October Already?

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.

Looking Much Better

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.

The Watcher in the Woods (1980) Review

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.

October 2012 General Conference Semi-Live Blog Final Edition

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.

October 2012 General Conference Semi-Live Blog #2

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.

2012 October General Conference Semi-Live Blog

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.

And Now It Is Time for a Phone Scam

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.

2012 Presidential Debate #1

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!

RIP Flying Squirrel

I made a short trip out to get some things in a local town and came back to see Jazz, my part Siamese cat, carrying something with a suspiciously familiar tail dangling. He brought in the flying squirrel that surprised me on Saturday night to show off. So I took the corpse away from him and tossed it outside where he won’t find it again. It had the softest fur, sigh.

So much for the wonders of nature.

Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth: Complete Collection(2011)

An utterly charming anime about a Japanese girl in Paris circa the late 1800s provides laughs, drama, and a severe case of the warm fuzzies. It has a gentle heart while still facing the hardships of life, for there are many challenges for little Yune to face while dealing with culture shock . Not the least of them is the proud young Frenchman she lives with.

This 2011 anime series was expected to be a breakout hit by a lot of people in Japan and other countries, so it was a huge shock when it bombed at home. Culture clashes and the most moe of main characters should have guaranteed success, but the otakus in Japan were not impressed. Thanks to Sentai Filmworks, Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth is now available to own in the United States. With the preordered set finally in my hands, I can review how Sentai did.

The main character is Yune, a very young looking girl brought to Paris by Oscar Claudel as part of the effort made by the Japanese to increase knowledge of the West after the Meiji Restoration. From her first entrance on screen, she is a delightful character, a bright, intelligent soul fascinated by everything. Sweet, but stubborn in her own way, she is destined to shake things up for the Claudels.

More Russian Referral Spam

The latest round of spam showing up as blogger hits come from fr.netlog . com and appears to be actually a link from t . co instead. So far I have gotten sixteen “referrals” from there this week. While they show up on the Blogger dashboard’s stats, Google Analytics does not list the hits. Why Google does not filter them out for Blogger’s built in stats puzzles me.

So anyone getting hits from there, please do not clink on the links to investigate, that is what they want you to do. I would not be surprised if this is being done by the same people responsible for the aptratings spam.

UPDATED October 1, 2012

Yet another round of referral spam from Russia has been hitting my blog heavily. In this case adsresultpages . com links to a viagra ad. Out of curiosity, I looked up the website through whois and found out it gets about the same amount of visits I do a day. Not exactly a successful campaign, is it?

Funny thing is that referral spam has been around since at least 2002 when blogs started getting going in earnest and nobody can figure out how it can be profitable.

Technology Can Make You Feel Old

I was reading that the first CD came out thirty years ago today. Three decades ago. I remember hearing my first one circa 1987 since cassette tapes took awhile to be displaced.  In fact, I did not have a CD player until around ten years after the first ones were released.

Now the Compact Disc is on its way out with sales having collapsed. Downloadable digital files have been the bulk of music sales for some time now and supposedly streaming subscriptions are the wave of the future. That I will believe when I see it.

Attempts to replace the CD with another hard medium all failed. SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc), DAT (Digital Audio Tape), and DVD-A (Digital Versatile Disc – Audio) never caught on with only DAT surviving in the studio environment.

Hokey Smoke!

While finishing up the Beowulf review tonight, I heard a loud impact on the air conditioner. Sometimes a panicked cat will jump up there, so I checked it out to see if there was an emergency. Instead, I beheld this:

I blinked multiple times because I had never seen anything like it. Then I realized what it was and was even more shocked. It was an honest to goodness flying squirrel!

For some reason I had always thought they were bigger than this little guy, but there was no mistaking the flat tail and membranes between the legs. I had no clue they even ranged into Minnesota.

Walz vs. Quist: Rochester Chamber of Commerce Debate

Twenty-five minutes in and it is obvious the two men cannot stand each other. What surprised me is that Republican Alan Quist managed to get under Democrat Tim Walz’s skin and make him angry. Quist is always angry with prickly being the mellowest you ever see him. The whole tone of the debate is personal attacks, led by Quist -- and complained about by Quist. I thought Walz was slicker than this, but he has been red faced multiple times throughout the debate.

