I’m with ehowton on the false advertising in trailers thing: I think that studios that snooker you into the theater via false advertising in their trailers ought to have to pay out punitive damages in a class action lawsuit. All of the good shots of Public Enemies was in the trailer. Michael Mann owes me $10.50 for a midnight ticket after being drawn, beaten, horsewhipped, set on fire and quartered. I demand that Universal personally send Johnny Depp with my refund check, even though he and Christian Bale were the only things right wit the movie.

There’s very little good to say about this movie. I can’t recall a lick of the score because it all sounded like source music. The only recognizable piece of music in the film is Otis Taylor’s Ten Million Slaves which, if you don’t buy the linked single, you get forced into buying the the whole damned album.

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Roger Richardson reminded us that on July 14, the district 6 election will take place and those folks that live in district 6 should go vote for Phil Williams. He also supports Mo Brooks for Congressional District 5 in 2010.

Les Phillip also running for Congressional District 5 in 2010 made these remarks:

On Illegal Aliens:

I have no tolerance of anyone who thinks they can cut in line.

On the Constitution:

The Constitution is NOT a living document. It is the document by which ALL LAWS must adhere.

On his service in the Navy:

I took an oath to the Constitution, not a governor, lieutenant, or the President.

On insane liberals in Washington:

Put those people where they belong: in the nut house!

Sergiy Braylyan told us about socialized medicine in the former USSR he had to endure when he lived there. He made the following remarks:

In the USSR, you had to bring all your medicines and equipment to the hospital before they would admit you. Otherwise, you were stuck on the government provided care which had waiting lists and never resulted in real care. Meanwhile, Government officials were taken to special hospitals that were well supplied with medicine and equipment, the vast majority of which was foreign.

Sergiy concluded his remarks with this:

Socialistic medicine is not sustainable. Utopias do no exists, therefore the road to Socialism is a road to nowhere.

Linda Lawrence spokesperson for Huntsville Community Rights made the following remarks:

The Colonists are to the British what the middle class is to the government today.

Huntsville Community Rights and other like-minded groups opposing housing authorities across the country need to stand together to first change State and then Federal law.

Linda concluded with this:

We need more responsible parents, not more government relocation.

Vincent Kreul urged us all to call our Congress-people as often as we could until they started listening to us and representing our interests.

Today actually felt like a vacation day, but that might have been in part because I slept in because of last night’s activities.

Had chicken egg foo yong for “lunch” which turned out to be my only meal for the day. I’m disappointed in myself because I said I was going to walk every day this week and now it looks like I will have walked only Friday and Sunday. Boo!

I got my license renewed today even though it still had another two months before it expired. This means that my license will now expire Aug 1 instead of Aug 30. I am not happy about this change. I did something else today that I meant to get done, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was.

Speaking of not being able to remember anything, the beer I drank last night is called Hoegaarden. Kudos to Kelly for saving me from my blunder. ehowton, have you had this beer? Any thoughts?

Speaking of ehowton, he interviewed me and it’s a good read if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, only one of his subscribers can read. Just mindless name calling and pot shots. Well fuck the infantiles who still play in the sandbox.

So I watched Black Hawk Down today ’cause I’ve suddenly gotten on a war flick kick not being at work. But when I went to pull out my Bose around-ear heaphones the assembly on the earcup had broken, but not as bad as last time. If you rigged them up just right, they could still be warn, but really, the right earcup wasn’t attached to the headband anymore. I called support and they are sending me a new pair free of charge despite being seven months out of warranty.

Because this is the second pair that has broken like this and I take these headphones with me everywhere I go, I came up with a solution: Bose in-ear headphones. Why? Because I think they will work slightly better for me at work. It seems to be the case that as soon as I start to listen to music, I get asked 10 different questions by 10 different people, so that means taking the phones on and off. Plus, I have to take the around-the-ear headphones off to use the phone because we use headsets and once you put the phone headset on, you can’t get the headphones off your person.

Another reason for the in-ear headphones is that I think they will be more durable and suitable for travel. In both cases with the around-the-ear headphones the speakers haven’t ceased to work, the headband assembly broke. Obviously, in-ear headphones don’t have a headband assembly to break and for that very reason should be more durable for excessive travel. Smaller footprint too. Oh, and did I mention that the in-ear headphones are $50 cheaper?

