Post December 21, 2012 Joke

I swear I made up the below post 12-21-12 knock-knock joke (why would I lie about making up such a bad joke?).

- Knock, knock.

- Who's there?

- Maya.

- Maya who?

- Maya calendar seems to have stopped, do you have the date?

The Sloppy Swish

This cracks me up every time I watch it:

Do You Think They've Changed????

(this is a re-post from 10-20-08)

Mindy Green (featured in the first clip) is going to vote, does that scare anyone else besides me? It shouldn't matter if you are a Democrat or Republican or Independent, the type of ignorance displayed by some the people in the below clips should be combated at every turn by everyone.

An Honest Trailer for the Avengers (Which By the Way Was Released Today on DVD/BlueRay)

X-Files - 2 Episodes In

Thoughts so far:
So, it's pretty straightforward so far.  The X-Files premiered in Sept. 1993.  Two episodes in it's holding up OK, except for the music, which is heavy on keyboards and dated, at least so far.

Plot lines so far:
Mulder believes his sister was abducted by aliens and Scully's been hired to keep track of Mulder's investigations.
Smoking Man has made at least one appearance but, has said nothing so far.
Deep Throat has reached out to Mulder and told him that "they have been here for a long, long time," of course referring to extra-terrestrials.  Deep Throat also tells a lackey of his that the reason he keeps Mulder in the FBI and feeds him information is because it's smart to keep you friends close and enemies closer.
Mulder and Scully have investigated some kids that were abducted by aliens and had implants placed in the heads ("Pilot" Ep1) as well as some pilots that Mulder thinks have been affected by flying aircraft reverse engineered from alien tech ("Deep Throat" Ep 2).

Guest star(s) of note: Seth Green ("Deep Throat" Ep 2), with long hair, same height, looked pretty much the same as he does now.

As Far From Politics As I Can Get? I'm Starting the X-Files From Episode 1

I'll let you know how it goes...

Aggies Get Pranked, Not Like That's Hard or Something...

Someone put up the below billboard in Gainsville, FL, the home of the Texas A&M's opponent on the gridiron this weekend the Florida Gators:

Of course the Aggies are saying they didn't buy the billboard.  This reminds me of the time that a UT student stole A&M's mascot Reveille in the 1990's as prank.  Maybe a Longhorn bought the above billboard just to mess with the Aggies...

This Baby Will Look Into and Eat Your Soul

Conan's Fan Correction: Funny But Very Dark

"Prometheus" vs. "Alien vs. Predator (AvP)"

So I had never seen the "Alien vs. Predator" (2004) movie until today.  Basically, a rich billionaire, Charles Weyland, has found an ancient pyramid thousands of feet under the ice in Antarctica and finances a team to go with him on an expensive expedition to check it out.  Turns out this ancient pyramid is one of the Predator race's hang outs here on earth and oh, by the way their pets are the Aliens.  And oh yeah, the Predator race taught us humans how to build pyramids all over the place and we worshiped them as space gods.  The Predators circle back around to Earth every so often, use sacrificial humans to hatch Aliens and then the Predators would hunt their pet Aliens.

No, I know it's not exactly like Prometheus. But, Ridley Scott apparently laughed off a question about whether he'd seen Alien vs. Predator and said he'd never seen it.  And I'm not saying Prometheus is a bad movie (even though it does have some big plot holes in it).  I am suggesting that maybe Scott should have watched Alien vs. Predator, especially since on at least a superficial level the plots aren't all that different, in fact their pretty darn similar (aliens, Predators/Engineers, visit earth and are worshiped as space gods by us humans since ancient pre-history and the Predators/Engineers are the makers/masters of the Aliens; then billionaire Weyland wants to check it all out and finances an expensive expedition to do so and dies in process).  

Let me put it more simply, because they share many of the same over-arching plot elements Prometheus is essentially the same movie as Alien vs. Predator.  OK, that's an overstatement but, you could argue that Prometheus is a "re-imagining" of Alien vs. Predator.  The only big differences are who the alien gods are (Predator vs Engineer), the time period during which the movies take place (present day vs. near future), and the location of the story (desolate isolated Antarctica vs. desolate isolated planet), and the directors' "vision" of the movies (Scott vs. Paul W.S. Anderson).

Or how about this, if Ridley Scott had watched Alien vs. Predator and not just laughed off such a silly notion (according to him at least) then, maybe Scott could have have avoided some of the huge plot pitfalls Prometheus landed in.

Here's the funny Red Letter Media video re Prometheus' plot holes:

Yeah, I Got Olympic Fever

That's why I'm watching the bronze medal match in archery and waiting for USA vs. Italy in archery coming up here in a second.  Yup, that's right, I'm completely enthralled by archery.

I Just Saw the Movie Contagion...

...and I'm pretty sure I'm sick with the disease from the movie.