Wow, neither candidate looked good in this forum. This debate is the epitome of complaints about a lack of civility in politics these days. Only partisans on each side would declare their candidate the winner. Quist was hectoring, took constant nasty shots,  and was constantly confused whether it was his time for rebuttal. Walz was flustered and increasingly angry while sticking to boilerplate talking points (Akin SQUAWK).

Inspector Dreyfus Has Passed On

Herbert Lom always had the best scenes in the Pink Panther films, in my opinion. Perpetually chasing and trying to kill Clouseau, he appealed to me as a kid and as an adult. So I am a little sad to see that he died today.

I had no clue that he was a Czech refugee from the early days of WWII. At 95, he certainly lived a long life after making it to Britain. While he was best known for the comedies with Peter Sellers, he was in quite a few films spanning many genres usually as a supporting character. His roles in The Ladykillers, The Mysterious Island, The Phantom of the Opera, and Journey to the Far Side of the Sun were the ones I remember the most.

It strangely feels like another piece of my childhood has disappeared, even though the movies remain.

So here is Dreyfus speaking at Clouseau’s funeral, one of his best performances as an actor or character:

Health 9-26-2012

Had a relatively high pain index night of 7-8 so I ended up reading and playing Torchlight II until tired enough to overcome it. The body has been acting a bit in distress, but still an improvement over last week. It looks like pain is going to be at higher levels post Lyme Disease. Such is life.
So no lit dropping for Greg Davids in Houston today. At least I was able to drop my father off and have lunch. It is a nice day out for walking, wish I were up to it.
Hope the headache will subside soon, I have a review to write.
Updated some hours later:
Some of the symptoms of Lyme Disease are flaring up now and I will be keeping a close eye on them. The swelling in the head and odd sensation when breathing began showing up shortly after I posted this in the afternoon.
Back to writing the review.

More Torchlight II Observations

Now that I have a character approaching level 30 in the Second Act and have had some multiplayer time in, I feel like I can make some more comments.

First, FIX THE BUGS! I have had the disappearing stash and shared stash bug hit with me unable to access my gear online or offline. Mysteriously, it all reappeared late last night and so far I can use the rare and unique gear. We’ll see if that lasts. Saved game synchronizing to Steam’s cloud has been hit or miss for me. This is frustrating.

Second, this is a remake of Diablo II as far as the plot line goes and the settings. I do not view this as a bad thing, in fact I was happy to see the desert again. Enough has been changed to avoid lawsuits, but if you are a big Diablo II fan this is your game to play.

The performance of the game engine has been a pleasant surprise, with the only slowdowns I’ve encountered being in online play. Playing with others is a blast and incredibly fast moving due to people triggering fights left and right. The graphics are pretty with the cartoony/anime style of Torchlight looking better than ever.

Sound is well done and my pet cat purrs after he kills something. It reminds me of the best cat ever, my late pet Sid. So I have named the critter in my solo embermage build after him.

Loot is ridiculously plentiful. While there is an option to turn off seeing normal items, I cannot get that to work in solo games. It works fine in multiplayer. Inventory management is sleeker than ever, but it gets a constant workout due to all the goodies you find. Trading with others in your party is very easy.

Remember how frustrating it was to get your first complete set in Diablo II or Torchlight? Expect to have at least one by level 10 in my experience. I actually had two complete sets on my mage by level 12.

I really like the game, but advise people to wait for a couple of patches before completely committing. If you are willing to deal with bugs, buy it now if your are an old school Diablo fan.

Health 9-23-2012

I never did completely shake the cold symptoms from last weekend and they have only gotten worse. Today I am a total space cadet and am having to refrain from any serious decisions on anything due to an inability to function. It took me three tries to write the previous sentence and three to spell “sentence” just now. Bleh.

And now I just caught myself staring into space for a couple of minutes. Yep, I am not in.

Not Something You See Everyday in the Middle East

In Libya, protests against the murders of American diplomat Chris Stevens resulted in a crowd attacking an Islamist militia headquarters. I had been aware of smaller groups protesting earlier in the week, but this is quite a surprise. It gives me some hope that Libya may pull it together in the end rather than disintegrating. As Totten points out, it is quite a contrast to Egypt.

Standing up to terrorists needs to be a priority around the world and good people should not allow evil to go unchecked. Frankly, it all needs to be done locally by local people in the first place. Let this be the start of something good, I pray.

Getting Old and Slow, Plus Torchlight II Impressions

Forget having to get bifocals, it is getting slower in video games that is getting to me. A couple of things have proven this to me the past week. While never one of the best, I could at least game on the hardest or second hardest settings the first time I played a game. With the release of Black Mesa, a remake of most of the original Half Life, I find myself having to continuously lower the difficulty in order to progress.

