that Koch's have thrown into the game and convert, underhanded, backdoor nature in which they did it.

I realize the government has a great many flaws, but when something doesn't run right do you throw it away? No, we fix are problems here in America, not abandon them in defeat. If you're afraid that government will go wild with power and turn into a totalitarian state (as it nearly did with the last administration), demand and lobby for transparency regulation; pay attention to the actions of your representatives and hold them accountable.

Movie: 127 Hours

In high school I was involved in Forensics, which is a form of competitive public speaking. I would do the acting events like Humorous Interpretation (HI), Dramatic Interpretation (DI), and Duo Interpretation. DI are 10 minute monologues interpreted from published works. The cliche is that a DI is based on the story on some variety of being a gay, female, minority, junkie raped and now awaiting the electric chair. In fact, my junior year I played a cripple coming out of the closet to his brother over dinner.

But my senior year I did a book, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place," a story about nature lover, Aron Ralston, who, while hiking and mountian climbing through Utah, became trapped in a canyon with his right arm trapped under a fallen bolder. 127 Hours refers to how long he was trapped down there before [SPOILER ALERT!!!] he has to cut the arm off with dull utility blade. It greats pretty intense. They don't allude to it very much in the trailer, but, after day 2 when he starts to run out of water, he starts tripping pretty badly.

James Franco is an amazing actor. I kind of really want to see the movie, but at the same time I know Franco is going to kick my ass with his portrayal.

Start of Class

Well I have survived the first couple days of it. Not that bad I think. I'll manage through. It's kind of a boring schedule though. I'm Marketing and Accounting and unfortunately this semester seems to be leaning more to the accounting side of things along with an international econ. class and an information systems class.

I do have one fun class though early on Mondays and Wednesdays; MKTG 112 with Chip Miller. He is hilarious!!! The man lives in like a different era 30 years back and occasionally lets these slightly off-color comments slip out. I love it.

He can't remember names very well, but to be fair how many new sets of names do teachers come across with every semester? Seriously, that's tough. What I get a kick out of though is just how blunt he is about it. The first he just laid out there, "I'm not going to have remembered all of your names. I recognize a number of your face [which is understandable like I said before], but the number of names I remember is just a hand full; like ah... [gesturing to a girl in the back of the room] um... ah.... Well forget about that one."

New Apartment

This new apartment is SO cool! I love all of these high ceilings and tall windows (although it does remind me how short I am). This place is huge! 700 sq ft. The first shot you see is from the sun room - yeah, I have a freakin' sun room. Those next two are the sun room itself. My grandfather collect a bunch of cool furniture in the '70s. So now got all of really great original design furniture for the new place.

Cooking is kind of a new experience. I got scrambled eggs and ground beef down pretty well - you know the essentials. I don't see any souffles coming out for the oven anytime soon, but I'm not going hungry. Besides I can always call upon my good buddy Chef Boyardee to feed me when need be.

Leadership Iowa University

When I was a junior in high school, the Salina chamber of commerce had a program that introduced a group of us to local business leaders and held discussions on leadership theory. Well a few months back a good friend of mine told me about a similar program, Leadership Iowa University, hosted by the local chapter of the Association of Business and Industry (ABI). Now, while I love my home town and deeply value the experience I got from the program in high school, this one was light years of head of it.

The whole thing was just outstandingly beneficial. The speakers were absolutely amazing. We heard from Jim Swift, CEO of Holmes Murhpy, Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, President of the World Food Prize Foundation, Kirk Leeds, CEO of the Iowa Soybean Association, J. Barry Griswell, former CEO of Principal Financial and author of the Adversity Paradox. I flipped when I saw that last gentlemen. Adversity Paradox is an excellent book. Get your hands on it and give it a read.

There was something there for everyone. We had a politics day, an agriculture day, a downtown business day. I got to meet an individual who worked as an economic developer for Fairfield and another who worked as a project manager for an architecture firm. For me personally, even if you took away all the other awesome stuff, that sealed the deal.

