18 People in Line for the Presidency (Hillary could be #2)

A whole lotta hand wringing over these recent lies about meeting with Russians and how it will be the end of the Trump administration.

I don't think Trump will be impeached, especially not with this House and Senate (spare me the illusion that the Republicans will choose country over party). Resignation could be a possibility, but I'm not sure Trump's ego will allow him to do that.

Impeachment and/or resignation, check and mate, right??

He f(cking admitted it!!! 

Intent is key. Junior, as a surrogate of our sitting president, met with Russians (you know there had to have been more than the one person) because he thought it would help his father's candidacy.

I don't care if this Russian attorney had no sway.  Junior thought the lawyer did. And Junior was deathly afraid that the video of his dad's really, really, really small hands in a weird video from a Russian hotel room where he was playing patty cakes with an unnamed person with much larger hands would come to light. 

Impeach you cowardly Republicans, you GOP'ers that claim to be a party of Reagan much less Lincoln. 

BOOM.  GAME OVER. Next question, when did Senior, POTUS, know about the meeting?

And, all the Republicans in office now, if you don't move to impeach immediately, may history be more kind than the electorate next term. 

Conservative Narratives

I interact with a number of conservative minded people and one of their main complaints is how the liberal media is pushing their agenda with a liberal narrative.

Why our POTUS has already committed offenses worthy of impeachment:

Let's preface this by stating the facts since he has been in office... - Attempting to intimidate a former head of the FBI by threatening that there are and/or were tapes of the conversations the POTUS had with said former FBI director Comey.

THAT'S IT.

And that's enough.  The way it shook out, as I see it, Trump said I have tapes - in an attempt to silence Comey. BACKFIRED. Little known fact, Trump once was married to a little person from Russia when he went to a bachelor party in in his 20's. He claims he got divorced but, others say, no! He didn't have any tapes-or if he did he burned them. But regardless, he tried to intimidate the ex-FBI head. HE DID!!! He attempted to obstruct justice. Period. And he's a known small handed person who likes drinking urine from the mouth of a certain foreign leader. It sounds like a weird soap opera, right? Good, it should...it's just getting started. He is confused and his wife won't hold his hand. And I may start posting again more...if if get enough likes or shares...otherwise I don't know if any one is watching or reading. I'd like to think that we, as a society, still read. That said, please like or share or otherwise. I am needy...so very, very, very, needy. I cannot explain it. It's like a pit in my torso physically and metaphysically in my soul...Whah...just let me know if you want more of my rants...

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 = Empire Strikes Back. Well not exactly but here are 11 plot points in common...

1. The "team" splits up.
Quill, Gamora and Drax go on a trip without Groot and Rocket. Just like Han, Leia. Chewy and C3PO went on their own adventure while Luke and R2D2 went to hangout out with Yoda.

2. There's a big chase scene through an asteroid field.  Pretty simple, but there are asteroid chase scenes in both movies.

3. One team hangs out in a natural forest after their ship crash lands there.
Rocket, Groot and Nebula are in the forest repairing their damaged ship.  Luke and R2D2 are on Degobah where they crash landed.

4. While the other part of the team goes to a wonderful place and is in the lap of luxury.
Quill, Gamora and Drax go to Ego's planet, which on the surface appears to be paradise. Han, Leia, Chewy and C3PO literally go to a city that floats in the clouds.

5. The paradise is not what it seems. Ego and his planet try to kill Quill and his team. Darth Vader is waiting for Han and company in the Cloud City. Whoops on both counts.

6. The forest team tries to rescue the part of the team in paradise. Rocket and co. go to Ego's planet to try and save Quill. Luke goes to the Cloud City because his friends are in trouble.

7. The main character has daddy issues. Quill's dad Ego wants him to join him and take over the universe. Luke's dad Darth Vader wants him to join him and take over the galaxy.

8. Both the dads killed the main character's mom. Ego killed Quills mother with cancer. Darth Vader broke Luke's mom's heart when he turned to the Dark Side, which killed her (somehow. Of course, Padme had to have known Anakin had some anger issues, he did kill all the Sand People, even the women and kids).

9. A bad guy turns out to really be a good guy deep down. Yondu turns out to not be too bad of a guy. Lando turns out to not be too bad of a guy.

10. There's significant loss for each team. Yondu dies. Han is frozen.

***SUPER BONUS THING THEY HAVE IN COMMON***

11. They are both sequels that at least some people think are better than the first movie in their respective franchises.