I did fine until the Marines showed up. Then it became a ridiculous exercise in getting killed twenty or thirty times just to clear one area and limping out of it with under ten health. And getting killed with one shot in the next area.

I used to waltz through Half Life at its hardest settings, so this is a body blow for me. Older games were harder than the current ones,yes --  but this is painful.

The second thing was talking to one of my younger friends I game with. He can’t understand why he beats me handily in PvP when I can run through single player games on difficulty levels he can’t handle. That is simple to answer: twitch reflexes will always dominate in PvP with tactics being a secondary factor. Guile and tactics often compensate against AI opponents who follow predictable paths. Humans are a lot more random.

Watching him play at his house, I was amazed at how fast he could flip through screens, type, and fight without missing a beat. That is simply beyond my ability these days.

At least Torchlight II is something I can still play at veteran level and not die very often, in fact only once so far and that was due to stupidity on my part. So far it is much more like Diablo II than the first game and the graphics look great with no slow downs on max settings despite amazing waves of enemies. The changes all work to the better from what I have tested through level 11 casual and level 7 veteran ember mage builds.

But…

It is buggy. Horrifically buggy. I have a friend who can’t launch it without completely locking up his computer. One side quest I accepted couldn’t be done because the entrance to it refused to trigger. Then there is the multiplayer which was not functioning because Runic Games could not handle the traffic. I could not even create an account last night.

It is as bad as the Diablo III rollout, which is incredibly ironic.

Bleach Ep. 20: Gin Ichimaru’s Shadow

The final episode of Bleach’s first season contains every element that makes the series worth watching. Ichigo and his friends complete their training then take a time out before the assault on Soul Society. As an added bonus, a review of an extra from the season one box set is included.

When you see the title graphic, it does not fit where the story left off last episode. But no worries, it does fit this episode just not right away. With Ichigo having briefly turned into a hybrid of Hollow and Shinigami before regaining control, it is time for him to move to phase three of Urahara’s training. We have to wait a bit for that to resume, though.

A brief recap of Byakuya’s announcement of Rukia’s execution in 25 days starts the show and we get a further teaser of Soul Society. It appears to be inhabited by very shady characters, two of whom show up to needle Captain Kuchiki over his sister’s impending execution. One is a trickster type, Captain Gin Ichimaru of Squad 3 and the subject of the episode title. The other is Squad 11’s one eyed captain, who tries his best to provoke a duel with Kuchiki. All in all, Soul Society does not look like any kind of heaven and seems savage.

Global Tensions Rising: China and Japan

Things seem to be escalating quickly over a group of islands, with one Chinese general telling his troops to prepare for war with Japan. This looks awfully calculated given the other aggressive actions in the region, but there is a component to it that is not traditional posturing. Instead it is an aspect of asymmetrical warfare being given a test run with Japan as a proxy for the United States.  Asymmetrical warfare involves using methods other than overt military force to bring down a foe perceived as more powerful. Propaganda, cyber warfare, and attacks on financial infrastructure are all key parts of this approach.

The latest tiff has led to threats of using Chinese ownership of Japanese government debt to bring them to their knees. Do not think this is disconnected from the U.S.A., for yesterday’s demonstrations briefly attacked the Ambassador to China’s car. The demonstrators knew what they were doing and chanted anti-American slogans during the incident.

With the two largest American bond holders in an intense war of words that could go hot to some degree (how hot? Ask the Chinese.), this is not something that should be ignored right now. The threats being made to undermine Japan’s economy can be made against us.

It should be noted that such a threat only works if a war does not actually follow. In war time, all debts to an enemy are declared void. Quite a tricky balancing act for China’s rulers, eh?

Gamera: MST3K (1991) Review

An epic battle between Sandy Frank’s version of the 1965 giant monster classic and the occupants of the Satellite of Love completes my review trilogy of the first Gamera movie. Love is found amidst carnage when a giant turtle meets a young boy named Kenny and the world conspires to keep them apart. Expect explosions, inventions, voodoo, and robot abuse when Mystery Science Theater 3000 first encounters Gamera – for the second time!

Most Americans associate Gamera with Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) if they even have a clue what the flying turtle is. If it were not for Sandy Frank’s particularly bad dubs of those old monster films, it is questionable whether or not MST3K would have become as big as it did. Thanks to a sale at Amazon, I ended up getting my hands on the box set of those episodes for less than half price a mere week after whining I couldn’t afford it. Maybe I should whine publicly more often?

