Area 88 Ep. 3: Viewfinder in the Blue Sky

A hunt for treasure inflames the greed of the mercenary pilots, yet that only serves as a backdrop  for the main story. With Makoto’s stalking of him getting to Shin, he decides to take action to find out why he is a target. But a close call rattles the young Japanese pilot as the mystery around him deepens.

It is time to get back to writing reviews to sharpen my skills of observation and writing. At this point in the series, the base and the desert are almost becoming characters unto themselves, lurking constantly in the background and adding atmosphere to all the proceedings. That was my thought after watching the opening to this tense episode. Neither location is a comfortable one and if there is one word to describe the mood evoked by this installment it would have to be the word uneasy.

Mormon Patriotism and Washington D.C.

CNN’s Belief blog has a very well written article on Latter-day Saints in the nation’s capitol worth checking out. I can say from personal experience that the leadership principles taught in the Church were of great help in political organizing in many ways, but especially on running meetings where the delicate task of balancing focus and creativity is a priority.

This quote from the article addresses something I have been pondering about current politics with its “interesting only when winning” attitude I see in so many people:

Young Mormons also hone leadership skills by serving missions away from home. The missions last from one and half to two years and happen when Mormons are in their late teens and early 20s and often include intensive foreign language training.

Chaffetz, whose son is serving a mission in Ghana, says the experience is the perfect preparation for political careers.

“They learn rejection early on,” he says. “If you’re going to be in politics, that’s a pretty good attribute.”

I would say that also helps in a lot of situations in life, not merely the political. My older friends remark on how bad the younger coworkers are in dealing with people and it usually boils down to their being unable to handle opposing viewpoints. That is a pity, for having your beliefs challenged is the best way to find out what they actually are.

One thing I would like to note is that the Washington D.C. Temple was the closest one to members in this area until the Chicago Temple was built. It served the entire country east of the Mississippi when it opened, so it was very important in Church growth. Now we have one in St. Paul so the traveling is a lot easier, thankfully.

Anyway, read the article.

High and Low Technology

To start with, I do not have enough money to be a true gadget freak or enthusiast. That said, I love clever devices whether they be complicated or simple. So it was an interesting day when my latest box from Amazon arrived this afternoon. Contained within were two devices, one a sophisticated work of silicone and metal, the other harkening to simpler days despite being electrically powered.

Having succeeded in reviving my video card from failing this winter, it was with great disappointment (and financial pain) that I realized the fix was not going to work in the long run. For the past several weeks, the card has been running hotter and hotter with the occasional glitch. Time was clearly running out for the old beast, which had given very good service. Since I have a smallish case, a top of the line replacement was out of the question – and out of reach of my bank account.

After checking around for the best bang for the buck that would actually fit in my case, I settled on a Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD7750 that is factory overclocked. From my studies, it would be more of a horizontal upgrade (according to some benchmarks) with hopes that it would actually perform a bit better. Best of all is the fact that it consumes far less electricity and runs much cooler. Heat is the enemy of electronics and I liked the idea of having the entire PC run cooler.

So far the new video card is doing just that. Throwing my best games at it resulted in maximum temperatures that are twelve degrees Celsius less than what the old one idled at. The massive fan also is dramatically quieter for an added bonus. Fancier video decoding, deinterlacing, and scaling have impressed and eventually I will get a second one for the media center in the living room.

The other item in the box was a rice cooker that doubles as a vegetable steamer. Since I only used it to steam asparagus tonight, I will not go into detail on the little appliance other than to say it is highly reviewed. That and I cannot remember the name of the company that makes it at the moment.

It will be used heavily if things go according to plan, for making rice a regular staple is on my agenda of improving my diet. Steaming veggies is also part of the goal and it did a good job on the first experiment. So while writing more about the high tech item, it is this simple device that I am the most excited about.

I must be getting old.

The Avengers (2012) in Theater Review

After multiple solo films, Marvel’s heroes band together for a cinematic spectacle that may be the best superhero movie made so far and one of the best action films ever put on screen. UPDATED for 3D.

Yeah, that basically says it all. Go see it.

What, you want more than that? Fine…

The cast is terrific (even Scarlett Johansson does a great job), the effects are convincing, the writing excellent, character moments and development everywhere, and that final action sequence puts other blockbusters to shame. With Loki as the main villain, the drama and psychological battles equal any of the physical combat. This added much to the film and made me look forward to every scene he was in. Not since The Dark Knight has there been as fascinating a bad guy to watch.

If there was one awkward thing about the film, it would be the way it starts. The structure feels like the first act was skipped and we are dropped into the second act already in progress. In a sense the previous solo movies are collectively the first act, so it was slightly disorienting until I figured that out.

Every character gets good development and the interactions between the disparate personalities is played to entertaining effect. Stark and Banner’s “bromance”  is a highlight, with Stark and Loki’s back and forth a close second. Captain America gets some terrific lines as the elder of the group trying to adjust to the modern world, while Thor radiates guilt and frustration at not properly protecting the planet he has grown fond of. Meanwhile, the “normal” humans, Hawkeye and the Black Widow, have some very good moments dealing with personal loyalty and adjusting to the escalating weirdness around them.