This is an excellent program that every Iowa college student would greatly benefit from. Check it out.

Leadership Iowa University Website

Movie: Due Date

Galifianakis is HILARIOUS!!! Just that first scene right there is perfect.

I love this new trend that going on pairing noncomedic people with super funny people. Diddy ended up being freakin' awesome in Get Him to the Greek. "I'm mind f#%&ing you right now." In The Other Guys Mark Wahlberg playing off of Will Ferrell is going to be great. Ferrell can make the moment just so awkward with that character and then Wahlberg just goes off on him.

Robert Downing Jr. next to Galifianakis is going to be excellent. Downing is brilliant and, while he usually does dramatic work, he has always shown this affinity for humor even be it a dry wit and sarcasim. He did pretty well in Tropic Thunder and he played his character in Iron Man pretty funny.

Genius of Brandon Daley AKA "White Licorice"

This is the hotness new video that is blowing up across Youtube. Forget Eminem. My man Brandon Daley and Brock Chart are one their way to dominating the rap world. These guys are going to be freakin' famous as hell! There is no denying the brilliance here. So give it up to another remarkable display of the genius of Daley.

Movie: The Social Network

David Fincher is my favorite director. Fight Club and The Game are two of my top films. It is just that the world he creates in his films. It is all so dark and macabre and yet drenched in the luxury and disgusting wealth of the upper class. He captures that urban juxtaposition of the grime coinciding the elite. It is the utmost of civilization and yet there's a underlying, primal brutality that becomes unleashed some point in the story.

Movie: Farewell

Okay, yes it is a foreign film meaning you would have to - short of learning French - do a lot of reading, and it was probably difficult to pick up the plot from the trailer, but trust me: this is a good one.

It's a Cold War film and based on actual events. So, while dramatized, the film offers the closest moviemakers can provide to showing the actual nitty-gritty of espionage short of a documentary, which would kind of defeat the whole espionage having the spies followed by camera crews.

What is also really interesting about this movie are the two leading. Emir Kusturica, here playing a troubled KGB officer who begins feeding information to the West, and Guillaume Canet, playing a French engineer stationed in Moscow to whom the KGB officer randomly selects to unload his secret knowledge upon, are both major European directors. The drama of that clashing of powerful personalities is all captured upon the screen.

Kusturica, the big, wild haired one, has a compelling brute charisma to him. Juxtapose this with Canet, the mustached fellow, playing his character with a severe professorish quality. An excellent pair up.

Bullfighting Ban in Spain

Photo by: Independent Co. UK

Okay, to be correct the ban is not nationwide is for the Spanish region of Catalonia. The regional parliament voted on it Wednesday and already they are being taken to task by the sport's top organizers. Promoter Luiz Alvarez pledged, "We are going to launch a huge battle" against this "outrageous" action. His group Mesa del Toro, a pro-bullfighting lobbyist group, sees the ban as unconstitutional claiming that the government only has the right to regulate bullfighting not restrict it.

For most of us bullfighting is one of the defining characteristics of Spain's culture and heritage. The image of the brave matador performing as both an artist and an athlete, sweeping away his red cloth as the raging beast storms by inches from our hero has become iconic to us. The beauty of the scene has been expressed by great artist from Hemmingway to Picasso.

What should be understood is the division amongst Spain's culture. Catalonia has for some time now been threatening its succession from the state. The region is really its our culture on to itself with its distinctive painters and poets. However, under the dictatorial regime of Franco, culture differences were surppressed and bullfighting was promoted as the national sport (bloodsport) of a unified Spain.

I just really hope this doesn't gain such a momentum that they ban the Running of the Bulls. I really want to do that. I get it PETA, but that looks like too much fun.