For the storyline of the movie, please consult my reviews of the original film and the American version.

 

If you are not familiar with the show, MST3K featured a janitor launched to a space station by mad scientists where he was forced to watch “cheesy movies” as part of experiments. To alleviate his loneliness, the janitor named Joel built robots to be his friends. It is all an excuse to riff on and mock bad movies for laughs.

This classic episode opens with Joel (Joel Hodgson), Crow (Trace Beaulieu), and Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy) warming up in preparation for the next experiment, or film as we would call them. While the lone human stretches, the bots go through vocal exercises. Yes, it is sheer lunacy, which is what this show is all about, so go with it. Just relax, like the theme says…

Some Guitar Fun

A video from a father and son duo I am friends with. It has been a trip watching Chris Jr. move from drums to guitar and then evolve as a player. The kid has a lot a talent and learns it all by ear.

"Just Because" is a fun tune and this noodling around turned out well, I think:

Health 9-17-2012

I despise colds. ‘Nuff said.

Bleach Ep. 19: Ichigo Becomes a Hollow!

The mini training arc continues, Bleach style. Slapstick comedy mixes with an intriguing dive into Ichigo’s very soul when his quest to regain his lost powers takes a very dark turn. Will he survive his training? More importantly, will he survive being abused by little kids?

I think everyone has had one of those days where they have found themselves restrained in a magical straightjacket and subjected to torment by small children. I hate when those happen, they are real downers. So when saw Ichigo go through the events of this episode I empathized deeply with him.

But it is Rukia who gets the short end of the stick, both in events and screen time. The episode opens with Renji freaking out when he finds out Rukia will be executed and his captain, her brother, approves of this. Byakuya may be a pretty boy by anime standards, but his personality is cold to say the least. There is not a trace of positive emotion shown toward his sister and the whole encounter leaves her in a deep funk while she tries to let go of all emotions like a proper noble woman. That is all we get to see of her.

While she is in a black hole of despair, Ichigo is in a hole of his own.

China Doesn’t Just Copy Electronics: The J-21

The military aviation world got a surprise a couple of years ago when the Chinese government took the wraps off of the J-20 stealth fighter, but that is nothing compared to what just showed up. Roughly in the F/A-18 Hornet size range and possibly a competitor to the F-35 Lightning II strike fighter, it is clearly derived from stolen data from Lockheed and subcontractors of the F-22A Raptor program. That is a scaled down F-22 if I have ever seen one with a radome more like the F-35. The proportions made a lot of us on the Net think it was a Photoshop at first, but I had a pit in my stomach when I studied the photos and better ones came out.

I knew our defense programs has been thoroughly compromised by the Chinese, but seeing the tangible results has been an unpleasant experience. As far as cyber security goes, our most classified and protected programs are in the hands of a hostile foreign government. It makes you wonder if the federal government is competent at anything at all.

Meanwhile, China continues to push claims on disputed territories with no fear of being countered.  With the continued aggression in the Pacific against neighboring countries, is it any wonder an arms race has begun in the region?

Odds and Ends 9-15-2012

It baffles me that certain movies are not out on Blu-ray or took many years to get issued, such as Lawrence of Arabia. Having obtained a minty used copy of the special edition DVD set of The Right Stuff and watching it last night, I can’t understand why there is no Blu-ray of it. It is a stupendously beautiful looking and sounding movie that deserves the full high definition treatment. It also is the shortest over three hour movie I have ever watched. By watched, I mean repeatedly over the years.

While I like my Iview Cypad 7” Android based tablet, I do need more horsepower. The Google Nexus was a disappointment in my view, since it has no HDMI out or memory card slot. The new Kindle Fire HD 7” looks terrific, but still lacks the slot and leaves you tied to Amazon’s proprietary store. Even with that, it is the current top candidate for a replacement. Ainol, a Chinese manufacturer, has a new tablet, the Novo 7 Fire, that has everything I want, but there are some early technical problems involving overheating. Its specs beat both the Nexus and Fire HD, so if they work out the difficulties, that is the one I would like to get.

