I just returned back from Mitchell from a family reunion back in Mitchell.  Talk about total fun..:)

 

Friday evening was a pork loin cookout at one of my cousin's house in town, and the food was excellent. That night is when most people were beginning to show up, so it was fun to see people come in.  Most of the ones I haven't seen in years were already present.  It was mostly waiting for my nephews to arrive.

 

Saturday is where everyone gathered at Hitchcock Park, the park that is essentially Mitchell's swimming pool, and a general park.  Good news is, my mom was out and about.  Bad news is, Mother Nature decided to give us British weather.  We were using a building/patio, but we had little kids about, so running around and playing was kind of limited.

 

Now, my aunts being my aunts, they decided to have "the cousins" play a game. A scavenger hunt.

 

And, well..I sometimes wish we had some video cameras with both teams, because, well...it would make true REALITY TV..and it isn't the type of stupid crap we have on tv.

 

The idea is, we had to use an old Polaroid (the old fashioned ones where the pic develops after you shoot the picture) to take 20 photos.  Some were family related, some were random stuff, and some involved South Dakota.  Consider this to be the family's version of National Treasure meets Candid Camera, I guess.  We had 60 minutes to complete the tasks, and the biggest thing was creativity would be considered the deciding factor.

 

Well, my brother (like always, takes charge) and I were on the same team. My sister (who, as always takes charge) was on the other team.

 

Well, here are some of the more memorable moments:

 

1). Take a picture of someone doing yardwork.

 

 This one was insane.  We found some lady walking her lawn mower back to her house, and tried to take a pic. She kinda freaked when one of my cousins ran out and asked her (although she did politely tell the woman that she hoped she wasn't wierd (lady replied that she was, LOL!), but was a good sport...:)

 

2).  Take a picture of an animal.

 

Well, on my team, the running down a person for a picture again was priceless.  Another cousin jumped out of the car when she saw a woman pushing a baby carriage and walking her puppy. She told the woman on what we were doing, and as if on cue, the puppy literally sat down and posed! LOL!  Couldn't get any better than that.

 

3). Take a picture of a live flower.  That was easy.

 

4). Take a picture of a fake flower.  A little tougher. see Grande Finale.

 

5). Take a picture of a map of South Dakota

6). Take a picture of a pigeon

7). Take a picture of a clock

8). Take a picture of an ear of corn (the Corn Palace does NOT count) 

 

Let me explain THIS one. Both teams went to the Corn Palace (hence my National Treasure reference to a degree).  On one wall as you walk into the lobby, there's a giant map of South Dakota. Next to it is a clock. Both teams used the map, but my opponents used the regular clock right next to it.  Good idea, but lack of creativity.

 

My team used the clock outside of the Dollhouse Museum for our clock.

 

The pigeon one was perhaps the most real challenge for both teams, as we found some pigeons on the Corn Palace. The inspiration for my team came from one of the photos in the Corn Palace. The glass blurred the photo, and my brother managed to get two pigeons feeding on the birdfeeder.  However, my sister's team only had ONE pigeon.  That one ended up as a tie on the judging. Trust me, we used the numbers card, LOL!

 

The ear of corn one was simple, but then my team got creative, but made controversy, because even though it was taken in the Corn Palace, it was NOT taken from the murals.  I think we lost this one, despite the creativeness and cuteness.  There was a photo of someone who had put their baby in a ear of corn suit at the entrance pictures of the Corn Palace.  Totally priceless.

 

9). Take a picture of something that reminds you of Grandpa.

 

 That was easy. The old shop.  Both teams got that one.

 

10). Take a picture of a business card.

 

This one was hard for both teams, due to the flash.  Mulligan, since wer had to show the actual cards. However, one of my cousins on my team had one of her mother's cards (somehow) from a business she had twenty years ago. Slight edge there.

 

11). Take a picture of something waving in the wind

12). Take a picture of your team hugging a tree

 

This was kind of difficult.  Unlike the other team, we had to use one of our team members to take a pic of the rest of us hugging a tree, and taking a pic of our team (seperate mind you).We decided to stand in front of a tree in someone's yard that had a flag waving in the wind (as we ourselves waved), and then took a pic of the team hugging a tree.

 

13). Take a picture of something that reminds you of your teenage or childhood years.  This one was uber, uber hard.

The reason being is, all of us initially thought of our grandparents' last home before grandpa died. The older ones remembered another house, but my brother couldn't remember where it was located exacly. However, one of the smokers remembered a place where they bought their cigarettes (with 'adult supervision', hehe) as teens.  The neat thing is, it's the last known locally owned convenience store that isn't Casey's, Kum & Go, etc...you get the idea.

 

Ok, the Grande Finale here. And yes, thank GOD for bars.