I really hope there are teddy bear looking aliens that turn out to be cold blooded killers (Ewoks) in the the 3rd Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

It's been a weird few days in Dallas to say the least. So saddened by what happened here and all the events that have proceeded us getting here. I haven't felt like this-numb, in shock, concerned-in a long time. I have also been encouraged the last few days by the voices of reason that have spoken out against all types of violence against anyone anywhere. I know and believe we will not let a few bad people and terrible acts weaken and divide us, whether here in Dallas or across the nation. What happened here, I believe, will make us stronger and united in our resolve to overcome violence and mistrust with communication, understanding and peace.

And one last thought thought, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick should stop talking. About anything. Forever.  In other words, he should be voted out of office and he can suck it. 

May the 4th Be With You, Always

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - spoilers ahead.

The Force Awakens v A New Hope: 18 plot points are the same. EIGHTEEN!  JJ Abrams pulled a Wrath of Khan with the Star Wars franchise. By that I mean, we shouldn't be surprised that JJ Abrams borrowed heavily from A New Hope and the beginning of Empire Strikes Back. He remade Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (and called it Star Trek: Into Darkness) and no one called him on that so why not recast and tweak A New Hope?  

To be clear, I liked Force Awakens OK. It's just startling how much they based the story on the original movie. 

How to reboot the #FantasticFour movie the right way:

When they again reboot the #FantasticFour movie series (which they will) they should set it in the late 50's to early 60's space race era & stay true to the source material. For better or worse Reed is an egotistical, chauvinistic genius Madmen-type super scientist that steals a rocket ship and gets them all (Sue, Johnny and Ben) to go along with him. And they get irradiated by cosmic rays and get their powers. Then they battle Dr. Doom, Reed's old rival, who is a despot ruler of Latveria. Doom was scarred back in college and injured when an experiment he was conducting goes wrong. He blames his classmate Reed for the experiment's failure. At the end of the movie the FF defeat Doom but only by pushing Doom into the Negative Zone. Problem is they get sucked in with him.

End of the movie: Reed figures out how to get them back but time is different in the Negative Zone and they come back to our present day. After credits: Doom figures out how to get back too in the present day. Sequel set up.

What do you think?

TedCruz.com not run by Ted Cruz. If he can't run his own name's website can he be trusted to run the USA?

Yup, pretty much the 1st step towards a Star Trek replicator

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6864636

"I don't think Hillary Clinton is going to run for president." Said every other Democrat thinking about running that is in self denial.

A computer program writing & publishing AP news stories sure sounds a lot like #AI

And what happens when the program decides it doesn't like us anymore?

Bill Gates is worried about AI and he's a smart human, right?

I think my phone was on acid when I took this photo of Congress Ave. in Austin

New comic book idea: "Juke Box Hero"

In the future juke boxes are sentient robots than communicate thru song lyrics. Juke Box Hero (the protagonist) is on a quest to save his fellow juke boxes from the evil human overloads that see juke boxes as obsolete and are attempting to eradicate their kind in favor of digital music that humans control, manipulate and change at their whim. Juke Box Hero "has stars in his eyes" meaning he can shoot laser beams out of his eyes that are as hot as the surface of the sun. 

#HeroesReborn = 2000's show coming back. 90's #X-Files is maybe coming back. How about a dark/creepy reboot of 80's #Alf?

Nancy Grace v. 2 Chainz re marijuana legalization.

Of course Nancy Grace loses, badly.

Anyone else notice that #Cowboys D Coordinator Rod Marinelli looks like the grandfather from #KingOfTheHill ?

Because you know, the Ferguson grand jurors just innately would know that the prosecutor might be presenting false information

via witnesses the prosecution knew were likely lying. Startling Admission By The Ferguson Prosecutor Could Restart The Case Against Darren Wilson

N. Korea suffers massive Internet outages,

One can only wonder what persons, organizations, multinational corporations and/or nation states might have an axe to grind with North Korea. I mean who would do something like disabling a whole country's internet infrastructure?

Texas theater to show Team America in Place of The Interview

I love #GreatBadMovies

For example, my favorite great bad movie is #BigTroubleInLittleChina (though liked now, it was a box office bomb and panned when it 1st came out) starring the great Kurt Russell. Just realized I have not watched many great bad Xmas/holiday movies. That will be remedied posthaste. First up Christmas with the Kranks, then Surviving Christmas.