After many years, Black Mesa rolled out yesterday. Black Mesa is a mod for the Source engine that recreates much of the original Half Life with all the bells and whistles of newer technology. I did a short run as far as the highly annoying jumping the crates level and have to say the wait was worth it. The attention to detail is simply amazing and the voice acting isn’t bad at all. There is a possibility they may do the Xen levels later, but hardly anybody liked those. I can’t wait to get into the fire fights and see how they are executed.

Making Faith Godly

Making a challenge when teaching Sunday school has its consequences. This post is one due to the fact that I have to live up to the challenge I delivered to the men in my class to write about their faith this week. Diaries, journals, wives' diaries, letter, mother's diaries, blogs, or whatever it took were part of my request.

 

So here I am, writing about my faith. It is more rambling than I would like due to being written during a hectic day yesterday and a very tired day today.

 

Faith is the first critical step towards finding salvation through Christ. Yet there are different kinds of faith, from the material to the spiritual. Only the most paranoid have no faith, though I suppose they do have faith in the idea that the world is out to get them. Simply having a belief in something unseen (ref. Hebrews 11:1) is not religious in itself, as was pointed out by the class during a lesson I taught in Elders Quorum this past Sunday.

No, there is more to it than that. So I find myself contemplating my faith in God and whether or not it is a Godly faith.

 

An Impressive Bit of Socially Engineered Blog Spam

Going through my email account revealed a comment waiting to be approved. While posted from that ever witty pseudo being, Anonymous, it looked legit at first before going off the rails:

Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point.
You definitely know what youre talking about, why
waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when
you could be giving us something enlightening to read?
Look at my homepage ... free porn

No video on the post is a wee bit of a giveaway even before the pornography offer (link deleted by me). Misspelling is no longer a surefire indicator that something is spam, so that can be forgiven. The idea of using constructive criticism as a form of social engineering in spam is a new one to me. I know it made me read the entire thing, so I bet this one is fairly effective.
Fiendishly clever is the phrase that applies, methinks.

UPDATED

Meanwhile, the Russian referral spam continues unabated. This time it is one from super-online-search . com that takes you to a site you do not want to visit.The Huns are at the gates, I tell you.

UPDATED 9-13-2012

A comment for another post is another clever variation of this that turned out to be a way to get clicks on a “survey” site as well as the video.

I'm having this exact problem with the video: http://www.youtube.com/(removed by me)  I've put one comment on the video site, but Youtube won't let me link your post as part of the explanation. So far, you are the only post that has tried to make sense of this stupid spam issue. Thanks for posting!

The identity of the commenter was “Ron” but the link to his profile is the afore mentioned survey at sprezzaturarrd . blgospot . com. Interesting development because it looks like they are aware of people trying to spread the word. Notice how the video gets another hyperlink via the comment?

Sadly they did get a couple of clicks out of me verifying the profile, but somebody has to take a look to see what is going on to warn others.

Runaway Inflation Is Now Unavoidable

Bernanke has chosen to do the worst thing possible and that is an open ended qualitative easing. If you have savings or an IRA, expect to lose your shirt since interest will be held low and hyper inflation will lower the value of every penny you have. I suggest looking up the Weimar Republic in German history to get an idea of what is going to happen now.

Stock up on foods and goods while you can, your purchasing power is going to decrease very quickly now. Buying ammo would also be prudent since it will be going sky high after this news is absorbed.

Incompetent and suicidal are the only words I can find to describe this development. It looks like a desperate bid to influence the election.

A Short Comment on the Embassy Attacks

Weakness is never a virtue and never, ever respected in the long run. What we are seeing in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen is the end result of trying to appease evil. Nothing good can come of that, so I expect a lot more to happen now that the United State is perceived as weak.

I have always advocated spreading democracy and republicanism to all states on all continents. Once I believed that it would encourage peace, but then I grew up and ceased being a teenager. Now it is because I believe that everyone must have their chance and be judged upon their resulting behavior.

Does that sound ominous? It should.

The Obama state department has been an abject failure since the beginning, insulting allies and cozying up to people who genuinely hate the West. Fear of offending our enemies and a perverse desire to offend friends has been a hallmark of this administration. So it was only a matter of time before the chickens came home to roost.

Al Qaeda and their associates coordinated the initial attacks on 9/11/2012 with the hope they would spread. Killing Osama bin Laden turned out to be as meaningless as I expected. This is a much bigger movement than one man.

Watching the media rally around the President and try to make Romney a bad guy for making a rational, not to mention needed, statement about the groveling message from the Egyptian embassy staff has been a depressing sight.

Once again, I repeat that weakness is not a virtue.

