Well, I actually watched a few new movies recently. First in a long time. Two of them surprised me, one left me a little underwhelmed. There are a few coming out that I find myself looking forward to though.
The Losers was surprisingly entertaining. It probably won't hit too many award lists, but for a light summer action movie it was good. Ditto the A-team. I really thought is would suck, a movie based on a rather silly 80's TV show by all rights should suck. It didn't though, it was a quick paced action movie with a considerable amount of humor mixed in. The premise behind the two movies is similar but they are done differently. Make a pretty good summer drive-in double feature though. Kick Ass was a movie I was looking forward to. It wasn't a bad movie, it just seemed less than I expected. I guess the trailers and internet hype gave too big a build up to it.
Anyway, the cartoon, Despicable Me looks interesting, and I just saw a trailer for a movie due in October called Red. Another comic book movie, but like the Losers, no superheroes. It stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Marie Louise Parker, John Malkovich in batshit crazy mode, Karl Urban, and Brian Cox. It's about a retired CIA agent who suddenly finds himself on the agency hit list, so he puts together his old team to raise some hell. Also, the new Robert Rodriguez Predator movie is looking kind of like the first one rather than the lesser sequels.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Dumb Crook News, Local Edition
Two stories, one of which was promised last week.
The promised story first.
There was a lady, who was more of less homeless and was moving between family and friends staying one place for a short while then moving to another. One day she left one place with plans to visit a friend, then was supposed to go to another family member to stay with them for awhile. She left the friends place in a vehicle with another friend and never arrived at the family member's place. After a couple of days without hearing from her and calling up friends and family she was reported missing. A few days later her body was found lying beside a road 50 miles away in another county. Beside the body, cause of death unknown or at least not released to the media, was a pair of dentures. A name was engraved in the dentures. What? You don't have a name engraved in your dentures? Perhaps you did not have yours made, at no cost to yourself, while a resident at the Tennessee Department of Corrections Bed and Breakfast. With this subtle clue law enforcement felt a conversation with the owner of said dentures was a good idea. They first ran a check and found Mr. Denture not only had been a proud consumer of Tennessee's fine correction facilities, but was currently the subject of warrants as yet not served. Armed with these documents, members of the Sheriff's department and the TBI, visited the last known residence. The subject of interest declined to cooperate and expressed this by attempting to run over a TBI agent while attempting to escape. For reasons currently unknown, the agent in question to offense and shot our subject through the shoulder. Said subject is being served soft food while awaiting trial on not only his outstanding charges but also attempted evading arrest and attempted murder. The investigation into the death of the woman is still ongoing.
Police very recently responded to reports of a shirtless man trying to open the door to a dentist office. Upon arriving a man was noticed trying to flee the scene. When apprehended he was wearing one shoe and no shirt. The police found no buildings in the area broken into, but an ambulance had been. Since the missing shoe was lying in the ambulance along with the man's wallet, the man had marks from the heart monitor equipment on his chest, and medical gear was piled behind the ambulance police decided he had been in the ambulance. They also found a shopping cart near the ambulance which contained 3 case of Natural Ice beer. The suspect when apprehended was reported unsteady on his feet with red, watery eyes, slurred speech and smelled strongly of "alcoholic beverage". He admitted to entering the ambulance and placing the heart monitor pads on himself.
The promised story first.
There was a lady, who was more of less homeless and was moving between family and friends staying one place for a short while then moving to another. One day she left one place with plans to visit a friend, then was supposed to go to another family member to stay with them for awhile. She left the friends place in a vehicle with another friend and never arrived at the family member's place. After a couple of days without hearing from her and calling up friends and family she was reported missing. A few days later her body was found lying beside a road 50 miles away in another county. Beside the body, cause of death unknown or at least not released to the media, was a pair of dentures. A name was engraved in the dentures. What? You don't have a name engraved in your dentures? Perhaps you did not have yours made, at no cost to yourself, while a resident at the Tennessee Department of Corrections Bed and Breakfast. With this subtle clue law enforcement felt a conversation with the owner of said dentures was a good idea. They first ran a check and found Mr. Denture not only had been a proud consumer of Tennessee's fine correction facilities, but was currently the subject of warrants as yet not served. Armed with these documents, members of the Sheriff's department and the TBI, visited the last known residence. The subject of interest declined to cooperate and expressed this by attempting to run over a TBI agent while attempting to escape. For reasons currently unknown, the agent in question to offense and shot our subject through the shoulder. Said subject is being served soft food while awaiting trial on not only his outstanding charges but also attempted evading arrest and attempted murder. The investigation into the death of the woman is still ongoing.