Blago Trial Finale

Photo by: The Judiciary Report

Around noon today final remarks were finished and the jury began deliberation over the trial of former Illinios Governor Rod Blagojevich. Blago was impeached from office in January 2009, but he has for the past couple months been facing extensive criminal charges: 24 various felony counts including racketeering, wire faud, extortion and bribery. The most infamous of these charges covers the attempts by Blago to auction off Obama's vacant Senate seat to the bidder offering the highest campaign contribution or cushiest new job.

Throughout the impeachment and following criminal trial Blago has proclaiming his innocence and working to woo the public. On AM radio show he has worked to redirect the finger around towards a corrupt state government claiming to the audience that he has been "illegally and unethically hijacked from office."

The son of working class immigrants, Blago always worked in his campaign to portray himself to voters as a hard working David aiming to shakeup the Chicago's Machine's Goliath. He seems to have worked to carry this message for his campaign for Governor into a campaign for innocence. Yet at the same time Blago has made some rather questionable PR manuevers. Apart from appearing on Celebrity Apprentice (in which he was fired despite a bond of bad hairstyle preference between Trump and himself) Blago appeared at a street festival as an Elvis impersonater alongside a Fabio look-a-like.

Whether Blago will be facing jail time or if he's cries of persecution and innocence will be valued is kind of up for grabs. The FBI tapings of Blago's phone calls are pretty damning, but there is some issue over whether he can actually be said as doing something wrong. While he appeared to very adamantly solicit bribes, no deal was ever actually sealed for the selling of the Senate seat. What the tapes do seem to show is a rather disturbing insight into a man who really probably should have held office.

Movie: The American

New secret goverment agency hitman movie! Yes! I really like the way George Clooney has been going recently with his. This whole mid-life crisis, regret filled yet nihilistic, ever man thing with Micheal Clayton and Up in the Air and now this. Oh and then the whole secret agent; I love that stuff! Awesome! I'm going to go out on a limb and say, if there are any CIA recruiters reading this, I will drop out of school and rush over to Langley if you train me to be Jason Bourne.

Swiss No Return Polanski

I'm going to give a little background, because it seems to be the fault of my generation to possess a complete disregard for history.

Roman Polanski is a very renowned and accomplished film director. He is responsible for such works as Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, and, if you have honestly never heard of either of these, you need to stop reading this, turnoff Transformers II or whatever over-budgetted piece of crap HBO is showing, call up Netflix or hightail it to Redbox or whatever, and get your hands on some genuine, good quality, classic film making, because you're breaking my heart over here.

Anywho, Polanski's brillance as a director earned him quite a great deal of notarity within the US in the late 60's and throughout the 70's. Unfortunately, the spotlight was also cast his way in some more infamous circumstances. The first, in August of 1969, while Polanski was working in London on a new film, members of Charles Manson's "family" forced entry into Polanski's Los Angeles home and savagely murdered his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, a beautiful and famous actress at the time.

Then in March of 1977 Polanski was arrested for sexual assaulting Samantha Geimer, then 13 years of age at the time. After a year of litigation and a disagreement over the terms of a plea bargain, Polanski escaped on bail to France where he still maintained his native citizenship.

Now kind of largely because the French are such art snobs and revere brilliant artists (such as a brilliant director), they have for all of these years refused to extradite Polanski on the basis that he is technically a French citizen and nah-nah-nuh-boo-boo America. And, so, for these 30+ years Polanski has been in France doing the movie making thing. In fact, in 2002 he was awarded the Academy Award for Best Director for his work on the Pianist. You may also notice in Rush Hour III at the very end; he is the rather short French police officer who appears in the final scene with the fountaion to nab the bad guy and save the day.

BUT, in September of last year, Polanski, while traveling to the Zurich Film Festival to accept a Life Time Achievement Award, was nabbed by Swiss authorities. And for a time it looked like we would be able to bring him back for prosecution. However, now the Swiss are starting to change their minds about whether to give him back or not.

