I just brought a copy of Window XP Home Edition Upgrade. It was a step I had refused to take because of the online validation needed and the limited use of each copy of the operating system to one machine at a time. However, only using Windows 2000 was starting to put me too far behind the times, especially since Microsoft is preparing to release its new operating system named Vista next year. Windows Vista reportedly will make handling documents and media files even easier than with XP...

I saw “Syriana” on DVD the other day. “Syriana” is about the relationship between oil, the oil (or energy) business, government and people and the intrigue that happens between these entities. The movie is a well-made tale that has multiple characters that are decently developed. Many themes are running through this story where an oil company is trying to secure access to oil and get a merger cleared by the US Justice Department. The junior partner (Killens) of a proposed merger with Co...

I saw “Good Night, And Good Luck” directed by George Clooney on DVD a couple weeks ago. As I found with the movie “V for Vendetta” (B minus grade), the main subject matter is very timely in this political environment we find ourselves in. The movie is about Edward R. Murrow dealing with a Senator Joseph McCarthy’s communist in government and society witch-hunt of the 1950s US. Murrow (one of the most respected broadcast newsman by people in the broadcast news business back then and today)...

If I hear one more news report about Brad Pitt’s and Angelina Jolie’s baby, I’ll sh*t Brads and Angelinas. Its like no one ever had a baby before. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are American actors that had the distinction of being declared by People magazine as the most beautiful people on earth one year. No one knows how People magazine determines this or who gives them the right to declare this person or that person as the most beautiful on earth (this is a free country though) like they...

I saw the movie United 93 today. It is about the hijacking and the events on airline United 93 during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It is a pretty straightforward dramatization of the event with very little embellishment. In this regard it is not an absolutely spectacular movie, but it does cover the events in a succinct and dramatic fashion It puts the audience directly in the midst of the incident. You are actually their listening in and witnessing the events of that day (in general) an...

I will be going down to city hall or the county building tomorrow or next week to switch my Party affiliation to independent. I think I have finally found a single issue that will affect my vote. The immigration reform debate that is going on in Washington DC has crystallized an issue that can make me not vote for a candidate for political office. I thought there was no such issue, but I was wrong. You learn something about yourself everyday. I have always been an independent at heart ...

I saw the movie “V for Vendetta” yesterday. The movie concerns an Orwellian like state that arise in Great Britain due to the war on terrorist and terrorist attacks. The story is one of conspiracy, liberation and vengeance. It is quite a mix. The screenplay is by the Wachowski brothers and like there past work it is full of philosophical and political dilemmas. V who was the victim of some government sponsored medical research gone wrong (and which assisted in the rise of the police sta...

I watched the Oscars last night. I must give Jon Stewart credit for keeping the jokes and humorous bits coming. Usually after the host does the opening there is very little humor left or expressed in the program. It was different this time. Jon Stewart who is the host of the funniest talk show that is based on the Tonight Show format showed some of his talent last night. It amazes me that a person with his talent cannot find a home on regular broadcast television with its larger than b...

On the heels of a slew of patches due for Microsoft operating systems I figured it is as good a time as any to write (again) about an aspect of my computing experience. There has been a lot of software needing security patches in the last few months and not only Windows, but also the Mac and Linux operating systems. There have been security holes found in iTunes and Winamp software. There’s been holes found in firewalls and anti-virus products like Symantec’s Norton Anti-virus, and Zone A...

It’s been an unusually warm winter so far this year. We have had brief spurts of below average temperature weather followed by very short periods of seasonal weather. The above normal temperature days have by far outstripped the normal days. There have also been an unusually large number of thunderstorms this winter. In a normal winter there are no thunderstorms. The only exception is when there is a heavy snowstorm or blizard and then you’ll sometime here thunder when it is snowing heavil...

It was around Christmas time of 2004 and the T.V. was playing in the background when all of the sudden I hear a constant piercing shriek and rumbling wail without end coming from the television. What could it be? Was it a horror picture? Were people under attack? No, it was the Oprah Winfrey Christmas show. From the point Oprah gave out the first gift to the end of the program she could not utter one word without being drowned out by the screaming of the audience. There was no announcing what...

I watched the movie “Pitch Black”on DVD the other day. I went to the theater to see this movie when it came out and was impressed then and on seeing it again I am more impressed. It is a good movie. The story is about a cargo ship that crash lands on this hostile environment three-sun world that is on its way to entering a total eclipse that the planet goes into every twenty-two years. Coming out of the catacombs and caverns during this eclipse are hundreds of thousands of huge winged bat ...

I’ve been blogging for a little over two years now at one site or another. It is a good time to make some observations about my blogging. First I’ve noticed that my blogs can become repetitive. No, I’m not taking about my writing style, which is pretty, for the most part, unedited and therefore sometime repetitive. Besides a very minimum level of spelling and grammar checking done by the word processor program I use to first write a blog these post are written on the fly. I found out b...

I am not one of those people who engage in celebrity worship (for the most part). I even find it difficult to remember the names of actors (or any other of the key positions in film-making). Only once in my life have I ever written a movie star. Mind you it is highly unlikely that big time stars will ever read a letter or email you send. They have public relation firms handling their mail and screening their mail. They probably receive too much fan mail or emails to read each letter. I ...

I mentioned on my last blog entry that the movie “Brokeback Mountain” about two gay cowboy sheepherders would not be that popular with the masses in the US. I am surprised that it is not even being shown at the theaters in the county I reside in which has a pretty dense population and a good mixture of urban, suburban and rural communities. It also has many megaplexes with there 12 to 20 movie screens. Yet not one of them wants to exhibit “Brokeback Mountain”, not even in one of those...