Police very recently responded to reports of a shirtless man trying to open the door to a dentist office. Upon arriving a man was noticed trying to flee the scene. When apprehended he was wearing one shoe and no shirt. The police found no buildings in the area broken into, but an ambulance had been. Since the missing shoe was lying in the ambulance along with the man's wallet, the man had marks from the heart monitor equipment on his chest, and medical gear was piled behind the ambulance police decided he had been in the ambulance. They also found a shopping cart near the ambulance which contained 3 case of Natural Ice beer. The suspect when apprehended was reported unsteady on his feet with red, watery eyes, slurred speech and smelled strongly of "alcoholic beverage". He admitted to entering the ambulance and placing the heart monitor pads on himself.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
More Things I Just Don't Understand
When I bought groceries this week, I bought a bag of shredded "Mexican" blend cheese. I arrived home and started putting away my purchases and I took a good look at the cheese. It contains Cheddar Cheese (British), Monterey Jack (US), Asedero (Mexican) and Queso Quesadilla (Mexican). Wouldn't you think a Mexican blend would have all Mexican cheeses? There were at least 5 more cheeses they could have chosen from, although some are cheeses that soften but don't melt. I have a friend who gets upset because she thinks those of us who live in the US believe Taco Bell serves Mexican food. I told her that surely no one over 14 believes that, but she could be right. If you go to any non-Mexican, non-fast food eatery and order a "Mexican" dish, quesadillo, burrito, taco, ect. It will be covered in cheddar cheese. She keeps telling me Mexican's don't have yellow cheese. She isn't 100% accurate, Chihuahua can have a pale yellow color and supposedly tastes similar to a mild cheddar. She also says taco shells are not supposed to be hard. She says the taco is like a sandwich. They either wrap or roll the filling in a tortilla or sandwich it between two tortillas. I am not sure, but I believe the hard "U" shaped tortilla called a taco shell originated in the state of New Mexico in the 1940's.
Anyway, I have recently been annoyed by a commercial for a website called Been Verified dot Com. I finally checked it out. I guess, other than being a medium quality commercial, what annoys me is that while this commercial promises one thing it sort of makes people think they are getting something else. Basically they prey on a common misconception. There are 3 terms people kind of use interchangeably. This commercial is for a website that offers a background check on people, but they way the commercial is worded it seems like you would be getting a criminal background check. I have had, in my job to do criminal background checks as well as criminal history checks. They are similar, but not exactly the same. A background check is a completely different animal.
A background check is basically a list of where people have lived and went to school. It may include whether they graduated, what jobs they had, marital status, land ownership, business ownership, ect. Most of which should be public record. A criminal background check would have all of this plus arrest records (not public information), conviction records (public record but not always easy to get), outstanding warrants. A criminal history would only be interested in the arrest, conviction and warrants part of this. A very thorough background check done for a security clearance, bonding purposes, ect, would probably include a credit check.
This commercial seems to be promising to give you the info to keep your family safe. I visited the site. I read the disclaimer and info at the bottom of the page and in really small print. This site basically charges you $16 monthly or $96 yearly to run unlimited searches of public information. You aren't getting any confidential or criminal information you couldn't easily get anyway. This site is a convenience site. If you Google everyone you meet, this might save you some time and money, but really if you are worried about going into business with someone, taking a large job where you might take a risk on getting paid, or hiring someone to do a big money job, hire a company that can do an actual criminal background check. In Tennessee, for $25 the TBI will run a criminal history for you. That and a check with the better business bureau and good, old-fashion asking around are probably more accurate.
The mentioned website basically simplifies searching through the major search sites, the social networks, the various sex offender data bases, and the free people finder sites. They also let you run special searches like the social networks, reverse address and phone look ups, ect. All of this you can do for free. Unless you look up a lot of people pretty often, it seems like a rip off.
