Drove to Menifee on Friday at noon to hook up with the ‘Dog Catcher’. Chatted with ‘The Coach’ for a while then off we went to Boulder City for father’s day with the pops. This is the second annual Beat-your-father-like-a-rented-mule-golf-tourney. Strangely enough Dad and Lynne were in Los Angeles for a meeting with friends when we arrived in Boulder City. So ‘The Dog Catcher’ and I went to the casino to get some grub and to gamble. Turned my 5 bucks into $25. Doesn’t seem like much’but I was on a nickel machine’Slots of fun is BACK!!! Had some grub (Steak and Caesar salad) and headed home for some Dennis Miller( Pakcanistan..man that was funny) and some snoozing. Next Morn we went into Henderson for some stuff and we got back, Dad and Lynne were home.

Golf Year 2: The night before we all decided that the ass-whooping that Jeff and I laid on the old folks needed to be avenged. So the team of Dad and Mike would stay together. And my new partner would be Lynne (replacing Jeff). Fearing Lynne, the old fogies wanted to handicap us’.12 strokes or Shoot from the black tees. Since it was Best ball, I voted for shoot from the black. It was a good choice; Lynne and I went ahead by 2 on the 4th hole and held on to that lead till the end. Lunch on the losers’ Mexican. Food was ok but the Spicy Bean Dip with the chips was out of this world. Two bowls of chips and Two Pacifico’s and I was done.

Next up, dwindle away at my inheritance. Dad bought back the 260Z he had in 80 and has been restoring it. Almost done, but he still want to remove the California smog parts. The last piece, the carbs. Last year I showed him Ebay and other ways to find Z parts online. He got a new catalog and got some stuff from them but the Non-California replacement carbs for an old Z are expensive or hard to find. So today I set him up on Ebay and Ebay payments. After a little searching, we found 240z carbs and manifold with one day left and was currently at the base bid of $100 bucks. After goading from mike-we bid and won it the next day at $102.50. Dad sent his payment with Ebay payments and the unit is on it-s way. Oh well-hope doesn-t get addicted.
This is right about the time that Deb called: The refrigerator went out. Now she wasn-t eating food, and we stripped most of it out, but she needed Ice for her shakes. I told her to use an ice chest till I get home.

Next dad had me look over his latest additions to his home theater. The DVD player and a new 6.1 Switcher/Amp from Yamaha. Seemed like a good time for fathers day gifts since my gifts were going to be his first DVDs. (Pearl Harbor and Office Space). Well I popped in the DVD and it did not look good. First of all the Player was set to 16×9 and all the bright spots were bleeding horribly. They couldn-t see it , but I could. To test, I plugged in my PS2 in the front s-vhs plugs of the TV, pristine. After looking in the back I noticed the whole system was wired using composite video and analog lines. The only analog device on the whole system was the VCR. So I went scrounging for S-video and TOSlink cables. After one trip to radio shack all the pieces were in place. The TV looked great! Now for the remote education. The Yamaha remote that came with the amp was crap, but the only one that could control the amp. So I got 6 remotes down to 2. One for the Ultimate TV/DSS and one for everything else. I-m going to try to dig up an old Pronto (Or upgrade mine) and get them down to one simple remote. Dad and lynne were thinking about a new TV, but it looked great once we got it hooked up with the new cables.

Monday morn we headed home, stopped off for some biscuits and gravy and launched into the great unknown (known as Nipton really). Time went really fast, then over the hill from Barstow we saw what looked like a nuclear cloud, and I-15 going right into it. Ummmmmm, mike didn-t want to turn on the radio. so we just went for it. About 5 miles before pass near Wrightwood we couldn-t see the car in front of us through the smoke. Then as we started down, we saw it, a huge fire on both sides of the freeway. Helicopters and planes doing drops, the whole thing. We must of lucked out, cause when we got to Jeff-s we found out the road was closed Saturday and Sunday. And when I started home a few hours later, the signs said it was closed again.

Ahhhh..home sweet home. Deb got home about 5pm and we went to get a new(used fridge) a huge side by side , delivered for $700 (1 year warranty) Tuesday I went to get a water line for the ice maker. After installing, the water started shooting out of the internal filter. So I took it out, bypassed it and the shop wants me to bring it by so he can give me a new one. Going to do that today.

http://us.imdb.com/Name?Schumacher,+Joel

Wrap up of the fall season / My top shows:
Daily Show – Still the best news (fake) show on TV
Alias – Great new addition to television. A smart version of Le Femme Nikita. Great season finale. Thank god they choose a brunette this time. Jennifer is great, and owns the role. Below is a picture from the upcoming movie-Daredevil- where she plays the baddie-Elektra-

X-Files- The end came and was nothing too special. But it was a great End. Hopefully more movies will be made. I think the 4 person ensemble will work well. But it-s up to Carter to start the engines again. Season 2 was still the bomb. Wong/Morgan/Bowman and Nutter fine-tuned that season into the best TV had to offer. They have been living off of that year ever since.
West Wing- Still the best writing of any show. It is neat to see them try to integrate Republican policy into a Democratic White House in an attempt current.
The Shield- Darker version of NYPD blue set in L.A. Chiklis is perfect. Best actor will be coming his way.

A Few Movies I saw last week.

Bad Company (2.8 of 5) – Well-it was in focus. Joel Schumacher still sucks-sorry Joel. You have not made a commercial viable film since-A Time to Kill- and before that-Flatliners- You raped Batman, made a dark film (8mm) way to dark, God only know what you were doing with Tigerland and Flawless. And you still have no idea how to shoot a fight scene. That said, Chris was good, Tony is to old for something like this, And the CIA still looks stupid. This year-s-Spy Game- and-Sum of all Fears- are ten times the movie this is. Went to the Bridge for this one.