Happy holidays! Picard #StarTrek The Next Generation style

Remember how geeked you were when you 1st saw the #StarWars Phantom Menace trailer? Just saying, let's see the new one before we decide it's great.

Florida set for close governor election. What could go wrong? In other news Germany to fly Zeppelins & FrancoHathaway to host Oscars again

Pope believes in evolution & Big Bang theory, also that the earth is not flat or the center of the universe

The first 2 (his beliefs regarding evolution and the Big Bang theory) this current Pope just let us know about as reported by Salon.com.  The last 2 (that the earth isn't flat or the center of the universe) one of his predecessors let us know about, I think in the 1950's.

Thanks for all the support for this blog

but it's obviously been some time since I've posted here regularly. I just cannot seem to find the time or the motivation to make it a priority to post here regularly. Just got busy with other stuff (family, other hobbies, work, etc.). I am not going to pull it down though. I still like going back and looking at older posts. And maybe I will get back into it at some point. And any posts here still go to my twitter feed: @JavGonzoTweets. Also, I will still post about the Texas Rangers at TheTexasRangersBlog.com. Hope all is well. Take it easy. - JG

Am I the only one that is really looking forward to #TheEqualizerMovie? And is it true it's loosely based on the 80's TV show?

I'm going to nerd out here:

Dr. Zola in the new Captain America movie achieved in the 1970's what, according to the previews, Johnny Depp's character in Transcendence achieves in the present day.  Is it weird/bad for the movie Transcendence that the whole, "uploading a consciousness into a computer," thing was just a subplot in Captain America Winter Soldier that fictionally occurred about 40 years ago?  I'm going to say yeah, it is weird/bad for the movie Transcendence. Not only did the writers of the comic book character Dr. Zola beat the Transcendence writers by decades regarding the "uploading a consciousness into a computer," but then the Marvel movie writers did too, and made it a subplot in a movie that came out before Transcendence.  Ouch.

Seeing Carrie Underwood in an NBC produced remake of The Sound of Music sounds as bad as Seeing Carrie Underwood in an NBC produced remake of the Sound of Music.

Halloween Hangover: Here's One More Halloween Thing

A local Boise Idaho sports anchor dressed up as and did a mean Ron Burgundy impersonation during a local news broadcast.  "Can I have everyone's attention please, I have a very important announcement!"  Enjoy the greatness:

8-Bit Version of The Shining - Happy Halloween!

Movies In Real Life: Indiana Jones & Star Wars, great YouTube series

Yup I Saw the Movie Escape Plan...

...and I bet it's a pretty good bet that's the worst movie of 2013. I knew it'd be bad going in but wow, that was REALLY awful, qualifying it as a great bad movie 

I have so, so, so many questions that I

may have to watch it again when it comes out on cable, such as:

- Did anyone else, based on the previews showing the prison guards in low rent black Star Wars-like storm trooper uniforms, think this thing was going to be set in space and in the future and not set in the present day? And wouldn't that have made it even better/worse?

- Why not use subtitles when Sly and Arnold talk, especially when they're whispering?

- How much screen time was spent on showing Sly and Arnold either just sitting and talking or walking around and talking?

-So if you want to escape from a prison it's going to take about 3-5 prison yard rumbles no matter how secure the prison?

- Actors Sam Neill, Vincent D'Onofrio and Jim Caviezel have fallen so far that these are the best movie roles they can get?  Ouch. 

- That's the best movie role 50 Cent could get?  Ouch. 

- Why did the writers decide to explain apparently huge plot "devices" and/or supposed "twists" in short shots, quick scenes with actors talking quietly and mumbling? 

- Lastly M. Night would have been proud of the big reveal at the end of the movie that left everyone asking, "wait, what, why, what about, but if that's true then, oh never mind, it sucked anyway, I don't care?"

Worst Website Ever By a Guy Trying To Pick Up Women...

Romeo Rose is awesome...(and by awesome I mean maybe the stupidest terrible person, dumb enough to publish to the world his unbelievably ridiculous thoughts/beliefs; I still am having trouble believing he is a real person.)