The major complain with these headphones is losing the rubber tips that you put on the speakers so they fit in your ears. I don’t anticipate having this problem, but we’ll see. I tried them in the Bose store in the Summit last year before Sidewalk, so I know they will fit well and put out good sound. But I’m also seeing some chatter about the wiring not being up to snuff. We’ll see how I fare.

Watched Full Metal Jacket for the first time tonight. Not impressed. The beginning scenes of Basic Training were great, but the narrative floundered after that. You can’t quite call FMJ a character piece either because you’re not really experiencing the action with the central character nor are you introduced that that character well enough to empathize.

I will review Public Enemies shortly. I’ll do my best to not drag it out like I did Angels & Demons. I’m skipping The Taking of Pelham 123 in the theater.

Gran Torino would have been a grate movie if it would have been half as long. It took too long for Eastwood’s character to change, bond and develop; the plot moved at a snail’s pace. All of this would have been fine except the ending was so anti-climatic that it doesn’t rate discussing dramatically. But here’s the kicker: the ending was one of the best morals I’ve seen in film in quite some time. Gran Torino is worth a watch, but it’s not something you should expect too much from when you sit down to watch it or you’ll be disappointed like me.

Defiance is a fairly straight-forward thriller/drama that delivers on what the trailer advertised: the horrors of a group of Russian Jews that hid in the woods during WW II. Defiance will keep you on the edge of your seat with anticipation, but the film does peter out as the war ends and they are no longer hunted due to the fall of the Third Reich.

Though I may loose manly points for this one, I really want to see Julie & Julia. (trailer) This looks like it will be less of a chick flick and more of a solid drama. Ironically, it comes out on my birthday. I should find someone to take to see it.

My vacation has been anything but. But I’m not complaining.

I started off Saturday night by going and playing Warhawk and then chatting about the history of computers until 0500 Sunday. I don’t really recall what I did Sunday. Maybe that was when I watched all those random House episodes. I really need to purchase Season 4.

Monday I went to the ‘rents and helped them move furniture until 0030 Tuesday. Tuesday, I wrote the Christie Carden interview and was interviewed by ehowton. I got a call at 1730 from a previous client asking me to come enjoy dinner at Chilli’s in exchange for helping him and his daughter pick out a laptop for her collegiate career. I scheduled it for 1700 Wednesday. I finished Tuesday by going to see Public Enemies.

Wednesday I got a call from Beth at 1030 asking to do lunch at 1130. It sure was good to catch up with old friends. When I got back at 1300, I published the Carden Interview, concluded the Howton interview and then had to leave to make my evening’s appointment.

Dinner was great. We looked at Sam’s, hh gregg and Best Buy at Wintel laptops, but of course, I already knew what she would be happy with, both from previous conversation with my client and from talking to her over dinner. So we ended at the Apple store where she got a 13″ MacBookPro. Her sister met up with us for a bit and then parted ways with us. I must say that both young ladies are rather attractive.

While at the Apple store, my client ran into a “friend of the family” who was also buying a notebook for their new collegiate and also an iMac for the family. However, she was under pressure to make dinner reservations, so she got my name and number and offered to reimburse me for my services of helping them find the right machine for both needs as well as setting up the machine(s) upon getting them home. I could really get used to this.

We went to my client’s place where, after a lengthy demonstration there in the Apple store by me, I walked her through applying all her updates and then downloading and installing Open Office. Of note, her high school had previously switched all of their computers to Open Office to avoid paying the Microsoft tax, so she was already comfortable with Open Office. I also hooked up a printer for her dad which required a trip to Walmart to purchase a USB cable, ran his rebates and did more hands on demonstrating of iPhoto and Leopard.

I was treated to a few bottles of a three-syllable Belgium beer that begins with “B”. I also was given another vacuum pack of the most awesome spaghetti I’ve ever had. It has pepperonis and turkey and beef and a very thickly cut stake.

I left at 0200.

I didn’t have time to review Public Enemies today for obvious reasons. It’s on the agenda for tomorrow as well as Paul_Partisan‘s interview. Still to do this week is get my driver’s license renewed and make business cards. I’ve haven’t had time to do all the writing I thought I was going to do this week nor have I been able to just sit on my ass and get caught up on movies. C’est la vie!