Movies and Mixing it up

Tough month or so for movies, can't say that I've seen anything I love.  I've been piling on the TV shows to make up the difference. Instead of binge watching whole series, I'm mixing them up.

Have been blending Agents of SHIELD,  Banshee season 2, the old one off season of Hellcats, Discovery Channel's Naked and Afraid, Dark Angel has been fun to re watch, some Revolution, The Following, and a little Modern Family and Tosh.0 for an injection of comedy.

Keeps it fun and less monotonous to mix it up and stay in the middle of several stories. Movies below:

The Watch
Only got 30 or 40 minutes into this one. When I realized I didn't care enough about what skinned the security guard to sit through another hour of Stiller, Vaughn, and that other guy...  I couldn't bring myself to even skip to the end. Enough is enough.

American Hustle
Hardy know where to start - well no - fast-forwarding through a fake fat guy taking forever to put on a toupee in the opening scene.  That should have been a red flag.

Bale and Smart are just terrible, I don't know how anyone could fall for their sad attempts at being 70s mod squad wannabes. The ridiculous effort to add back story and depth with drawn out bad accent monologing voice overs was just about to painful as this run on sentence.

Overhyped BAD movie.  A first act walk out.

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
This has to be the least ambitious of all the Hobbit-esque pictures.  Flat, one dimensional - some times non dimensional characters, plodding halfway through a story. Things that worked in the past, like orcs riding hyenas, just fell short.  And scenes so horribly CGI'd, I was a little embarrassed.

Veronica Mars
The Veronica Mars TV show was - for some unknown reason - intriguing to me. Kristen Bell's character was just snide enough to carry the show, which sometimes got mired in details that we just couldn't make ourselves care about.

In the movie, Veronica returns to Neptune to help her old on again off again pal Logan Eckles dodge a murder wrap. Besides being one of the least likable characters of the original show, the whole movie has you battling with the concept:  "I'm going to throw away 10 years of education and a dream job in NYC to help a sort - of friend and get stuck in Shitsville for the rest of my life."

Wow Veronica, and you used to be the smartest girl in Neptune. 

Add to that Bell's phoned-in performance, an exterior that shows every bit of her 33 years (sorry, if Demi can play a stripper at 60 years old, Kristen can do better), and friends who hang around together like lost episodes of The White Shadow...  ...The whole show seems forced and off pace. Like a Dandy Warhol's song being played with a ska back beat. 

Black Snake Moan
Odd movie, nearly impossible to describe without posting the whole script. Not exactly a date movie, but worth a look.

Cashback
Uh... slow artsy feeling movie, probably should have been a short. British, with a Canadian feel. Absolutely no point to many parts of the show. Like the person who runs away when time is stopped, and a foot fairy game that drags on and on. But not a terrible movie if you're looking to avoid action.

The Big Bang
I've had this for years, but didn't watch it because it was mislabeled.  I couldn't find out anything about it (under the wrong name), so just avoided it. I guess we really do fear the unknown.

Mediocre gumshoe plot with all the clichés. Worst CGI and worst physics ever to end a movie. 

The one pic I did enjoy was The Wolf of Wall Street
The title says it all, and you'll understand what "outrageous" means in the other reviews. The scene on the airplane had me cracking up. Well worth taking in.

Boot Trouble

Any woman who's been married for a while knows - men don't shop.

We buy.

When it's time for new boots, I order "same size, same color". I've worn the same boots for better than 15 years. The store I got my original pair from closed, so I ordered from the distributor in Texas.

Since I worked from my basement for nearly 10 years, often going days without putting on shoes, the life span of my boots has been extended exponentially.

The last time I ordered boots was 2007. Two pairs. Same size,  same color.

I destroyed one pair by wearing them while riding a Ducati.  The foot pegs were narrow, and heated up because they were attached to the engine block. This ate holes in the rubber soles which just fell away thereafter. I tried having them resoled, but it didn't work.

The other pair have been my every day running around boots. I have a really old pair that I wear for yard work and such, but have tried to keep the main pair of boots in decent shape.

Low and behold, my every day boots have cracks in the soles, and it's time for a couple new pairs. Of course, I just want the same size and the same color...

...much to my dismay, Hy-Test model 08171, 8 inch black boot with external met guard has been discontinued. If I could find them I'd order 3 or 4 pairs on the spot (probably last til I'm too old to wear boots).

But they are no more.

Obama Tightens Noose on Putin

Obama Tightens Noose on Putin

WASHINGTON - Today the President announced a new round of sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and several of his top aids. 

To stand behind his words "there will be a price to pay" if Putin acts in Ukraine, Obama is meeting with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.  The two are expected to discuss officially "unfriending" Putin, and potentially staring a cyber-bullying campaign against the powerful former head of the KGB. An effort to turn some of Putin's inner circle against him. 