Part of the reason has to due with a 2008 documentary, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, produced by HBO and directed by Marina Zenovich, which explores the years of Polanski's career leading up to the incident and the controversy surrounding the trial. The film brings to light some unethical, or at the very least, questionable actions on the part of the judge and other matters that seem to muddle the circumstances of the case. As a result of this information, the Swiss believe they would be sending Polanski to a biased litigation when really the issue appears to be somewhat more complicated.

As it stands now, it looks like Polanski may return to his life in France.

"Barefoot Bandit" Caught

I'm going to admit I had never heard of this guy before all of this happened, but apparently he had developed a significant internet fan base and for pretty good reason. This kid, Colton Harris-Moore, is pretty damn remarkable. I mean some of the stuff he has pulled off. He is only 19 and after going on the lamb a few years back Harris is believed to have evaded police while stealing at least 5 small aircrafts, 2 cars, and a boat and burglarizing at least 100 private homes. The kid freakin' taught himself how to fly those planes. What a run!

Anyway they caught him now. He was arrested in nothern Bahamas after authorities discovered the power boat he had stolen.

Colton Harris-Moore Fan Club

Bombing in Uganda

Sunday terrorist bombings occurred in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. The two explosions took place in public venues while citizens gathered to watch the final moments of the World Cup. Reports say that at least 74 people were killed with several others severely injured.

A little more than a year ago, that is right were I was. Kampala was the city we spent probably 65% of our time while in Uganda. Fortunately this year's group had already returned to the States a few weeks prior. That is just completely bizarre.

The attacks are being claimed by a Somalian militia group linked with Al Queda, al-Shabab. The terrorist group claims to be targeting Uganda because of its involvement in suppling troops for a African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia. The hardline, extremist group is advocating a ultra-conservative Muslim culture in which sport, song, and dance are considered sinful. How do you get to this point? It's just completely unreasonable.

LeBron James Decides!

The anticipation is over. The "King" is going to Miami to join up with a dream team along with the Heat's star guard, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, Toronto Raptors' former power forward.

Needless to say Ohio is PISSED. I mean LeBron's native blood, and, so of course, it really hits hard when the home town guy that you place all of your hope on winning the title just takes off on you for greener pastures. The Cavs' owner, Dan Gilbert, basically disowned him. He just went like crazy off on LeBron. It's pretty harsh.

Rainy 4th

Photo by New Harmony Kiwanis Club

It's RAINNY!!! Arrgh! All weekend is supposed to just grey and wet and just all wrong for the 4th of July.

But you know what? We're going to do it all any way. I have spent a crap load on fireworks and maybe the city's going to put off their show, but I'm going to shoot off all of it and add a few more stars to the sky.

Plus! Plus! Since the city is moving all of their stuff to Saturday, that just means we're going to have twice the celebration. Hey, this is America. If we want to have two independence days, then we're going to freakin' do it.

First Day of Summer!

It's officially summer!!!

I'm going to be honest with you though. I kind of already assumed summer had started. I mean I've been riding my bike, swimming at the pool, and just basically enjoying the sun for a little more than a month now. I mean I have been on SUMMER vacation.

But, hey, now its official, and here I was starting to worry that summer was passing away too quickly. Heck it's just now started. So enjoy yourselfs. It's summer.

Movie: The Expendables

Look at that line up. That is just an outstanding recipe for a freaking, crazy awesome action movie. It's bringing all of the great old actions stars together with the new generation of action heroes; a fantastic changing of the guard if you will. The film is written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, who, by the way, has a history for great success with projects in which he is deeply involved in the creative development.

There was some interesting stuff with the casting. Jean-Claude Van Damme was offered a part (who really does belong in the group) but turned it down because the character lacked substance. Steven Seagal was also offered a part (who really does not belong in the group) but turned it down due to poor history with producer Avi Lerner. There was a part developed for Wesly Snipes. He couldn't do it so they offered it to Forest Whitaker, which makes no sense. Snipes to Whitaker that's a pretty weird switch. Whitake eventually couldn't due it so they offered it to 50 Cent. Finally though they filled the character with Terry Crews.