Gammera the Invincible (1966) Review

An American producer imports a giant monster movie from Japan and splices in new scenes. Godzilla, King of the Monsters? No… Gammera!  The result is something kids will enjoy and adults will find very silly. Park your brain – you won’t be needing it for this movie about a 200ft tall flame spewing turtle. And just what is the mysterious Plan Z? UPDATED September 2012 with DVD screen captures and revised text.

In 1965, Daiei Studios released Gamera the Giant Monster to cash in on the giant monster craze started by 1954’s Gojira. It was a decidedly low budget film that surprisingly did well and spawned a series of sequels. While never as big as the Godzilla series, many a kid watched the films about Gamera, the children’s friend.

The version reviewed is the first Americanized one distributed by NTA, not the even more heavily edited Sandy Frank one most of us saw on TV back in the 1980’s. This one is only mildly incoherent by comparison.  On to the review!

Gammera the Invincible begins with an overly serious narration introducing the setup. Dr. Hidaka (Eiji Funakoshi) is in the Artic to conduct some serious research. On what, I do not know. But he is a serious scholar and don’t you forget it! There he and his lovely assistant Kyoke (Harumi Kiritachi) meet an Eskimo chief. Pleasantries are barely exchanged before a squadron of Soviet bombers fly by at low altitude.

11 from 9/11

Watching the 9/11 ceremony streaming from the memorial site and listening to the names of the murdered read off has made the memories come back with a vengeance. One thing that strikes me is the names come from every ethnic background. When Bin Laden and company launched the attack, they did not attack just one hyphenated American, but the entire country.

I wish people would remember that this year when identity politics have gotten the worst I have seen in my forty plus years of living.

It is painful to listen to the families of the fallen speak and they are only up to ‘P’. It is one thing to remember watching what happened over a decade ago, but to see and hear just a fraction of the people whose lives were permanently changed reminds us of the very human dimension involved. So many kids left behind missing their parents and growing up without their presence are reading names.

Never forget.

Slow Motion

Since Saturday, I have not been doing so great, but managed to get out to socialize and go to church, though I missed the first hour of that. The drive home felt like it took a small eternity, which made me think of the excessive use of slow motion in modern action movies. Interesting in small doses and a massive chore to sit through when over used.

So today has been more of that wading in mud feeling. For over a week I have been working on two review posts and hope to get them up tomorrow at the latest. Part of the delay has been not feeling well, the other… well, sometimes reviews are painful to write. I have no idea how professional movie critics retain an ounce of sanity.

Actually, that would explain a lot of reviews, wouldn’t it?

New YouTube Based Blog Referral Spam

Well that is interesting. The Russian spammers have come up with a new one that delivers up a YouTube video of a Grand Theft Auto 4 sequence. Why would they do that? Well, the account holder gets money from the ads that run before it plays. This is why you see pretty girls doing reply videos to just about every subject out there – they make a lot of money from people clicking on them.

So if you see youtube.com in your referring sites, do not click and enrich the Russian mob.

Words Fail Me...

Two movie trailers and yes, they are real:

The mind boggles.

A Hail of a Night

It was another restless night, but at least this time the weather was overtly causing it. Around 1:30 AM a hail storm hit the house and hit loudly. You know the comic book sound effect “SPANG!”? I heard that quite a few times.

This morning revealed dents on the car hood, which just adds to the expense of getting it repainted. Hopefully, we will finally get it into the shop on Friday if it can be lined up. Also taking damage was a junk locust tree by the mailbox. One of its limbs broke and partially fell in the driveway entrance.

I dragged it around as much as I could, since it is still attached and far too out of reach to saw. Not that I am up for sawing something that thick! It was all I could do to cut the four and two inch diameter branches off to keep them from being run over.

WCA Phone Spam

For the last month or two I have been getting prerecorded messages from an outfit calling themselves WCA on an unlisted MagicJack phone number I have. The outfit is fraudulent and seems to be phishing for information, so do not press any numbers or call them back. The messages are often different, with variation including: debt collection, credit card offer, class action lawsuit settlement, assistance for the elderly, contest winnings, and free gift cards. It seems like this kind of scam is getting more common or am I mistaken?

I had not paid too much attention to the calls, since I thought it was some kind of service aimed at the disabled and elderly from what little I heard before hanging up. But after some of my recent experiences, I started listening to more of the messages and discovered they varied a great deal.