Prez Starting to Take Gloves Off In Campaign Ad

President Obama has begun to unleash some of the ammunition his campaign has to combat Romney in November.  Get ready, it's starting to feel a little like campaign season and this is just the tip of the iceberg.  By that I mean, I think the President's campaign has more where this came from and is going to sit on it and roll it out piecemeal.  By the way, the statements in this advertisement are all fair game, in my opinion.  Let's see what Romney counters with.

iphone photo: across Ross Ave. from Ships

iphone photo: payphone

iphone photo: keys & sunglasses

iphone photo: moon over Ballpark

iphone photos: bird on a dock @ Cedar Creek Lake & bird on a dock @ Cedar Creek Lake close up

iphone photos: neon Shiner sign & neon Shiner sign from farther away

iphone photo: soy sauce face

Guess I Called That One Wrong

I really thought OKC would win it all.  Guess I was wrong.  Oh well.

But, thanks to the Heat winning we got to see Cuban take Skip Bayless down a notch or two or 53.

Alternate lead in to this clip:
annual salary of a sports blowhard talking head: way more than the average American makes.
approximate net worth of Mark Cuban: 2.3 billion USD.
watching Cubes verbally kick Bayless in the jimmy: priceless

Does David Stern and the NBA Think We Are Idiots?

I don't have a dog in this fight.  I'm a Spurs fan.  If anything I should be pulling against OKC.  But, game 3 was tough to watch.  I'm into lists now I guess (see my post regarding the movie Prometheus for another recent list).  Here's what I took away from game 3 that makes me wonder if the NBA thinks their fans are stupid:

1. How does Kevin Durant have 5 fouls at the end of the game and 4 fouls in the 3rd quarter - he's not exactly known for his aggressive D is he?

2. Hardin and Collison end the game with 4 fouls each.

3. LaBron James had 1 foul in the game.

4. Joey Crawford was a referee.

5. The Heat shot 11 more free throws than OKC.

6. OKC shot 43% from the field, not too good right?

7. But the Heat shot a miserable 39% from the field.

8. Oh but the Heat shot 89% from the free throw line, 31-35.

9. That's right, 31 points from the charity stripe for the Heat, that should sound familiar to Dallas Mavericks fans from '06.

10. Only the Heat's big 3 were in double digits, and Bosh barely with 10 points but, guess what, they still won, I wonder how? See numbers 8 & 9 for the answer.

All that said, OKC only shot 22% from behind the three-point line and lost 91-85.  The Heat are up 2-1 in the series meaning OKC really needs to win the next game (no, it's not a "must-win" game, a "must-win" game only occurs when, if a team loses, their season is over, talk to the Boston Red Sox from 2004).  Essentially, if OKC gets even close to a fair shake from the refs and if they can shoot a half decent percentage from the field/three point land I still think OKC wins the series in 6.

I Saw Prometheus: I Liked It But...

(spoiler alert, kinda)
I'm already looking forward to the sequel (I hope they make one).  I liked Prometheus but, wasn't necessarily blown away by it - character development was a little lacking (but, wasn't that lacking in Alien too?).  However, it leaves open enough questions that I'm already looking forward to the sequel and expect that if it's made it'll be better than this movie precisely because it will diverge even more from the Alien mythology and develop a mythos all its own.

Questions I have after watching Prometheus:

1. Why does the tech look so much more advanced than the tech in Alien? (explanation could be that Prometheus is a scientific research vessel and the craft in Alien is a mining ship.)

2. Was the Engineer in the beginning a rebel who seeded a planet (Earth?) he wasn't supposed to?

3. Why did the Engineers make the decision to eliminate all us humans?

4. And aren't the "bio-weapons" (Aliens) a little bit of overkill to eliminate all us humans?

5. If we have the same DNA as the Engineers why are they 10 feet tall?

6. How does the Alien end up on the planet where Ripley runs into it?

7. Is there any way the captain of the Prometheus survived that collision? (I like the character and Idris Elba is a pretty darn good actor, while we're at it let's see if Charlize Theron couldn't have survived too.)

8. Do the Engineers know the Predator-race?  (do I hear a clamoring for a Predator vs. Alien vs. Engineer movie?)

9. Will Winona Ryder end up in Prometheus 4?

10. If a Prometheus sequel happens, will Ridley Scott make a Blade Runner sequel after that, please?

Mrs. Doubtfire: The Horror Movie

This is greatness:

How Some Meetings Go Between Trial Attorneys And Certain Potential New Clients

Going to see a Trial Lawyer
by: skicourchevel

BriTANicK: The Coach

OK, this made me laugh (from the guys at BriTANicK.com):

Liam Neeson Is Funny

Just saw the movie The Grey starring Liam Neeson.  Sure, he's a great actor but, did you know he's also hilarious?  Check him out on HBO's Life's Too Short and on SNL.

iphone photo: Super-Moon at dusk

iphone photo: WFAA sign

iphone photo: moonlit rain on wooden deck

iphone photo: Moon

iphone photo: Deep Ellum in motion

iphone photo: Deep Ellum eastbound on Commerce

iphone photo: Lemon Killer

I saw this at a servers' station at a local Chili's

iphone photo: Lego Superdestoyer

iphone photo: Big Trouble in Little China bday cake

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics

The above is an old cartoon I thought of the other day.  Enjoy.