 

14). Take a picture of the Jackson 5

15). Take a picture of a half used roll of toilet paper

16). Take a picture of running water

17). Take a picture of a brown paper bag

18). Take a picture of a book of matches

19). Take a picture of something that reminds you of Grandma

20). Take a picture of something with someone of importance signature on it

 

Toilet paper and running water was easy.  Take a picture of a roll of toilet paper, then flush the toilet..:P (running water)

After showing the bartender the cute picture of the Kid In a Cornstalk, she told us to go over to the convenience store. There, we got a pic of fake grapes (in the wine section. thus we got our photo for our fake flower for #4), a brown bag, and a picture of a crossword puzzle book. The latter was because grandma loved them.

 

The picture of signatures, we got permission to take down a plaque of VFW members. Note, that there is a place in town that has signatures from famous people, like George and Gracie, Dean and Lewis, etc. but we couldn't remember what it was (the name of the place has since changed. However, our oppnents did go there).

 

Both groups on the signature one had very (GOOD) debatable entries.

 

My team ended up winning on the runoff.  My prize: a beer coozie (via a drawring out of a bag) that says:

 

"Your village called...their IDIOT is MISSING!!!"

 

It was so much fun to me, because I think it was for fun. There were no losers, because the last time we all were together as cousins, it was at grandma's funeral.

 

I have more fun times coming up..:)

If my previous post offended you, then you simply don't understand why George Carlin was such an icon. His brazen style of humor and social commentary was sheer brilliance.

 

To have a man essentially use words, and tell us the hypocrosy of society..well, we're all hypocrites.

 

He had one of my favorite routines concerning moments of silence, which was about the fifteen mentally retarded Bolivian soccer fans who died tragically in a roller coaster accident.

 

Why have a moment of silence?  Why not have a moment of constant yelling?

 

Sometimes I like to count the pimples on the back of the neck of the guy sitting in front of me., noting the hair growing through the blackhead. Sometimes, I have evil thoughts.

 

Sometimes I watch the heaving breasts of the beautiful woman in front of me, watching them rise and fall as she breathes.  Then it comes to my mind, "WOW! LOOK AT THE KNOBS ON HER!"

 

Of course, the "Losing Stuff" routine is also classic, where when we die, we'll get everything we ever lost back as we pass through the pearly gates, except the money from our lost wallets.  That goes to the church.

 

And of course, the part where he talks about the couch becoming missing..and his mother says, "Well, it just didn't walk away!"  Then I lost the cat.  "Well, it just didn't walk...."

 

The seven words was expanded to over 2000 words, according to his website. What's rather ironic is, as he plainly tells us, that we're always implying about sex, bodily functions and body parts on TV.  But if you say "fuck" on television, it's offensive. I use that word as the prime example. Soap operas, for example..3/4 of the storylines is about "who is sleeping with whom".  But yet, as George says, we can't SAY the word on TV.

 

I'm going to miss his social commentary.  I never thought his material was offensive.  Hell, when I hear the "Seven Words" routine, I was...seven..LOL!

 

How ironic.

 

My question is:

 

Who's winning the debate? God or George?

 

RIP.

 

 

I just have seven words to say...well, more, if you count the ones I am typing.

 

Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker and Tits.

 

I don't need to go any further than that, except a genius died.

 

In the future, even the dirt is clean.

 

May the Bill and Teds of the world remember you, Rufus.

This just rocked my world.

 

 

Carl Sagan would love this.

 

If Rush made a video for this song, this would be it.

 

Nuff said.

This is a post on European bands that have influenced me over the years. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, first off, the previous post literally was a live report as I watched the film. For a film that was only an hour and a half long, it probably took me three hours to watch it, mostly because I had to pause to make comments.  At one point, I even drew Marge into it via IM, because I tagged her long before I began to watch it. Trust me, she could tell I was falling in love with this movie.  When I begin to outright qoute a movie (whether it is in person, or in my blog), it has an impact on me.

 

Like Rocky Balboa, Rambo does one HELL of a job of completing a story arc that has lasted decades.What I like about this movie, is the fact that it takes every single major motif from the previous films, and it just works.

 

When you first see Rambo (John J.) on the screen, he's very primative. Some ways, I think he's content with his life, but in other ways, I think he wants something more.

 

Rambo is always on some sort of mission, and I think Sly's take this time is that Rambo has fallen into hell so much, he just doesn't believe in anything but himself.

 

In the first film, he believed in his country, but was rejected.

In the second film, he saved his lost brothers, but still felt rejected and unappreciated.

In the third film, he saves the man who made him what he has become.

In this film, I won't give away the ending.

