Reviews of movies, anime, and the occasional TV show mixed with warnings on Blogger spam. Also to be found are musings on whatever I am thinking about - all from the point of view of being left to watch everything from the sidelines of life.
This date was easier to type.
Burned out today and having to rest after the family visit and church duties yesterday. On the more positive side, I was able to finish out a game DLC I stalled out on a month ago. This time I was able to survive the scenarios fairly easily, so I’m just tired.
The colder weather has brought increased pain, but I’ll adjust eventually. Now to wake up enough to finish that movie review that has been delayed!
It was interesting to log into Blogger’s Dashboard tonight and see all the stats had vanished. This messes up two widgets I used, so it is inconvenient to say the least. I am not alone in this with the support boards lighting up with hordes of unhappy bloggers complaining.
While I do use the stats for auto arranging the top posts for the past week and all time, I had been thinking of embedding a tracker besides Google Analytics, which is still working. I will have to dig into those services and see if there is any widgets that perform a similar task available, but it isn’t a priority. With Noscript and Firefox being popular, it isn’t like we can get a perfect record of traffic anyway.
This outage certainly won’t stop my posting and I have much to do besides.
UPDATE: 10-15-2012
I see the stats are back. Life does indeed go on.
Okay, that date was confusing to type. It isn’t taking much to confuse me today, though. This is either a big allergy attack or I’ve come down with something. Right now the sneezing comes in fits if I do too much physically. The whole thing would like to move down into my chest and I have too much to do this weekend with my sister’s family visiting.
I tried playing Torchlight II twice today, because getting repeatedly killed while spacing out wasn’t enough for me the first time. So that was a test failed. Hoping slowing down will make tomorrow a better day.
Since it is October, it is time to do more scary movie and creature feature reviews. Due to September and now October becoming unexpectedly hectic, my initial plans to do more Universal monster movie reviews simply became impossible. But since I believe in back up plans to back up plans to back up plans, there will be some reviews coming out before Halloween arrives.
In the pipeline are:
If time permits, there will be more, but I suspect time will not permit. Already up is the rewrite of Disney’s The Watcher in the Woods. That took more time than expected, which seems to be par for the course these days.
In the meantime, last year’s Halloween lineup can be perused:
Plus the original Gojira and its American version Godzilla King of Monsters.
I knew this would be an ugly one simply because of Joe Biden being there. I also expected the moderator to assist him in attacking Paul Ryan. So no surprises there.
What I did not expect was Biden to be arrogant enough to attack the moderator a couple of times. Despite that, Raddatz continued to help him out like an abused wife who won’t give up on the marriage.
Biden is a pathological and smooth liar who came into the debate with a clear agenda – rally the base with red meat. He succeeded very well, in my opinion. His facial expressions and nastiness will not play well outside that group. It tells me the campaign strategy is purely base rallying now.
Ryan did not do as well as many on the right thought he would. But he scored some serious blows that caused Biden to meltdown a couple of times. It is pretty clear that the campaign goal here is to be steady and appeal to a broader spectrum of voters.
I am not sure if this debate made a difference one way or another. Part of me thinks Biden breathed new life into demoralized Democrats. Part of me thinks Ryan may have won over more undecided moderates and independents.
And part of me has always wondered what difference VP debates make to anyone other than political wonks.
Ryan finished strong, but what a messy debate in total. Biden will not have done well with devout Catholics with the theological gymnastics at the end.
The only clear loser I see was Raddatz, who did an abysmal job. Anybody who complained about Jim Lehrer should take a second look at how he handled things. Man the questions at the end were puff piece interviewer pieces rather than needed debate topics.
We’ll see if this debate makes any difference with the voters.
Time to see how the third debate goes between the Minnesota Congressional District 1 candidates Allen Quist (R) and Tim Walz (D) goes. I missed the second one, but I will say as unimpressive as they both were in the first, they were both miles better than President Obama. By the way, typing the party next to each resulted in ® and 
Standing room only, it looks like they exceeded the seating for 350 by quite a bit. I’m watching the streaming video at Mankato Free Press.
