Disney Spin

Wow, I got to hand it to Disney. They are the masters of marketing. Yes, they opened a new roller coaster this month and it was the talk of the town for a day or two. Although nobody disputes the attention to detail that went into making this ride, it hasn't taken anybody's breath away.

Nevertheless, it was funny to see they they had a billboard in Times Square last week that had REAL people climbing all over it. Maybe after National Boards I'll head over and check it out.... who knows.... maybe I'll actually work back at Slash Mountain for a couple weekends.

Sportmanship

Olypmic Observations: - I don't know why Bode Miller even came to the Olympics.... he keeps saying his heart's not in these games and that he doesn't care. He's hugely sponsored yet poo poo's the games... why did we let this guy represent our country?

- Hockey is awesome; Ice dancing is aweful

- I hope Shauni Davis chokes on his gold medal. He and his wicked witch "sports mom" have snubbed every aspect of sportsmanship and teamwork.... it's all about Shauni, shauni, shauni. Maybe he and Bode came make their own country called EgoSlavia.

- Curling could be interesting to watch IF they could find a way to make it faster. TV cuts to commercial after every shot (very hard to keep from falling asleep). I propose a 20 second timer between shots... keep the game going.

- Speaking of curling..... is it really practical to have women and men teams complete separately? sure some sports need the sexes separated, but Curling? Which leads me to another point; are they really athletes? Computer hacking is a skill, but it's not an olympic sport either. The IOC needs to do a better job at finding ATHLETIC sports to put in the Olympics (I like the Snowboard Cross Races that were added this year)

Bad Casting

Lara Croft... always concidered super hot, is coming out in another movie. Angelina Jolie looked the part in the first Tomb Raider movie. The new Laura, however, is a HUGE miss. Instead of being hot, she looks like a modern day Olive Oil with guns.

I expect Lara to have a pretty face.... not this one
I expect Lara to have a toned body.... this one is gonna need to do some serious crunchies
I expect Lara to look sexy.... this one looks like she belongs on Jerry Springer.
I expect Lara to be proportional..... this one could put some rings around her neck and fit in with an African tribe.

I'd like to call a recount on the casting.... they got it all wrong this time.

Smile.....It's important

So I'm home sick, again, and I'm watching a TV show about the science of human attraction. They follow beauty through cultures and time.... but one thing transends cultures and time; the SMILE! It's the easiest and most significant change that you can make to your appearance.
Usually, as I walk the halls at school, I get a significant number of "hellos" and high fives from students and teachers. This morning, however, I was ignored. Although I felt OK at that time, I wasn't smiling, and people simply walked by.
I can't wait to get better and smile when I go back to work.

PA-LEASE!!!!

For several months, we've had problems with our newspaper delivery at school. We're supposed to get 5 daily, however, most days we get 1 or 2.... or none at all. I've called and called.... this only makes our delivery guy upset because he gets docked everytime I call. Apparently we have somebody stealing our papers or a dog is fetching them before we pick them up.

So Thursday, my assistant pulls her jeep up to the gate to get the papers when a little black car pulls in ahead of her. A big man gets out of his car, gives my assistant a look, and takes 2 or 3 of the papers. He then proceeds around to drop off his child at extended day. We note the child and the license plate number and inform the principal. His suggestion; write a tackful letter and send it home with the child.

So I write a letter which recounts the events which have been witnessed, but doesn't place blame. I just want this parent to consider our position. I show it to the principal, and he says it's perfect. Now, our resource officer has heard of our situation and is ready to call this guy and confront him. He ran the license plates and all, however, the principal wouldn't let him go after this guy.

Friday, as expected, I get a call from our offender who basically admits to taking a paper or two every week, but thinks we're going too far to accuse him of stealing papers. I explain to him that stealing papers is EXACTLY what he's been doing, whether he knows it or not, and that we'd like him to leave our papers alone. He gets angrier and angrier and finally hangs up on me. The thing is.... he's probably not the only one doing this.

So next week, I'm going to go in super early each day and see if I can catch others in the act.... perhaps on camera. Who knows.... by the end of the week, I may have a whole bunch of parents yelling at me.

HDDVD vs. BluRay PART 2

In another twist...... According to TG Daily, Toshiba and Samsung (the two big developers of HDDVD) have entered into a joint veture to manufacture.....what else?????? BLUERAY RECORDERS!!!!

WOW boys, what a backup plan. If you can't get people to adopt your technology, at least you'll get in on the action by making your competitors products.