Movie: The Adjustment Bureau

This looks SO COOL! First it's always great to have a story about the characters fighting with every effort towards something simply for love. It's a very American sentiment; the pursuit of happiness thing.

But then the whole idea of this Adjustment Bureau, this secret, all-powerful, shadow government agencies that controls every aspect of our lives. It totally captures all those ideas of conspiracy theories and "The Man." Notice that all of the agents are these very traditional, 1950's, white (and white haired), male, patriarch figures. One of the agents is John Slattery from Mad Men. It is just one of ideas that we know is too outlandish to ever be real, but we always like to indulge in in the back of minds when things go wrong and there seems to little other explanation.

Movie: Solitary Man

Here's the thing Kirk Douglas and Michael Douglas (father and son) had some level tension between each other. The younger Douglas seemed to feel that was the overbearing male figure that was common amongst fathers during that era. As a result Michael Douglas went into Hollywood determined to steer away from the macho characters of his fathers. You can see in his early work that it's all love stories with romantic male figures far away from the Spartcuses and rough, gunslinging cowboys of his father

Over his career though, Michael Douglas has developed a on screen persona of a man's man. True he rarely has any fight scenes, and those that he does are not the most action packed, but his is a more urban manliness; a more civilized masculinity than the barbaric nature of the older Mr. Douglas's characters. While he may have tried to play it soft in the beginnning there was always a kind of darkness that personafied from Michael Douglas; a alluring, devilish quality, which allowed him to so successfully capture his characters in movie such as Wallstreet and The Perfect Murder

In Solitary Man, which shares its title with a Johnny Cash song, we see this urban man's man descending from his peak into old age. The movie was tailored for Douglas and the man he has created on the screen. It is the perfect display of an accumlation of Douglas's talent over the decades.

Celtics Lose NOOO!

Ahh! Dammit! We had a 13 point lead for crying out load, and they gave it all up in the last like 6 minutes of the game.

Ah it was a good run. The Lakers were strongly favored; Celtics weren't even supposed to make it this far. Perkins was out of the game on injury. And in the end I would like to point out that apart from a three-pointer from Kobe, LA's like last 15 points were all free-throws. It was like every time they went down there at the end of the game drew a foul. Yes, that is largely Boston's falt, but it was like 'COME ON! AGAIN!'

Ah well. Just to show though that I'm not going to be terribly bitter about this I do want to show you this commercial they showed during the game. It's actually really clever considering this would be LA's fifth title. The song "All Together Now" is a Beatles' song being covered by Andree 3000. It's a pretty good version. Unfortunately I think it is only for commercial and can't be downloaded.

Billionare - Travis McCoy

With absolutly no authority to do so or power by which to enforce it, I declare this the new CBPA anthem. Just go with it.

Book: The Lost City of Z

Yes, I actually read an entire, real, book book. Pretty impressive I know. But enough of my staggering achievement. This book is freaking amazing, and even more so because it is entirely true.

This English gentlemen from the late 19th century, Colonel Percival Harrison Fawcett, was the greatest explorer of his time. He is largely responsible for exploring and mapping most much of the Amazonian region. If you have ever seen the Pixar movie Up, the explorer Charles F. Muntz is pretty much the idea you should picture (without the talking dogs of course). Fawcett was this absolutely remarkable man's man type of fellow. During this time there were no vaccines or other amenities of modern medicine. While most people in his parties were overwhelmed by disease and infection during the journeys, Fawcett never got sick. He managed to form close relationships with local tribes that had only showed other parties violent hostility.

Throughout his explorations he began to develop theory based on evidence he had seen that the storys of El Dorado, while exageranted to some degree, were based on an actual, magnificent, ancient city lost somewhere in the heart of Brazil. However despite having come back triumphant in the face of insurmountable conditions in the past, Fawcett, his son, and his son's best friend mysteriously disappear. Because he was such a notable public figure at the time, all of the search parties have gone out to find him over the decades with often similar results that they do not return.