Obama is believed to have been behind the March 9 leak of Putin's Hulu watch history, most notably poking fun at two weekends when Vladimir allegedly "binge watched" two full seasons of ABC's "Glee" and the CW's "Vampire Diaries". 

Putin could not be reached for comment about the Hulu account, but in remarks last week at the Hague he referred to "a blatant abuse of power" by "the highest ranking US officials" and was caught on a live mic muttering that it "just wasn't fair to dig into such things" and "that some things are private and not political". Reporters at the scene said Putin was visibly shaken by the incident. 

Privacy advocates have said publicly that it was especially unfair to target the history of the Hulu account after so recently blocking Putin's Netflix access in an earlier round of sanctions. "My gosh, what's the poor man to watch?"

Thus far the US has blocked the aforementioned Netflix account, blacked out all travel dates for Putin's Southwest Airlines Gold Rewards miles, and pre booked every room in Orlando to head off the Russian leader's Christmas junket to Disney World. 

To the latter, Putin has remarked "I have seen 'happiest place on earth' (making air quotes with his fingers) many times, but this year we had scheduled an airboat ride and a visit to a real alligator farm." Russian PM Andre Medvedev stated "we don't even know if we can get our deposits back."

It's not clear what the fall out will be from what history may dub "the sanctions war", but it is clear that the US is holding as firm as any 15 year old girl on it's extensive use of Internet based brawling. 

The Android is truly the smartest smartphone

I had my iPhone IV for over two years, and it was a huge step up from the blackberry type phone I had for a couple years before that. Before I had the IPhone I also had an original ipad, and it was useful for about a year - til I got the iphone - then the two were redundant (my wife still uses that ipad every day btw).

But before heading to China last March I picked up a Samsung Galaxy tab at CostCo.  I wanted to be able to have plenty of movies, music, and entertainment for the plane ride, and to cover down time on the trip. So $199 + $24 for the biggest storage chip possible - and I was up and running.

That's as much memory as the highest cost ipad, at 1/3 the price...

It didn't take long to see how versatile the Samsung was. While in China I found out that you can download torrents, roam the net, and do a lot more than with the ipad or even the later model iPhone.

So when the time came for AT&T to fork over a new phone (in exchange for pledging 2 years of my life), I went for the S4.

Yeah, it can pretty much replace my laptop - which an Apple product of any kind can never do for a heavy user and business client like me.

But moreover, it's SMART.

I can type volumes on the S4, and the more I type the more the phone knows what's coming next. It learns my personal jargon and my style of writing. 

I never thought tapping away on the phone would one day be more efficient than hammering on a full keyboard. But now sitting down with the computer or laptop just seems clunky and annoying.

Coupons

Years ago my wife was a big coupon shopper. We had kids at home and she could keep us all well fed for about $20 a week.

She would pour through the grocery flyers every week and find sale items for which she had coupons. With a double or triple coupon against the sale price, most food was free.  Often she'd get money back on items, then buy meat and staples to use up the balance (stores wouldn't actually give you the cash difference).

A couple things to note. Back in those days (pre 2009) I still had my newspaper connection, and we would usually get 20 or more coupon books each week. Stores got paid by the manufacturer for every coupon - even if it was expired. You could even substitute sizes most of the time, using the special offer for the 24 oz bottle on a 16 oz bottle.   And coupons themselves were more valuable.

Back then a typical offer might be "50 cents off one can of soup". The store would double the coupon - and the manufacturer would pay the store 110% of the coupon's face value.  Then the soup would go on sale for 99 cents. You get a penny for every can of soup you carry out of the store.

We could stock up on items back then. We had enough people in the house to eat things up before they expired. Not so much now.

More over, the game has changed. Stores no longer accept expired coupons.  They will only take a coupon for the exact item, and will only allow a maximum of 3 coupons for the same product. So you can only use 3 soup coupons on 3 matching offers - no more clearing the shelves and using 20+ chits.

The base price of all groceries has gone up considerably, and the sale prices offer a lesser discount. The same soup that used to go on sale for 99 cents now goes on sale two for 4 dollars.

The other effect is that coupons have a lower value. Where you used to see 50 cents off one, you now see 35 cents off three. And our local stores don't double coupons any more.

So you used to get $1 off a 99 cent item, now you get 11 cents off a $2 item.

Thus, the 20+ hours a week my wife spent matching coupons to sales, running around to 4 or 5 different stores - well worth it back then - just doesn't pay off now.

That said, if you want to save on your grocery bill - and you have a little time on your hands - it's still not a bad idea to watch the sales and grab an online coupon where you can. Though we've found the stores will randomly not ring a viable coupon - and checkers won't manually punch them in.