Coin flip went to Walz, so he gets to go first. Oh great, confusion by the moderators on what happens first. I hope that doesn’t mean we’ll get a repeat of the first where confusion on turns reigned supreme. Both opening statements were inconsequential, which they normally are in a debate.
Nine days into the month too? Gah, time is going by too fast.
The leaves have already turned and the high winds have removed many in the Yucatan area. I took these photos last week when I realized Fall had snuck up on me. The colors by Dresbach Lock and Dam were more spectacular, but I did not have my camera with me. Time to get back into the habit of having it along.
The younger maple started turning then stopped, but what intrigues me is that some leaves turned orange for the first time. It is supposed to be a red maple, but has always turned yellow. Maybe there is hope yet.
The Subaru Outback is completely green again! A big thank you has to go to Dan who managed to wedge this in between other jobs and keep the price low. He did an outstanding job matching the faded finish when painting the replacement hood and fender. It was nine months since the deer collision when it was finished.
We also got the long MIA spoiler replaced. The original vanished one day without a trace a couple of years ago, so it is strange to see the glow of the brake light filling the rear window again. I originally meant to take pictures while the car was still clean, but that did not work out and the car quickly dirtied in the dusty area we live in.
Waiting to take pictures did pay off in that I can show the repair A-1 Glass out of La Crosse did. Unfortunately, I did not take a before shot. There was a dollar coin sized fracture that looked like someone had shot the windshield. A gravel truck from all the road work going on around here kicked a piece of gravel right in front of the rearview mirror while my father was driving. He didn’t know it was damaged until I asked him about it, since the mirror hid it from inside.
I am very impressed with how it filled and it sounds like we were lucky that way.
Now to get mechanical work needed on the old warhorse underway.
One of Disney’s biggest failures, this spooky thriller was aimed at teenagers and was supposed to herald a new era at the venerable movie studio. All the ingredients were there: a popular novel to adapt, the director of the Witch Mountain movies, a starlet coming off a huge hit, and Bette Davis to add gravitas. Ultimately, it failed to jell due to an uneven match of old Disney style and gothic horror. UPDATED October 2012 with new screen captures and massively rewritten text.
In 1980, Disney released an adaptation of Florence Randall’s popular teen novel, The Watcher in the Woods. This movie was supposed their first PG film, but bad screenings led to protracted reshoots and eventually recuts of the ending. As a result, it came out in a limited release April of 1980, after the Autumn 1979 debut of The Black Hole. Even then, the studio decided to recut it. While not a great movie, it has some redeeming points to it, mainly found in the alternate endings on the DVD releases.
I vaguely recall seeing the movie in the old Spring Grove Theater and being very disappointed in it. In fact, this may have been the film that taught me to distrust movie adaptations of novels. Having been weaned on old Hammer horror movies, there was nothing there to scare me. However, viewing it as an adult, I can see plenty to creep out and scare kids (or sheltered adults) throughout the movie. The director, John Hough, also directed one of my favorite scary movies, The Legend of Hell House, and I have to wonder what the movie would have been like made by another studio than Disney.
Time to see things through, though I am very sure this format does not work for me or the material covered. But that is what experiments are for, to find out if a theory works or does not. The General Conference has been good even if my blogging it has not.
Video streaming can be found here. I forgot that on the last post! If I only had a brain…
Sunday Afternoon Session
Robert D. Hales kicked things off with a talk about what it means to be a Christian and then explained what the doctrines of the Church are. It was a direct address to those who do not believe we are Christians. He gave the example of Peter and John leaving their nets to follow Christ to point out what we should be doing. Conversion can only come through the Savior and we are made new in Christ.
Again the story of Jesus speaking to Peter on the shore was repeated, but this time emphasizing “Feed my sheep.” Since topics are not assigned to speakers and left to inspiration from the Spirit, any time a specific part of a scripture is addressed more than once in a conference, I pay attention.