Georgia O'Keefe Knock-Off Made Out of a Straw Wrapper

The Voyager Probe May Have Left Our Solar System Last Year and Our Neighbors Are Not Happy

Great, hilarious comment to an article explaining that the Voyager probe might have left our solar system last year, making it the first human made object to do so:

ATTENTION RESIDENTS OF EARTH

In accordance with writ number 2.456.70225, you are in violation of the galactic littering ordinance. You are being assessed a fine of approximately 1,200 galatic phoquns. This is approximately equivalent to 9,000 trillion trillion Earth (US region) dollars.

You are given 30 of your days to A) retrieve the litter that has left your star's heliopause and B) Pay the fine in full. Failure to fullfil one or all of your responsibilities may result in planet wide relocation to the prison ring system in the galactic core. Galagov thanks you for your cooperation.

Awesome Star Wars Flickr Page

Here's the link to this great Star Wars themed Flickr page that a friend of mine forwarded to me.

Photo of Earth From Rings of Saturn 900 Million Miles Away

The tiny arrow in the below photo is pointing at Earth.  The picture was taken by the Cassini space probe.  How cool is this that?


And here's close up picture from the same series of photos that shows both the Earth and the Moon:

The Best Thing In The World...

...is sometimes just a peanut butter sandwich made by someone else.  And if there's some jelly in there somewhere that's pretty cool.

Funny/Great Montage of Dance In Movies

I was really surprised how many of these clips I recognized from some movie I really like, don't think of many of these movies as having "dance numbers," and I loved the sitcom that the video ends with:

May the 4th Be With You

In honor of Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you, you get it?) here's some Darth Vader funnies

Science Or Science Fiction? Faster Than Light Communication...

...albeit between two quantum entangled particles, the following has been proven:

"The results from the new experiment confirm one of the wildest predictions of quantum mechanics: that a pair of "entangled" particles, once measured, can somehow instantly communicate with each other so that their states always match."

No matter how far apart?  How about 310 miles apart?  The implications are amazing.  So if we can ever travel great distances faster than the speed of light, can this phenomenon be used somehow to communicate instantaneously across great distances?

Speaking of Star Wars...

Patton Oswalt did a great, hilarious improvised bit that was Star Wars/Marvel-centric to say the least on Parks & Recreation:

Greatest Custom License Plate Ever? Uh, Yeah...

I Will Not Be Pulling Any of These April Fools Day Pranks on Family or Friends (Or Will I?)

Some Very Funny Unfunny Stuff...

Here's a clip of a very funny, unfunny stand-up routine from Britain's Got Talent:



Which of course made me think of the one of the funniest unfunny bits ever, Norm MacDonald's roast of Bob Saget:

Outtakes from Bob Saget Roast 1 - watch more funny videos

And I was watching an episode of Supernatural when I was posting the above and the episode ended with the song Dear Mr. Fantasy, a song I really like, so, for a non-sequitur, here's that:

Not science fiction: faster than light warp drive goes from "impractical to plausible"...

...according to a scientist as NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.  In fact they're going to do a small table-top experiment to test the theory, an "existence of proof" of the idea.  Life/science imitating art/science fiction much?

Guardians of the Galaxy Movie, yeah, I'm pretty geeked about this...

...especially since James Gunn (writer/director of Slither, favorite of mine) is set to direct it and Chris Pratt (star of Zero Dark Thirty and Parks & Recreation) is set to star in the lead role as Star-Lord/Peter Quill.

SciFi Expo iphone photo

Anyone else remember the Battleship Yamato from the TV cartoon Star Blazers (from the anime show Space Battleship Yamato) from the late 1970's?

SciFi Expo iphone photo

Couple of Storm Troopers hanging out.

SciFi Expo iphone photos

Kept on forgetting to put these up.  The SciFi Expo in DFW was a few weekends ago.  I had never been to any type of science fiction or comic book convention before.  It was awesome.  Needless to say I plan on going to the DFW ComicCon in May.  Here's a pic from the SciFi Expo, a few more will follow:

(this is a mannequin, not someone in costume by the way)

Ben Affleck to Matt Damon: Suck it Jason Bourne, I have one more Oscar than you do!*

*at least that's what I hoped he would have said in his acceptance speech.

For You Comic Book Geeks From the 1980's...

Here's a great site that takes a fond look back of the greatness produced by Marvel in the 1980's:
http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/

And here's a great "what if" site that features covers created by the blog's author from a wishlist of team-ups that never were a la Brave and the Bold and Marvel Team-Up:
http://braveandboldlost.blogspot.com/

iphone photo(s) - Star Wars Is Back - New Movies Coming Soon

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.