I will note this phone number has never been used on an Internet form or site and I assume it is the result of an autodialer. It is possible they were harvested off of an acquaintance’s smart phone or PIM on their computer, but it is highly unlikely.

Oddly, this reminds me of roofing and asphalting scammers I saw operating in Indianapolis back in the 1980s. The world probably has had con artists scamming people since the early days of civilization. I suspect they would survive being nuked just like the cockroaches they resemble.

Survived Another Holiday

I do not know when holidays changed from things to anticipate eagerly to things that strike dread in my heart. It probably was a few years into CFS that the demands of such days became apparent to me. Yes, I stubbornly believed back then that somehow, someway I would get better.

Then there was Labor Day, a federal holiday I always thought was pointless. I’m not a fan of holidays except to mark important events or to honor military service. It also seemed unnecessary with Thanksgiving not to far away and Christmas a mere month later. To me, it was inconsequential and gave it little thought.

So of course this year I completely forgot it was coming despite many announcements about the ward picnic. Postponed plans to go to the range to make some very badly needed zeroing in for a couple of rifles meant that yesterday morning was a must do. Then at noon the picnic would have to be gotten to. Oh hey, a phone call from a friend getting the online gaming group together for steak later that afternoon made things even more complicated.

I really wondered if I would survive Labor Day.

Health 9-3-2012

Going cold turkey on H202 to prepare for a full cleanse in September has not gone well. So I am now forced into restarting the maintenance regime and postponing the full. Such is life.

I am finding online multiplayer gaming to be more physically draining than I expected. It tires me greatly if it goes more than a couple of hours. That is one of the most annoying things about CFS, it does not care if real physical activity is involved and will be set off by anything I do no matter how trivial.

New week, new challenges to overcome. The first is Labor Day…

Mitt Romney Can Speak

Well, that was a surprise. His acceptance speech was in turns emotional, powerful, and presidential. Honestly, I did not expect this out of him, but it looks like Ryan’s pushing him to be himself has paid off.

I did not plan to watch any of the convention live, but my father wanted to check it out and PBS had it live. It was the testimonials by people who knew Romney when he was a bishop that changed the mood of the entire convention. Extraordinarily emotional and given by everyday people rather than politicians, the bored and barely polite delegates got teary eyed. For the first time, Mitt the real man was revealed to the surprise of the people.

Reaction on the conservative and libertarian side of the Net followed the same pattern. The whole night of speakers were very effective at conveying the Mitt Romney they know and included a liberal Democrat who served in his administration in Massachusetts. Her heartfelt endorsement of Mitt’s authenticity and goodness really was a special moment.

The Olympic medalists were a surprise and quite good too. It was good to see Scott Hamilton up there.

Clint Eastwood channeled a mix of Don Rickles and Bob Newhart in a devastating comic routine involving talking to Obama in an empty chair. Strange at first, it turned into something amazing by the end.

Rubio was smooth and impressive introducing Romney. I can see why great things are expected for him.

But it was Mitt’s make or break moment and he was incredible. Where has this man been the whole campaign? Absolutely tremendous speech and hard hitting on Obama’s short comings made even more impressive by the fact he writes his own speeches.
I think this is the real beginning of the campaign.

Bleach Ep. 18: Reclaim! The Power of the Shinigami!

That classic trope of shounen anime has arrived: the dreaded training story arc. But do not expect the normal kind of training, for the mysterious Urahara has rather… unorthodox methods. Stripped of his spiritual power, can Ichigo get it back in time to rescue Rukia from Soul Society?

Few episodes in Bleach veer so radically between comedy and seriousness as this one. There were times I felt I was suffering mental whiplash, but it certainly is not a boring entry in the series. With Ichigo accepting the offer from Urahara to get his powers back at the end of the last episode, it was pretty obvious we would get a mini-arc with a power up at the end of it. Oh how I dreaded it when first watching the show -- for they are the most boring things in anime to me.

Returning to school for the first time since Rukia was taken back to Soul Society, Ichigo broods constantly about her absence. Nobody else remembers her at all, which compounds the pain he feels. She haunts him to the point he visualizes her fading away like a ghost, which manages to inject some poignancy into the midst of the slapstick comedy involving his classmates.

In Defense of Fantasy and Sci-Fi B-Movies

In which I opine on the merits of B-movies of yesteryear, their decline, and how they haven’t really gone extinct.