Low Budget Avengers Movie Trailer

What I Learned From Watching Hunger Games:

They have a high-speed light rail system and I cannot take a train to Cowboys stadium or the Ballpark in Arlington from Dallas.  To be clear, in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future where the presumably totalitarian government forces its twelve districts to sacrifice 2 kids each year in a organized fight to the death, they have a mass transit system that puts DFW's to shame.  Ouch.

Mayor Cluck: Latino Officials, "Bunch of Mexicans"

Arlington, Texas mayor Robert Cluck allegedly referred to a gathering of elected and appointed Latino officials as, "a bunch of Mexicans."  

Where to start?  Not all Latino or hispanic persons living in the United States are "Mexican."  Guess what Mayor Cluck, there are countries other than Mexico south of the United States.  Moreover, a lot of hispanics in America were actually born here, especially elected and appointed politicians.  They are United States citizens.  They are American.  

Look at it another way.  There are those with ancestry from other countries such as Ireland or other continents like Africa.  I wonder what would Mayor Cluck would call a gathering of African American political types or a group of Irish Americans?

Separated At Birth?

The dean of TCU (Texas Christian University)

The fictional dean of Greendale Community College (from the TV show Community)

Blasphemy: Star Wars Episodes I-III better than IV-VI?

That's what one daring author recently wrote and  defended in an article.  Good arguments made.  Of course he's flat out wrong but, kudos for taking a contrarian position and running with it.

If Giants Intended to Injure San Fran Player, = Criminal Act(s)?

If a group of people planned ahead of time to try to injure another person and succeeded in doing so and/or think they succeeded in injuring him, were their actions criminal? I would think people planning and then attempting to injure another person is criminal.  What if they're playing football?  In the NFL?  Should that matter?  Not to get too legalese-ee regarding this topic but, look up mens rea.

Reports are that New York football Giants players may have intended to injure San Francisco 49'er returner Kyle Williams.  Giants players appear to admit that they knew he had a history of concussions and tried to knock him out of the game or concuss him.  In other words, with malice aforethought, they tried to and succeeded in injuring him, or at the very least they think they did.  One Giants player even brags that after one early hit on Williams, the San Fran returner looked "dazed." Plus, if coaches encouraged and/or instructed Giants players to try to purposefully injure San Fran's Williams, would that not constitute a conspiracy to injure another person?

In other words, besides being beyond dirty players/coaches for all but admitting they were trying to injure a fellow NFL player, is what the NY Giants players did (try to/actually injure Williams) criminal?  Of course now, maybe realizing how damning their quotes were after the game, those same Giants now deny they were trying to injure Williams.  But, speaking of the Giants' quotes, take a look at them.


Hockey players have been charged with crimes for their on ice, intentional acts that resulted in injury to another player.  Why should NFL players' actions not be examined in the same manner?  Did Giants players intend to injure another player?  If the answer is "yes," why should they not have to answer for their intentional, and potentially criminal actions?

This...Is...Awesome!

Star Wars (Episode IV, A New Hope) was remade/pieced together using, at a max, 15 second fan-made clips by Casey Pugh at Vimeo.com.  I now have a reason to figure out how to hook up my laptop to my TV.  Again.  Awesome.

 
Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

Wow, It Takes a Xmas Miracle for a US Court to Decide That Calling an African American "Boy" is Racist

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that calling an African American worker "boy" was not racist.  They neglected to consider many factors in their ruling, not the least of which, was that a jury had heard all the evidence provided and had decided that yes, calling an African American "boy" is racist, given all the facts presented.  I will write that again, a jury, that sat and listened to all the evidence presented, made a decision that calling an African American worker at a Tyson Food factory "boy" was in fact racist.  That decision by a jury was then summarily overturned by a federal court of appeals that did not hear any of the evidence presented.

Then that same court of appeals reversed itself. Why?

Is it shocking that an appellate court in these United States got it so wrong?

No.

What is great is that they eventually got it right and reversed themselves.  What is unfortunate is that it took the the diligence of many, including a former African American US federal judge, to lobby against this asinine ruling.  And finally, this terrible decision was thankfully reversed.  Too many times to mention appellate courts do not trust or value the decisions that the juries that we, as a people, empower to make these important decisions.

Juries are empowered to hear our complaints against both private and public entities; juries, in civil and criminal cases, are our right.  Juries of our peers.  We should remember that.  Please.