After the fiasco last afternoon and evening, I am attempting things again. A brief nap of fifteen minutes turned into hours yesterday, so I missed all but the last talk of the afternoon session. A birthday party for the daughters of a friend meant I could not make it to the priesthood session too. Maybe I should have chosen next April’s general conference for this experiment.
So here goes again on a chilly, but sunny Sabbath morning.
Sunday Morning Session
President Henry B. Eyring opened with a quote from Joseph Smith wondering where God was while he was suffering in jail. Our feelings of separation from God will fade if we are more obedient and childlike. He explained that Jesus Christ always watches over us, even if we do not see Him or open ourselves to Him. There is a need to listen for direction from the Holy Ghost and try not to let our personal desires cloud our judgment. “The Lord’s delays often seem long…” A challenge was made to go to someone you have wronged and apologize, or did I mishear that?
Trying to type and listen does not work too well, I am finding.
It is hard to believe six months have gone by since the April General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but they have. I will be putting up comments on the talks as they are given, or more likely right after them. It is an experiment and I’ll see how I do at it! Warning, it will be scattershot rather than organized thoughts.
The video stream can be found here.
Saturday Morning Session
President Thomas S. Monson just announced a lowering of age restrictions on full time missionaries. Now 18 year old young men and high school (or equivalent) degree holders from all countries will be allowed to serve. The age for young women serving has been lowered from 21 to 19. This is fairly big news. Also announce were two new temples, one in Tucson, AZ and the other in Akiba, Peru.
Quentin L. Cook began his talk with a reminiscence about being a missionary in the field the last time the age was lowered, from 20 to 19. Elder Holland was the first 19 year old in his mission! The bulk of his talk was about repentance and has made an emphasis on how men are accountable for how they treat their wives, children, and others. The culture you were raised in does not excuse or permit abuse.
What an interesting day I am having. After just finishing the most recent post on blog referral spam, I answered my father’s phone line. At first there was no sound, then the sound of a ring in, so the call was placed from an autodialer. On the other end was a clearly VOIP using man with a thick Indian accent, who acted like he was taking a survey at first. Often hard to understand, he implied he was with Microsoft and that there was “something bad” that had been downloaded to the computer there.
I was suspicious from the moment the call began, but became utterly incredulous at this point. Instantly, I was in hunter mode stalking prey – yes it was that exact feeling. When he said that he needed to take control of the computer, I knew I had found a scammer. I said that he would not be doing that and that I was a very experienced user with multiple firewalls and virus scanners. True, if you count the multiple computers we have, but I could not keep the glee out of my voice.
If he had half a brain, he would have disconnected at this point. Fortunately for my entertainment purposes, he did not. I pressed him repeatedly for his name and phone number. Instead, he gave a web address for onlinepc . com and eventually a phone number of 1-646-502-6605. Clearly flustered, he repeated the number angrily when I asked for the name again and only gave one after another request, Lazer is what it sounded like. Then I said goodbye and hung up on him.
Well, the website is documented as being a scam at Microsoft and the States are not the only ones getting these cold calls. I found this thread about the calls received in Australia. Looking up the phone number turned up a more recent series of calls with many recipients being on the national Do Not Call list like my father (and me). The phone number originates in New York, but with VOIP hacking making it easy to falsify phone numbers it could have been made from anywhere.
If anyone calls you and uses this routine on you, DO NOT COOPERATE WITH HIM! It is all a con job to access your PC for whatever nefarious purpose.
UPDATED October 5, 2012
Great news! The ring behind this scam has been busted in an international effort by law enforcement in the United States, Canada, and Australia. India may get involved as well, since most of the criminals called from there. It looks like Microsoft got directly involved and that is why things happened.
Not much to say after watching the whole thing, other than that was the most one sided drubbing I have ever witnessed in a debate or forum at any political level. Romney utterly destroyed Obama who was reduced to a rambling, stuttering, and dissembling mess. It reminds me of the Hulk vs. Loki, it was that extreme.
Now I understand why the White House was downplaying expectations. Wow.
UPDATED: Had to correct the mistyped title, I was actually getting hits from other people fumble fingering searches – so at least I’m not alone!