Being a child of the 1970s, I was fortunate to grow up during a transitional period in cinema and before VCRs (along with cable television) changed how we see movies. The only places to see movies were at the theater and on broadcast, so a lot of very old movies were my main diet. Hey, movie tickets cost money even at the third run small town theater. Unlike other kids, it was rare to go out to see a badly faded and scratched print.

So I got to watch the badly faded and scratched prints cropped to television box format via the miracle of pan and scan. Most of the movies were much older than I was, so black and white flicks were watched nearly as much as color. Do not get me started on Ted Turner’s colorizing old films in the 1980s. The words “brain dead” would be the beginning of the rant which would veer into zombie killing at some point.

So what is a B-movie?

Hate: A Challenging Dream

An attempt to sleep in resulted in one odd dream that ended on a strange note and a profound question. Part of my ongoing series Hate.

Awaking and going back to sleep rarely results in memorable dreams for me. This is not the case this morning. It started as an odd jumble involving a look at the next Captain America film in a sociopolitical context at a nearby Catholic college presentation open to the public. In the dream, I was sick and bundled in a blanket in a front row seat.

The female professor making the presentation was very liberal and very much about being in control of the discussion. We watched a clip and then she asked a question that had absolutely nothing to do with what we had just watched. Tedious conversation followed.

At that point I was losing interest in the whole thing, since it appeared to be a waste of time and I felt lousy. I saw a friend sitting several rows in front of me and we waved to each other. Yes, I was sitting in the front row and suddenly there were rows in front of me. One has to love the ability of dreams to be completely inconsistent.

If I only Had a Brain

I have had this going through my head for a good part of the day. Why? Because I have been addled at best today. The early morning hours were not kind to me from overdoing things, so I did not make it to church. Trying to work on the post I started earlier this week turned into an ordeal and that is when this tune began to play in my head. Good thing, because it needed to be filled with something.

At least I found an old MP3 player to use as a Sunday only one. Where the good one went, I do not know. Also, I did work on changing the look of the site. Hopefully it is a bit more presentable now.

Health 8-25-2012

Well, that was not a good week. Gastrointestinal distress, high pain levels, and interrupted sleep contributed to keeping me at low ebb. I barely was able to start a rather large post and never did get back to finishing it. Chores around the house suffered the same fate.

It is pretty clear I overextended myself by making a shopping trip on Monday. There are no regrets, since badly needed items were gotten and the piper always has to be paid. Hopefully next week will be better.

Now to see if my shoe repairs worked this time around!

Headlines: Shootings and Armstrong Is a Doper

Early reports of three to four dead near the Empire State Building in New York City with the gunman dead. Like I have written before, I expect to see a lot more of this as society slowly comes apart at the seams. Too many economic and social pressures are causing marginally stable people to crack.

Meanwhile, Anders Breivik gets twenty one years for killing seventy seven people in Norway. He is eligible for early release in a mere decade. Way to protect your public, Norway!

The other big story is that Lance Armstrong quit defending himself and has been found guilty of doping. All seven Tour de France titles have been stripped from him. It puzzles me that people did not believe he was doping when that sport is completely dishonest. Frankly, all sports are populated by cheaters and dopers now and are not worth following. Certainly, the athletes should not be made heroes at this point, but the masses are desperate for secular gods.

Boy’s cancer a fight between good and evil

Boy’s cancer a fight between good and evil

I am friends of the Kuglers and have to say that Jonas is even more impressive in person. He has handled the whole ordeal incredibly well given his age. Watching the whole family deal with this has impressed me greatly -- they are amazing folks.

Movie Illiteracy

Hello to the few who read this blog!

This will be a short post while I continue writing a longer one which has brought a question to mind: Does anyone under 50 have any familiarity with classic movies these days?

I ask this because I will often mention a movie to someone below forty and get a blank look. These are not obscure movies and include:

• Lawrence of Arabia
• Doctor Zhivago
• Bridge Over the River Kwai
• Zulu
• Casablanca
• The Maltese Falcon
• Gone with the Wind
• Citizen Kane

And many more I could list. Hollywood is in a downturn and has been for some time, mainly due to the dreck they insist on putting out. The latest fad it to watch HBO or Showtime for original series rather than theatrical releases due to the supposed superior quality. I've sampled those series and am unimpressed, to put it lightly.

Since I am not film illiterate and something of a buff, it would be considered my problem, not theirs by the consumers of current film and television. But I wonder if they would have a different attitude if they were versed in classic films of yesteryear?