Our biggest savings is in our freezer. Buying meat on sale, breaking it into serving sizes, and putting in the freezer for later is about the best we can do.

It would be great to get by cheap on groceries like we used to.  Especially now that we have the time to devote to couponing - and have no income. But those days are long gone. And to be fair, we can hardly eat what we have before the expiration date, so stocking up is really not an option.

The First Rule of Fight Club

Everybody knows the first rule of Fight Club. DON'T TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.

That should also be the first rule of friendship, the first rule of marriage, and more than anything, the first rule of business.

I can never understand why any time I discuss a business idea, no matter how big or small, my potential partners fly off and start blabbing to any one who will sit still. 

The best way to fuck your deal - is to TALK about your deal before it's inked.  I've seen bands blow recording contracts, friends lose job offers, and businesses that never were - all because someone started proselytizing and trying to sound like a big shot.

Keep your trap shut. Let things happen organically. Blab all you want when you've made your first million on the idea.

Until then,
DON'T TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB!

Lounging in Colorado

My trip from China back to Colorado was as unplanned as the rush to get there. One of our daughters had done some whoopties in her car on a snowy highway, and though physically fine, some moral support was in order. Three weeks in China was plenty anyway.

I ended up with a 12 hour layover in Incheon Airport - btw there is no better airport to get stuck in. I got a room on the air side, slept, got a hot shower, and had plenty of time to find breakfast.

I was back a few days and Sherri was ready to come home too. I made some calls and she was just 10 days behind me.  (Nice to know she missed me a little)

Pretty hard to beat Colorado.  It was crazy cold the first few weeks, but usually sunny and blue skies.  I got back into playing the cajon with friends once a week. Managed to get in a day of goose hunting. Life is better here, though circumstances make it necessary to spend time in Oklahoma during the winters.

Have been thinking about what "the next big thing" will be for me and Sherri. Some sort of small business that can work from anywhere, and doesn't need 24/7 attention.

... and Chinese New Year

The house in Dong Chong is pretty amazing.  Three stories, white marble everything, a beautiful home in a very pretty gated community. When Sherri and I stay there, the top floor master suite is all ours. Plenty of privacy and a big balcony.

It was a perfect 75 degrees the whole time we were there. Warm breezes and singing birds.

Oh - and fireworks.  LOTS of fireworks. It was Chinese New Year!  And getting out of the city meant that all those restrictive "no fireworks" rules were overlooked by local officials.

Sherri's dad had settled in to a good eating schedule. They had a maid who cam to clean once a week.  And other than the occasional load of laundry (and Sherri cooking for her father), we were practically on vacation.

Really nice in the dead of January.

Doing what I can,

Being back in Denver was a bit of a surprise. I had forgotten how beautiful our house is. No, it's not perfect, hell, it's not even decorated, but after the dreary old lake house and the somewhat "roughing it" appeal of the cabin, the Colorado house is down right "pretty" to walk into.

I managed to unload the truck. At some point soreness becomes relative and you just gut it out.

I set up a Saturday breakfast with my three best friends - it ended up lasting 7 hours.  I'm pretty proud of that really.

Flew Asiana Airlines to China. Especially nice because the flight left SFO in the middle of the day. The flight was good, service was great, and the food - believe it or not - was excellent.

Got into a conversation in the Incheon Airport with an old Spetsnaz guy and his wife.  They picked me out because of my fresh haircut.  I had worked with Spetsnaz when I was in the Corps, and he had worked with some of us in his day.

Mostly we we trying to translate stuff on our phones, but "Brother Marine" and offering me a drink from his duty free whiskey said it all. They were kinder and more respectful than any American has ever been to me. Seeing the way his wife beamed when they talked about his service was really something.  It means nothing to no one here. They put a value on service that Americans couldn't comprehend.

Made it to China, ate a pile of fried noodles from a street vendor (at 2am), and slept straight through the next day.

I settled in to a routine while Sherri's father was in the hospital. I'd get up and drink some instant coffee, eat some toast with butter, and set to cleaning house. If I didn't clean, then Sherri's mom would do it - and she was running herself ragged trying to take care of dad. So I decided it was important to get that done.

In the early afternoon I'd take the bus to the hospital with Sherri. In China they don't feed the patients in the hospital - so family has to bring it. If nothing else, you're assured that your family won't forget about you.

So we'd deliver lunch and visit while Sherri's mom ran down and got some lunch at the cafeteria. Then I'd travel back to the house with Sherri's mom. They started calling me BaBiao "guard". I liked that.

Sherri's dad was doing well, and a couple days after getting out of the hospital we all moved out to Sherri's brother's house in Dong Chong.