This web is getting mighty tangled

HDDVD vs. BlueRay

So there is a monumental battle taking shape that brings back memories of BetaMax vs. VHS. Today's companies are trying to the be ones to bring High Definition DVD's to your living room and computer. Since there is no standard yet, and no clear winner.... this has frustrating repercussions on Discount Resellers and consumers. What do you buy? Who's disks can you play. Both sides currently have big motion picture houses and computer companies behind them.... Both have amazing new products.... Neither is anywhere compatible with the other.

SO, this week..... when it finally looked like HDDVD was down for the count, two BIG companies came to its rescue: Microsoft and Intel. Talk about timing.... this new breath for HDDVD is no doubt going to prolong the war and be a nightmare for consumers. It also gives Microsoft an interesting edge.... They can stall the market for both formats until they develop software that does the same thing over Broadband. Think about it, Apple's iTunes is now selling TV and music at unbelievable rates over the Internet. In a couple years, you will no doubt be able to score just about ANY media you can imagine over a network or Internet Connection.

All we need now is SUPER storage. Actually, I could use a good Teribyte box right now. I have a camcoder that films straight to HD....no tape. It's really cool, but I can see my Hard drive filling up fast.

What's up?

Ramblin' at the computer:

- So I hear on the news that a dude in NYC rode the subway for over 6 hours before anybody realized he was dead. In the movie Collateral, Tom Cruise uses a similar incident (yes this has happened before) to justify the killing of his victims as he is driven around Chicago for murder. In both cases, they make it sound like a "Shame on Society" story...... how could we be so out of touch with our fellow man to not even notice that he's dead? I see it a little differently though: It's impolite to disturb people when they are sleeping or drunk.... these things happen on the subway all the time. You can't blame people for not realizing the subtle difference between sleep and death.

- I think the planets were out of alignment this week..... if so we should send some rockets up to knock'em back in place. Translation, the students were just jumpy this week...... I'm going to have to lay down the law come Monday.

- I read an interesting health tip about diet hunger today. It says that you should stay away from eating many different flavors at once. Example, eat mostly apples one day, or mostly pineapple, or chocolate..... whatever it is, try to have a "taste theme". When you do this, your body will register that it's FULL and cut off your hunger pangs. On the other hand, if you eat too many different flavors at once, your body resets the hunger pangs for each new flavor.

Bin Laden OR Bin Lyin'

First off, let me just go on the record that I consider myself a patriot and Bin Laden is a thug that needs to be captured or killed. That said, Bin Laden is making a whole lot more sense to me these days than Bush. Let's put it this way, if something happened and it was one person's word against the other, I'd probably have to go with Bin Laden. OK, let me clarify why I bring this up. I just finished reading about today's Bin Laden tape in which he offers a truce with the US. Of course we can't broker deals with terrorists, but what Bin Laden says made sense. He spoke of the american public in a positive light, instead directing his ire at the Bush administration (welcome to the club Osama).

"Based on the substance of the polls, which indicate Americans do not want to fight Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their land, we do not mind offering a long-term truce based on just conditions that we will stand by,"

This is not an irrational statement......actually, it's pretty resonable. The problem is that we've committed to this war. Bush's only option is to keep on keepin' on.

"Your President is misinterpreting public opinion polls which show that the vast majority of you support the withdrawal of your forces from Iraq," bin Laden said.

"He (Bush) disagreed with this desire and said the withdrawal of troops will give the wrong message to the enemy and that it is better to fight them on their ground than on our ground."

"Reality shows that the war against the U.S. and its allies is not just restricted to Iraq as he claims, but Iraq has become a gravitational point and a recruiting ground for qualified (mujahideen)," he added.

Once again.....Correct.
Now the timing is REALLY interesting. This "truce" came about a week after the US bombed the heck out of a dinner that the Al Queda elite were supposed to attend. Reports indicate that 4 big wigs were killed, but the big fish got away. Sounds like the noose is tightening there and it won't be long before we have BigLaden's head on a platter. At that time, we should make plans to get our troops out of Iraq and put in some UN peacekeepers..... mission accomplished.... oh glorious glorious day.

Now to the next issue.... Spying on Americans. The Bush adminstration this week has taken Google to court, demanding to know what Americans are searching for on the search Engine. This, of course, violates privacy policies.... AND THE LAW!!! This makes me just sick! We've finally reached George Orwell's vision when Big Brother watches your every move.

BTW.... Hi NSA!!! Nothin' going on here but a little free speech (is that still allowed?)

Welcome to Dodge.....

Whoa! In the last 24 hours we've had a police chase shootout through Kissimmee that ended with a Suicide and a 10 hour bank robbery standoff that ended with another shootout on 192 (robbers used his hostages as human shields, but snipers took him out). What will tomorrow bring?.....who knows, but you better be alert around here.