Coming Soon....local dumb crook story.
Anyway, I have recently been annoyed by a commercial for a website called Been Verified dot Com. I finally checked it out. I guess, other than being a medium quality commercial, what annoys me is that while this commercial promises one thing it sort of makes people think they are getting something else. Basically they prey on a common misconception. There are 3 terms people kind of use interchangeably. This commercial is for a website that offers a background check on people, but they way the commercial is worded it seems like you would be getting a criminal background check. I have had, in my job to do criminal background checks as well as criminal history checks. They are similar, but not exactly the same. A background check is a completely different animal.
A background check is basically a list of where people have lived and went to school. It may include whether they graduated, what jobs they had, marital status, land ownership, business ownership, ect. Most of which should be public record. A criminal background check would have all of this plus arrest records (not public information), conviction records (public record but not always easy to get), outstanding warrants. A criminal history would only be interested in the arrest, conviction and warrants part of this. A very thorough background check done for a security clearance, bonding purposes, ect, would probably include a credit check.
This commercial seems to be promising to give you the info to keep your family safe. I visited the site. I read the disclaimer and info at the bottom of the page and in really small print. This site basically charges you $16 monthly or $96 yearly to run unlimited searches of public information. You aren't getting any confidential or criminal information you couldn't easily get anyway. This site is a convenience site. If you Google everyone you meet, this might save you some time and money, but really if you are worried about going into business with someone, taking a large job where you might take a risk on getting paid, or hiring someone to do a big money job, hire a company that can do an actual criminal background check. In Tennessee, for $25 the TBI will run a criminal history for you. That and a check with the better business bureau and good, old-fashion asking around are probably more accurate.
The mentioned website basically simplifies searching through the major search sites, the social networks, the various sex offender data bases, and the free people finder sites. They also let you run special searches like the social networks, reverse address and phone look ups, ect. All of this you can do for free. Unless you look up a lot of people pretty often, it seems like a rip off.
Coming Soon....local dumb crook story.
Monday, June 07, 2010
Things That Don't Do What They Say They Do
Well, last night was the MTV Movie Awards. I didn't watch them, content to read the results on the internet this morning. As suspected, anything the Twilight movie was nominated for it got and pretty much everything else was equally predictable. Apparently among fans of that channel Robert Messy hair is a better actor than Johnny Depp.
Sort Twilight meander. I don't hate Twilight. I finally stopped it when I realized what it is. You see Twilight isn't literature or film and doesn't pretend to be. Many of its fans seem to think it is, but they will hopefully grow out of it. The Twilight moms on the other hand need serious help. The woman can't write. Not to say she can't tell a story, apparently she can, but she isn't a good writer. The movies aren't good either, but then look at the source material. The best way to look at Twilight is to use the South Park method. Watch the episode about Promise Rings. Then substitute Twilight for Jonas Brothers and movies or books for music. The purpose of the Jonah Brothers isn't to make good music, they don't, but to make young girls tingly in their naughty spots. They don't know the difference, so they buy more Jonas Brothers crap. Although for all I know, Jonas Brothers are out and the Beiber dude is in now. Apparently weird hair is all the rage among the tween set. Well Twilight tells stories that make the target audience tingly in the right spots. They buy more to tingle more. I saw a young guy in Walmart buying one to the books. I was going to choke him out and drag him somewhere for an intervention, but he explained that having the books around made girls think he was sensitive and crap. The end result was Twilight books apparently have a effect similar to that of tequila on female clothing.
Now to what I was actually talking about before I got lost.
What the hell is it with tv networks. MTV now has only slightly more connection to music videos than NBC. Music Television now has almost no music on it, not to mention sister station VH1, Video Hits 1. Basically they seemed to have gone the stupid reality and game show route. Someone said MTV2 had music videos now. That station originally started as an alternative to Top 40/rap stuff MTV1 was mostly dealing with and the "classic" rock videos VH1 pimped. So what the hell? I haven't seen a point to MTV or VH1 in forever.