The special effects deserve a comment or two. Not once did they pull me out of immersion in suspension of disbelief. Given how big and spectacular the set pieces were, this surprised me a great deal. WETA did a fantastic job.

Various themes are interwoven throughout the story, with freedom being the biggest one. Redemption, control, trust, narcissism, and self sacrifice are just some of them in this densely packed movie.

Expect to be highly entertained and left wanting more.

I need to see this film again and soon – this time in 3D.

UPDATE:

Well, the 3D did not disappoint like it usually does for me. Instead, I was highly impressed by the organic feel of the effects and felt it leant a lot to the movie. In fact, the 3D version was better to my surprise. Check out any sequence involving the Tesseract (still the Cosmic Cube to me) to be very impressed. The Stark tech holograms looked fantastic and made me want to see a 3D redo of Iron Man.

Also, I now have to say this is the best super hero movie so far. The Dark Knight is a more brilliant movie and true art, but part of its success is that it was a better James Bond movie than any since Sean Connery’s era. Which is to say it was not a comic book come to life on the big screen in the way The Avengers is.

Health 5-8-2012

I thought I should record that after much careful stretching and alteration to sleeping positions, the new back problem has settled down to a dull ache. Of all things, it was watching my cats stretch that clued me in on how to do it properly.

Other than that, nothing much to report other than I will continue to tinker with my diet to improve things. A rice cooker has been ordered and I will be making that a mainstay in my eating. Also, I will start NADH (aka Enada) again next month after making enough room in my budget to afford it. It helped a great deal with CFS related cognition problems and I hated giving it up due to expense years ago.

Sears Roebuck and the Blues

Just a short post to link to a fascinating (but all too short) article on the birth of the Blues and its connection to the old Sears catalogs. Since my father worked at Sears as a repairman for twenty years, I tend to notice anything written about the company. I would like to see this expanded into something bigger, for the article only just scratches the surface of how cheap products from Sears mail order enabled some famous musicians to get started.

Let’s Twist Again

To all those who are so insulated by wealth and luck, it will come as a shock when things do fall completely apart economically. Part of being insulated from reality requires having limited and/or censored information to look at that reinforces willful ignorance. Watching how the media distorts and outright lie on many things has been rudely educational for me.

So when when the employment participation rate plummets to its lowest level since Reagan took over from Carter’s disastrous presidency, I was not surprised to see attempts to twist things into a rosier picture:

Still, the report was not all negative. The government revised upward its earlier estimates for payroll growth in February and March by a combined 53,000.

That was the best they could do, given the grim numbers, but hey, they tried. The emphasis on the unemployment rate has been deceptive because it is artificially lowered by not counting those who have given up on finding a job.

Sadly, I cannot exclusively blame a dishonest government and a dishonest media alone. With most people being intellectually lazy in the States, they do not bother with digging for information themselves. Heck, we are lucky if the masses even pay attention to superficial sound bites on serious issues. The excuse I always hear is that “nobody has time to.” Yet they have time to watch Dancing with the Stars or other things of little import. Entertainment is the priority now, which is another twisted thing in my opinion.

Facts and statistics are twisted in every possible way these days and I suspect the horror of fully realizing how bad it is may be too much for people to confront. But you cannot hide from reality forever for it will confront you eventually.

And people wonder why I put faith in God above that of the efforts of man…

Fly Like an Eagle

Living out in the countryside has many benefits with one of the more interesting ones being the variety of wildlife that inhabit the area. Bald eagles have been making a comeback over the past couple of decades and lately have been moving into the Yucatan area. For some reason I never have a camera when one is around. Today that changed, though I was not able to get good pictures in the end.

My father came downstairs and announce he had been watching quite an aerial show. Puzzled, I asked if a crop duster was in the area again. No, he had been watching a bald eagle fight with a turkey vulture over a carcass and had not bothered to let me know it was going on…

Fractale English Dub Arrives in July

The best part of the release is that it will be a combination Blu-ray and DVD set. I have to say that Funimation did a great job with the trailer for it, since it captures how serious and dark the series really is.

Between this and the final set of Kimi ni Todoke, I am going to be broke in July. Broke but happy.

Back Off! or Health 4-25-2012

You know that temptation to scream “BACK OFF!” (or the more profane variation) when somebody annoys you now end and will not shut up?  That is how I feel about my back right now, pun intended. If I could remove the thing and still be a functioning carbon unit, I would.

For the last couple of months, new and creative pinched nerves have popped up and on Monday I discovered one in my middle back. How? I dared to open the fridge door and try to push it open more. No, I could not have some dramatic story about lifting a car off of someone or going too far in a workout. Instead it had to be something ridiculous.

Anyway, it was not just the usual pinched nerve, but the blinding pain kind where my vision blacked out momentarily. Excruciating is the word to describe it and it simply would not stop. Hobbling into the living room bent over like Quasimodo, I collapsed into the chair with the shiatsu massager on it. Even that did little to relieve the pain or instant locking of all my back muscles.