 

I have read David Morrell's First Blood many times, and it is one of the best books I have ever read. I am going to spoil the novel (but there's a reason)..in the end of the novel..Rambo dies. Trautman ultimately kills his dog, if you will.

 

In Morrell's universe, I think this is what John Rambo (the movies) wished he could have done.

 

In the movies, this is what he did.

 

In the first movie, Sly brings up the stigma of a Vietnam vet. In the second film, he is simply used as a tool to clean up the mess of that war. In the third, Rambo rescues the one man who truly loves him.

 

This one, he rescues himself.

 

 

I didn't have a chance to see Rambo in the theater like I had planned, and so I finally bought a copy of it.  Like I have done in the past, I'll do a live commentary of my reactions to the movie.

 

The first minute and a half reminds me of the video footage from Live Aid 86, where it sets up the reason why the film was made.  Ironically, a few months ago, the Burmese (Myammar) government beat, killed, and detained Buddhist monks.

 

The start of the movie is gorgeous.  The horn theme that started the first movie, and the long shots until you see Rambo is like how First Blood started. However, instead of a man who wants to reconnect with the world depicted in the first movie, Rambo wants to be disconnected.  His use of "Fuck off" as a first line is telling.  I love it. When he tells Michael the missionary the same, well, it show how much he doesn't care.  He truly wants to be left alone.

 

Cut to the Burmese bad guy taking boys as young as twelve to conscript them into his army, and warning the villagers of informing the Karen Rebels, or any attempts of trying to get their children back...chilling.

 

So far, Sarah, the female lead is pretty good.  She (unlike the male) missionary leader, is trying to connect with John.  John repeatedly tells her to go home, because they can't change anything. She gives a nice response that even if he has lost his faith in people, then he at least has to believe in something (note, John Rambo is a Zen Buddhist).  I like how she uses this.

 

The trip upriver...wow. In the other films (and in David Morrells original novel First Blood), John Rambo was described as an expert at living off the land, learning and knowing customs...and in this one, you can start to see some light of caring.

 

His use of violence to save the others is brutal, and the missionaries' reactions are top notch.  Sarah is an excellant foil on trying to humanize him again.

 

The village sequence..brutal.  it is not for the faint of heart. I imagine this is what the Peace Corps (or any missionary group) who go into places so violent face each and every day.

 

The following sequence is downright gorgeous. Flashbacks to the other three movies (what is strikingly gorgeous is using many lines from the late Richard Crenna (Colonel Trautman) as a dream sequence, untiil John is awakened by the head of the missionary group asking for his help.  The man of peace has managed to get mercenaries to help, but only John knows where they were dropped off..I love his response.

 

"When do we leave?"

 

OH MY GOD...the blacksmith sequence rules. The knife we know from the first three movies (unless he does something different in later scenes) is made, and he basically puts all of his anger into it.  He tells the viewer that all he is is a killing machine....

 

I like how the head merc thinks he's such a bad motherfucker. His crew is motley, and even tries to give John orders.  And Rambo ignores him. Let's see how long that guy lasts. Ten to one, he bites it first for being stupid.

 

Merc: "You can forget the thousand yard stare. I'm not impressed."

*Rambo spits a loogie into the river*

 

Nuff said there.

 

Apperantly, the mercs are not as kick ass as they thought to be.

 

BOW AND ARROW TIME!

 

"This is who we are. Live for something. Or die for nothing."

 

Nice Bridge Over The River Kwai reference. And Apocolypse Now.

 

Ok..this intense.

 

Hoo boy...Mercman thinks he's in charge again.

 

Hello, potential rapist..die potential rapist...

 

Now the fun begins...

 

Yep..merc "I'm king shit" gets blown up..

 

"Fire off a shot! GO! GO!"

 

Trap setting 101:

 

Use scent to plant claymore!  I wouldn't have died if it weren't for that claymore and that stupid dog!

 

"What can we do?"---Sarah

 

"Nothing we can do"--Merc

 

...and the pale horse came, his rider's name was death.

 

 

All I can say.  I love the ending.

 

Like Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone created a wonderful capstone film with Rambo.

 

Nuff said.

 

 

 

Welcome to the club.

 

Preamble:

 

Thanks to Marge, I have become a huge fan of this band from Estonia. It's an all-female band (I wlll post later on this subject) that has great pop sense, but has a metal edge.

 

Vanilla Ninja's material is very 80's, and to me that's just awesome.  It's fun stuff.  In fact some of their music reminds me of the Go-Gos and the Bangles.

 

This is definately one of those songs I would play in a bar, and have people come up to me and say, "WHAT??"

 

Think of a Go-Gos beat on this one.