Sum of All Fears (3.9 of 5) – My first Clancy book, and the first Clancy for Ben Affleck and Phil Robinson. Phil, you made 2 of the 30 best films of the decade (Field of Dreams and Sneakers) This doesn-t match those but you have beaten of Phillip Noyce-s attempts at Clancy. There were a few hiccups, referencing Clinton when this story really takes place just before him. But that was the only one. Great tension, Great Bomb, Great acting across the board. Ben is Ryan 5 years before Alec-s Ryan-and it fits. Harrison did a great Ryan, but was too old for the stories they chose. The latest books-Bear and Dragon- and-Debt of Honor- are more for Harrison age. Hopefully-Without Remorse- is next (No Jack Ryan at all). That is still my favorite and makes-Clear and Present Danger- a better movie and book. Up to the Regal for this one.

http://us.imdb.com/Name?Schumacher,+Joel

Off to Laughlin this Thursday for camping/scuba/tubing/beer and sun. Boat and trailer are ready. Rest will be done tomorrow. Tight group this time, only 9 people are going.
Movie: Insomnia (3.8 of 5) Chris Nolan does a good job on a remake of a sub-par 6-year-old Scandinavian movie. I guess this proves that if you cant get distribution for your foreign film, sell the plot to the Americans. The story uses-UNFORGIVEN- as a base for the there-are-no-good-guys story. The acting was perfect, but you don-t really like anybody-except Dooley. The visuals were very good, you learn to hate the sun. Could not get over the fact that someone built a house at water level on a glacier lake. One break-off and the house would be gone.

I got off work at 4:00 and took Tina,John and deb to the Sherman Oak Galleria for the show. We arrived at 5:30 and were the 15th people in line…not to shabby.
Let the Trailers begin…..A small rumble on a black screen for 5 seconds..then a stream of green letters from the top..HOLY SHIT!!! The Matrix Reloaded.AHHHHHHHHHHH. Just a teaser but good god..that was coooool!!!..next up Goldmember…Finally…a funny one..the 2 previous teasers were lame. This is a teaser too but much funnier…and a way we go.
ATTACK OF THE CLONES: (4.2 of 5) Overall I love this movie, The shear size of the last 45 min is amazing. It’s nice to see CGI just cant be done by people on their mac’s at home. These scenes needed real power to produce. Much like the Jpark series. This movie made E1 better (I like E1 by they way..Jar Jar too..so no flames please) and made E4-6 better too. Everybody has more depth..You know Obiwan not by Ewan..but by Alec..and it all fits together. This helps the movie..and hurts it too…i mean you know the people that dont die..they have to be around for 4,5, and 6. The is the problem with being an adult and seeing this movie..you bring to much baggage. Thats why Lord of the rings suffers a bit….we know the whole story already. But 10 year olds don’t..and thats what makes these films great.
What i loved: The size and scope, Bad-ass Yoda layin the smack down, The poor tuskin raiders..he he, Amidala’s Clothes (Deb says she is a cock-tease…i agree) and her nipples for that fact (You will know when you see it) Mace layin the smack-down, but what really caught my eye was 3 shots during the clone landings in the main battle. Georges skill with camera has allways been “Plain” but it works for kevin smith..so i’m not gonna fault him for it. He puts the eye candy in the frame..but doesnt move the camer to much, in the cgi scenes it make the zoom and focus very mechanical. After a while you get used to it..then bam..during the battle..he does a few WARTIME PHOTOGRAPHER shots.
Quick natural zooms to other ships landing..out of focus pans…and the like..it worked for me on a whole other level..i thought i was there..on the battlefield..very cool indeed.
What I Didn’t Like: First of all..it was fuzzy and the dark scenes had NTSC bands like when your camcorder doesnt have enough light. After some research i found out that all the film prints looked like this because of the Telecine transfer, and that the 60 theaters worldwide that where showing it Digtally didn’t have these problems. So I will see it again in one of these theaters. The love story was too long, Jango needed a better fight, and I wanted a better Tusken Beat-Down. But the thing that bothered me the most…no cheering, sure the yoda fight scene got some..but nothing else did. There wasnt a narrow escape by the M-Falcon while the death star was was exploding around it…or han solo taking out darth just before killing luke…no great tension or release.
But besides all that…top notch george…cant wait for E3..you have alot of ground to cover..get those cameras going.
As a side note..My nephew jaymes alled me about 7pm on Thursday to try to scoop me on EII (he just saw it), he was very disappointed that i saw it already….the super cool king of movies maintains his crown..Whooo Hoo
P.S. seeing it again tonight with other friends, Gonna mount my TV on Saturday, Gonna pick up Regs from Dive and Surf today, and i won a DVDO line doubler from Ebay this morning. So now i have 20 bucks in my pocket…but alot of cool shit…he he

The REGS i won on ebay..First and Second Stage seem fine…but the Pressure gauge doesn’t work. Could be the gauge/1st Stage HP/HP line. AHHHHHH. I need to take it in to have the Dive n’ Surf Guys check the whole thing anyways. Most important gauge…and it ain’t working’.
Deb is coming’ home tonight around 8pm. I am almost out of clothes , so from 6-8 i will do wash.
I lost the Ebay bid i had on that SONY M8u camera yesterday..I fell asleep and the winner just bid a dollar over my highest…bastard. Anyways I found another one on EBAY and i bid the same amount (38 bucks) it is currently at $39 but I’m not gonna start the war till it gets closer to closing (Tomorrow).
On a surprising note: Ricks Movie Graphics sent me my Reign of Fire Poster:

I thought it was back ordered for a week….but it just showed up…coool. I took down the AN Redux poster behind my desk, and put the new one there…..ahhhhhh all is good.