Back to Denver, on to China

The morning after packing up the cabin as best I could, was a bit rough. I had planned to get up early and hit the road. I had 11 or 12 hours driving back to Colorado.

The night before I had put off unloading the truck, ribs were hurting too much to lift anything.  Took a hot shower and crashed.

There was now a 3 day window to make my flight from Denver to China, I could wait a day if needed. But after sleeping through the alarm and scavenging a pain pill, I drank a pot of coffee and decided that the boredom of staying another day outweighed the discomfort of getting my shit together and heading out.

I drove around back, unloaded the tools and lawn equipment into the shed. Drove around front and added my box of clothes to the truck. Loaded the rest if the guns. I was too sore to lift the cooler and the food,  so that was just going to have to make the trip to Colorado with me.

Got a shower, turned off the hot water heater, turned the heater down. Collected up the trash, took one last look around. Hit the road.

No way to mince words here, it was painful to drive. But the usual run - 760 miles - went as it pretty much always does.  Far less fun without Sherri,  but knowing I was on my way to her made it bearable.

Packing up the cabin

So the gist of packing up the cabin is this:

- clean out the fridge and freezer so I can turn off the propane.
- take any food that a mouse or rat can get into
- take anything of value that might encourage thieves or that you can't replace without a big expenditure.

Along with all that, prep the little Raider to be left behind. Pack up the blinds.  Pull the trail cams.

I arrived at the cabin that morning about 10 am.  30+ mph winds, some fog (turning to rain), and that kind of cold you only feel in Oklahoma. I get to work.

Pack the fridge and a box dry foods. Get the rest of the guns and ammo. Pile all that and misc "valuables" by the door. Decide I better take a look outside.

I walked out and turned toward the South, the wind grabbed the hood of my rain poncho, and sucked it right off of me.  I chased it across my road and the hickory tree had grabbed it for me. Put it back on.

I probably should have thought a bit more about that event, but I had things to do!

Sure enough, if you've ever hired a contractor, you know they always find some way to fuck you. No matter how much they blab about customer service and all that.  You'll always get it in the end.

So what was a 3 inch hole in my eves with some rotted wood around it, is now a 3 foot hole in my eves. The roofer, who had agreed to repair this,  had pulled the rotten wood off, and never fixed the hole. 

I decided that I needed to keep the coons and the weather out - and I'd just have to fix it before I left. At least tack some wood over the hole.

That picture of the truck backed up to the cabin WAS going to be titled "ladders? we don't need no stinking ladders?" Because,  well, I don't have a stinking ladder...

...surprisingly, standing on top of the truck, in 40 mph winds, with rain freezing on everything it touches...  NOT nearly as safe as it sounds!

At some point I realized that I couldn't hold the wood over my head, hold a screw in place, and hold the electric drill to screw it in - at least not all at the same time...  ...this had just gotten stupid.

I tossed the wood.  Set down the drill-driver, and started my decent from the roof of the truck.

The very first step I took was the last.  The rest of the trip down was a collection of reaching, grabbing, slipping, and - let's be honest - FALLING.

Apparently, freezing rain covers everything with ice, and ice is not that good for climbing around on the roof of your favorite 4x4. Or so some would say.

The good news: I landed in the broken flower bed (well, it's more broken now) which is normally crawling with fire ants - and you may know that I am not a big fan of fire ants. But, fire ants are smart enough to go away when it's freezing. So no fire ants today.

I smashed the back bumper hard - and bruised my ribs pretty nice on the right side. I've been here before, should be all better in 3 months or so.

That said, I still have to take down the big blind, collect the trail cams from two different stands, and load all the crap into the truck. Plenty of huffing and puffing later - hard to get a full breath when your ribs hurt like that..  Guns, food, stuff, and all my tools from the shed are loaded up. 

I head back to the lake house.

The much abandoned blog

A winter colder than expected, an unplanned trip to China, and rediscovering the luxury of Colorado has taken us far away from that (glorious) lonely mountain top in Oklahoma.

By January 3 we were getting Sherri on a plane in the wee hours from Tulsa, ensuring she was in China before her father's surgery. Her daughter had visited for the holidays, and she was on the road - back to Colorado - within hours of my return to the lake house.

...and there I sat.

Surprising how we can do nothing together and be blissfully happy with that. But nothing without Sherri was like 24/7 in a dentist chair.  Unbearable.

So I made the decision - I believe my exact words were "fuckit, I'm going to China".

But it wasn't quite that simple. I had a roof being finished at the cabin. Delayed a bit due to weather. If we were leaving for an extended period,  then there were two houses to pack up - food to be sorted and removed,  and lots of heavy lifting to be done.