Now it is two days later and I can at least use my left arm again and the pain is down to a dull ache. Twinges still happen, but at least I can lift things again. Sadly there is still no way to tell one’s own back to “back off!” – though I am working on it.

The Slow Death of the Minnesota GOP Isn’t So Slow Now

Back when I was in the leadership of the Houston County Republicans, I used to lock horns with the state organization and quickly learned they did not have a clue how things were in outside of the metro areas. Initially a strong proponent of the caucus system, once I actually saw how it worked I realized that it allowed very small groups vast power over candidate selection which allows for abuse. On paper it looks wonderfully democratic, but it is not in actual execution. A much fairer process is the primary system.

Those thoughts have resurfaced ever since the precinct caucuses to bedevil and annoy me. After reading that twenty of twenty four delegates are now bound to the very liberal Ron Paul, I have zero doubts about being correct in thinking the caucus system is a failure. It is not the first time I have seen superior organization put forth an inferior candidate here and I am sure it will not be the last.

Meanwhile, the state GOP has been served with an eviction notice. Yeah, that shows how well organized the state level has been. While the new chair cannot be faulted for the financial problems, the following email I received trying to downplay it does not inspire confidence:

The Prisoner (1967) Ep. 1: Arrival

In 1967, a surreal and cerebral television show unlike anything seen before debuted to the amazement of viewers worldwide. Ostensibly about an unnamed spy kidnapped and confined to a strange community on the sea, Patrick McGoohan’s deeply personal project delved into themes of individuality, totalitarianism, paranoia, conformity, brainwashing, and the struggle to be free. Still debated over nearly forty-five years later, it is arguably one of the best dramas ever put on TV, if not the best.

A first episode is always a tricky thing for a series and that is doubly true for one that aspires to be anything more than average. With the incredibly popular series, Danger Man (Secret Agent in the USA), wearing thin on him, McGoohan had a desire to do something different. Different only scratches the surface in describing The Prisoner and Arrival establishes that very quickly.

An extended version of the title theme by Ron Grainier (he also created the original Doctor Who theme) plays over a montage of a man (Patrick McGoohan)  in black driving a Lotus Seven roadster to a government building. Once there he angrily storms into an office while the sound of thunder accompanies his rant, which we do not hear. In fact, no sound other than the soundtrack is heard during this intense opening sequence. Slamming his resignation down on his superior’s desk, the man drives off while we see his record amended and filed away in ominously impersonal fashion.

Health 4-18-2012

One of the “joys” of having chronic fatigue syndrome is all the little infections I get, most of them being some form of upper respiratory problem. The latest has gone on since last Friday and is an inner ear issue with my right ear. Occasional dizziness has always been a part of the illness for me, but having the room swim around when I move my head is not.

So far no pain, so I refuse to waste anymore of the taxpayers money on a visit to the doctor. Instead, the H202 doses have gone back to daily and that has helped. Also, not taking my generic Zyrtec to allow the allergies to run wild should help burn the infection out. There has been improvement and I though I had it licked yesterday, but it is being mildly annoying today.

However, I am dead tired from a busy weekend and have not recovered at all from it. One way or another, I will make it to church on Sunday to substitute teach Gospel Doctrine. That should be fun, since I have not had the opportunity to do so before.

That reminds me, one of the odd bits about the dizziness is that it is worse sitting than standing as teaching Gospel Principles showed me this past Sunday. Weird. Bending over is not fun, of course.

The weather looks nice outside, wish I felt like taking full advantage of it.

Things Keep Falling Apart

Lately I have been having far too many items owned break down. This week it was my office chair, which collapsed when a cat jumped off me – seriously. While due for replacement by the end of the year from the upholstery tearing and the wood on one arm delaminating, the central steel tube tearing was not something I foresaw happening. So of course it did.

This followed having my Dell Axim PocketPC finally show its age and have problems with its batteries (I have a spare) and battery compartment, the already damaged (and cobbled together) halogen torchiere lamp burn out, and my subwoofer develop a noticeable fuzz. The Dell was replaced a couple of months ago, but I had to buy replacements for the lamp and chair this month. For a month where I was trying to save back a good chunk of money, I now find myself struggling to have enough to cover the bills.

At least I got some serious bargains in the process. The replacement lamp uses conventional bulbs (using GE Halogen ones in a experiment) while being 55% off at Shopko. The chair was 42% at Office Depot off and is getting its break in as I type this. The sub will not get replaced. Kindness to my eyes and to my back take precedence to my ears. Oh, and the light bulbs were on sale too.

The chair dated back to the mid-nineties, so I suppose I got every last iota out of it before it failed catastrophically. Likewise, the lamp was as old. But the timing was not great financially and that irks me. I would go beat on the engine compartment of the car, but thunderstorms are due today.

So I settled on blowing things up in a video game.

The moral of the story? Still working on that, but it might be that everything failed only when it was possible for me to buy things above my normal ability. Maybe I am being watched over no matter how much I whine.