 

 

What's up
Come on it's Friday evening
Can't wait to go to the party
I know a place where we all should go
Check out
Just around the corner
Best place, can't be any cooler
Come along and enter to the party zone

No suburban angel
Been in lots of danger
Once even kicked Bruce Lee

Hey you - welcome to the party
Me and girls feeling kinda naughty
Dealing with hardcore fighting
Hangin' at the club "Kung-Fu"
Chill out - cos you're at the party
Me and girls already getting started
Dealing with hardcore fighting
Hangin' at the club "Kung-Fu"

Zoom this
You'll always remember
What you see can't get any better
Hottest people ever seen in whole downtown
Hear that
DJ playin' a record
Best thing after Def Leppard
Jump up - we'll be rockin' up this place

No suburban angel
Been in lots of danger
Once even kicked Bruce Lee

Dealing with hardcore fighting
Hangin at the club "Kung-Fu"

 

I'm Tim Russert,

 

This is Meet The Press.

 

This is a voice who will be truly missed.

 

My prayers for America.

 

Tim Russert is this generation's Edward R. Murrow, in my opinion. He never softballed questions. When he had an opinion, you could tell that had taken the time to research his subject.  He took his shots in the media, and he shot right back. He asked hard questions. He took rebukes in stride.

 

And I remember him as a man for what he has done for our country. He took President Kennedy's words literally.

 

Good night,

And Good Luck.

 

Edward R. Murrow

 

 

 

I have to preamble this one.  I am a Space Ace. To see him be successful outisde of KISS rocked my world.

 

Also, for him to do such a personal song as an opening track...

 

Hut two three four Rock two three four. HOO-A!

 

The last several weeks, I have somehow become an expert on installing and uninstalling certain major software products that everyone knows and love to use.

 

For me, it's know and loathe.

 

The first is Adobe. Yeah, yeah, everybody loves Adobe Reader and Flash Player.  I do.  But here's the problem.

 

There's a family of Adobe products called Creative Suite. The most famous element of this is Photoshop (Photoshop Elements is the poor man's version that you can buy at Wally for like $20).  Flash and Reader are a part of it as well.

 

There's other stuff in it that I have zero clue on what they do, but there are different versions for different environments (everything from photo editing to webdesign (Dreamweaver) to video editing).

 

However, it's a messy process, and I've learned a lot from several people on this.  It was a little frustrating at first, but now I've learned that if you are migrating an entire work group, to do it slowly.

 

Best way to put it: even when I upgrade Adobe Reader to Adobe Professional, I use the same steps as I would use for migrating CS2 to CS3.

 

Today, I discovered that Nero is kind of the same way, but it's not as much of a nightmare.  It's a little more straight forward, but still has a couple of steps that basically means "you need to know what you are doing."

 

Seems more and more, I'm diving into realms I never thought I would ever go. I felt I was rather well-prepared for the hardware side of things, because of my work history. But I never really dabbled on the software side. And now after two crash courses in brain surgery, I actually want to learn on how these programs work in order to help fix them.

 

I don't really want to learn how to code the stuff, but if I knew how to run the programs, and see what problems occur, then I'll add them to my database.

 

Fun times, eh?

 

 

I watched the feeds of several trips that the Clintons here in South Dakota over the last few weeks, and last night (if I would have been undecided), the arrogance would have done it for me.

 

Obviously, you know whom I voted for.

 

 

 

I'm glad Michigan and Florida's voices will be heard. I know that I've said in the past that they shouldn't count, but yesterday's results was better than the chad event of 2000. Trust me, when you're in a foreign country (in my case, Australia), and you get constantly asked about who should be president of your nation, two things:

 

1). Curiousity.  I'm very curious, and why I went to Oz.  But the locals there are just as curious, so they ask.

 

2). Let it be over. The Clinton campaign has the right to object to what's going on, but drop the damned "I'm entitled!" stuff. I'm sorry, but you're not, Hillary.  I'm sick of you and your husband, and your child. I bet if you were in John McCain's position, or even Barack Obama's, you wouldn't have even COME to South Dakota, much less Brookings.

 

I watched her feed from SDSU, and she outright offended me when she told me that South Dakota matters, and with a very fake smile.

 

They say that Hillary is either a "You either love her, or you hate her" type person.  At least with Bill, with all his faults, I at least acknowledge some things he did for this country.

 

Just as my mother can't stand listening to our current president speak, and how my grandmother hated Ronald Reagan, I simply cannot stand this woman.

 

Just as Al Gore felt it was his time in 2000 (his right to run), and the chads have come and gone, Hillary is trying to do the exact same thing with this election. 

 

In essence, she's a fucking bleeding heart.

 

That's why I'm voting Obama on Tuesday.

 

And who knows?  I might switch to Independant again.