I used to like the History channel. It showed programs about history. That makes sense to me. All weekend that stupid channel showed a program called Ice Road Truckers. What does that have to do with history, please explain it to me. The Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel seemed to have converted to showing programs about people too dumb no realize there pregnant until the infant pops out and bitch slaps them or other people who keep having more and more kids so the stupid network will keep giving them a show otherwise how will they support their hugely bloated family. Could we go back to hosting shows somewhat educational. Having shows mostly entertaining like Mythbusters, the old Junkyard Wars and stuff is okay, because they are still kind of nerdy. You might learn something. If anyone out there is learning anything from "Kate plus Eight" or "Nineteen and Counting (aka Mrs. Duggars Worn Out Uterus)" I am scared to know what. I have also noticed a recent trend on shows about female police officers. Someone needs to explain why we need this. "Female Forces" and "Policewoman or Fillintheblank County" are the two that come to mind. Reality style police shows can be interesting if the cases are interesting or if they taser annoying people, but otherwise it is kind of boring after about 15 minutes. The only reasons I can come up with to promote female police officers is either to promote equality or to capitalize on male fantasies about women in authority, women in uniform, women with weapons or some other fetish. Since singling a female law enforcement officer out as somehow being different seems a poor way to promote equality, I can only assume that the present shows give excuses for people to fantasize about being handcuffed to beds while being beaten with a baton by women in bullet resistant vests and duty belts.
Sort Twilight meander. I don't hate Twilight. I finally stopped it when I realized what it is. You see Twilight isn't literature or film and doesn't pretend to be. Many of its fans seem to think it is, but they will hopefully grow out of it. The Twilight moms on the other hand need serious help. The woman can't write. Not to say she can't tell a story, apparently she can, but she isn't a good writer. The movies aren't good either, but then look at the source material. The best way to look at Twilight is to use the South Park method. Watch the episode about Promise Rings. Then substitute Twilight for Jonas Brothers and movies or books for music. The purpose of the Jonah Brothers isn't to make good music, they don't, but to make young girls tingly in their naughty spots. They don't know the difference, so they buy more Jonas Brothers crap. Although for all I know, Jonas Brothers are out and the Beiber dude is in now. Apparently weird hair is all the rage among the tween set. Well Twilight tells stories that make the target audience tingly in the right spots. They buy more to tingle more. I saw a young guy in Walmart buying one to the books. I was going to choke him out and drag him somewhere for an intervention, but he explained that having the books around made girls think he was sensitive and crap. The end result was Twilight books apparently have a effect similar to that of tequila on female clothing.
Now to what I was actually talking about before I got lost.
What the hell is it with tv networks. MTV now has only slightly more connection to music videos than NBC. Music Television now has almost no music on it, not to mention sister station VH1, Video Hits 1. Basically they seemed to have gone the stupid reality and game show route. Someone said MTV2 had music videos now. That station originally started as an alternative to Top 40/rap stuff MTV1 was mostly dealing with and the "classic" rock videos VH1 pimped. So what the hell? I haven't seen a point to MTV or VH1 in forever.
I used to like the History channel. It showed programs about history. That makes sense to me. All weekend that stupid channel showed a program called Ice Road Truckers. What does that have to do with history, please explain it to me. The Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel seemed to have converted to showing programs about people too dumb no realize there pregnant until the infant pops out and bitch slaps them or other people who keep having more and more kids so the stupid network will keep giving them a show otherwise how will they support their hugely bloated family. Could we go back to hosting shows somewhat educational. Having shows mostly entertaining like Mythbusters, the old Junkyard Wars and stuff is okay, because they are still kind of nerdy. You might learn something. If anyone out there is learning anything from "Kate plus Eight" or "Nineteen and Counting (aka Mrs. Duggars Worn Out Uterus)" I am scared to know what. I have also noticed a recent trend on shows about female police officers. Someone needs to explain why we need this. "Female Forces" and "Policewoman or Fillintheblank County" are the two that come to mind. Reality style police shows can be interesting if the cases are interesting or if they taser annoying people, but otherwise it is kind of boring after about 15 minutes. The only reasons I can come up with to promote female police officers is either to promote equality or to capitalize on male fantasies about women in authority, women in uniform, women with weapons or some other fetish. Since singling a female law enforcement officer out as somehow being different seems a poor way to promote equality, I can only assume that the present shows give excuses for people to fantasize about being handcuffed to beds while being beaten with a baton by women in bullet resistant vests and duty belts.
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