Enjoying My Amazon Kindle

(image not actual size)

I got an Amazon Kindle about 8 months ago and I love it as much now as I did then. I can't believe how many books I read now (5+ novels per months plus various other things). I keep it within reach nearly all day long. The built in memory holds roughly 200 books so no matter what mood I'm in I always have something on hand that suits me. The e-ink technology is MUCH easier on the eyes than a computer screen (no flicker and no back light), and the adjustable font size is great for when you are desperately trying to finish an engrossing chapter at 2AM while you can barely keep your burning eyes open.

Although it costs around $350, it has already more than paid for itself. Here's how: There are countless multitudes of free legal ebooks readily available on the internet. I'm not talking about stealing, file sharing or piracy, but legitimate honest to goodness free books. Since ebooks are quite small (roughly 1MB each), they can be downloaded almost instantly and transfered to the Kindle via USB. Sites like ManyBooks.net actually let you download free books in Kindle format. Other sites such as Baen Free Library give away legal free ebooks from popular science fiction authors. Some popular current authors such as Cory Doctorow give away ebooks free in hopes that it will gain them a larger following and thus a larger customer base. I quite literally have THOUSANDS of free books that will take me forever to read, which means I'm now spending much less money feeding my reading habit. If you want current books and don't mind spending around $10 for them, you can use the built in free EVDO wireless internet connection to download them from Amazon directly to the Kindle device without any need for a computer. The original purchase prices comes with unlimited free EVDO internet access so you can download books and surf the web nearly anywhere in the U.S. where you can receive a cell phone signal. The e-ink is a bit slow to refresh and the browser is primative, but sites like Amazon.com and WikiPedia look pretty good. I've used my Kindle to read and post to Twitter.com, access Google Maps to find my approximate location on a map and find nearby restaurants and businesses. I admit, the web browser leaves a lot to be desired but you can use it as much as you like for free, something that's pretty nice as a side benefit to a full featured ebook reader. Here are some of my favorite things about the kindle:

• Not much bigger than a mass market paperback yet it can hold hundreds of books and offers access to the internet
• Battery lasts a long time (more than a week when I have the EVDO modem turned off)
• Great for traveling as I no longer have to fill my carryon luggage with heavy bulky books
• All content on the device is searchable, which makes it easy to look up facts and find favorite passages
• You can use the built in keyboard to take notes and mark up your favorite texts
• It's a great way to read popular fiction without filling your real book shelves with one-time reads that don't add particular value or distinction to your home library
  

Here are my few complaints about the kindle:

• Would like a higher contrast screen. Current screen is good, but white background is not pristine white and is a more like the off-white paper used for newspapers
  
• It should really come with a better case that offers a bit more protection and security
• Would like a smaller "next page" button so that it is not as easy to accidentally advance to the next page
• Would like a more robust web browser (I know, it's an ebook reader and not an iPhone, but I think with a minimal effort they could have made the browser much better)

Other features that people might like to know about:

• It has a head phone jack and volume controls for listening to mp3 files or even audio books
• It has an email address that only accepts mail from addresses you designate, so you can send txt files, word docs, pdfs and kindle files directly to your device

I know this probably will just look like an ad to most folks, as I am admittedly an Amazon.com affiliate. Nevertheless I thought I share this review with everyone in the hope that others will enjoy it much as I do and find themselves reading more. In this media saturated world where everyone has multiple TV's, computers, iPods and other forms of entertainment, it's all too easy to give up reading. This device makes it so convenient that people who own will find themselves reading more, which means that they will get more mental stimulation than most other forms of passive entertainment.

300: A Fantasy Movie About Thermopylae

Background:
The movie 300 is a based on the graphic novel of the same name, and is an adaptation of the Battle of Thermoplyae in 480BC, one of the most crucial moments in the fate of Western culture. This battle is also why many firearms enthusiasts rally behind the cry Μολών Λαβέ! (often represented as Molon Labe! or ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ). These are the words that King Leonidas of Sparta responded with when the Persian King Xerxes demanded that 300 Spartans lay down their arms and submit to his rule or face annihilation at the hands of his 600,000 man army. The words mean "Come and get them!", and are the ancient Greek equivalent to "pry it from my cold dead hands". Viewers should know that this battle is still studied by modern military strategists, and is used as an example of how well-trained and well-armed men can resist vastly greater numbers using the right type of terrain.

On to the movie review:
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, both for its artistry and story. Anyone with a high tolerance for on-screen violence who likes rooting for the underdog and who enjoys highly stylized and artistic cinema will like this film. For those not familiar with Frank Miller, he is a renowned comic book author and artist famous for dark and edgy works often involving a an underdog opposing some form of oppression, wrong doing and/or corruption. The recent movie Sin City was based on his work.

300 was a surprisingly good blend of stylized choreography and edgy music that felt like a cross between fine art, a music video and an incredibly well done video game. Many of the fight scenes were shot using "speed ramping", a technique in which the footage speeds up to let you pan past a battle and get an idea of the magnitude of what is taking place without having to stare at hours of hack and slash combat. At other times it slows down for a few moments to allow you to fully appreciate the artistry and choreography of a specific sequence, often for an exchange between two or three closely embattled opponents, before speeding up and continuing with the story. I found this technique to be much less disorienting and easier to follow than the jittery filming of Gladiator, or the choppy editing of The Bourne Supremacy.

Another interesting aspect of the movie was the way it came off as an over-the-top tall tale. Some characters, such as Xerxes, appeared larger than ordinary humans and had voices that were far more imposing and booming than normal. I had no problem with this stretch of fantasy, as it reminded me of how the legends of Cuchulain and Beowulf were eventually stretched into fantastic myths rather than told as the deeds of ordinary men. Watching this movie gave me a glimpse of how the story of this battle might have verbally been passed down to future generations of ancient Greeks.

After seeing the previews and flipping through a copy of the comic book, I knew that this movie was really going to have a lot of visual impact. Because of this, I opted to see it on a huge IMAX screen. I'm glad I did as it produced amazing visual detail. Nearly every frame of this film could have been turned into a painting, tapestry or computer wallpaper. Although the movie was utterly filled with violence, it was the most artfully rendered violence that I have ever seen on screen. One scene in particular involved a sequence in which two Spartans became separated from their colleagues and were forced to battle as a lone pair. The moody CGI background, speed ramping and choreography transformed this life and death struggle into something as graceful as a pair of Olympic figure skaters.

Movie vs. History:

A number of liberties were deliberately taken with this film. Historical purists who only enjoy perfectly accurate costumes and sets might want to shy away from it. Here are just a few of the more obvious historical discrepancies:

• In the movie the Spartans wore nothing more than sandals, cloaks and some sort of leather briefs. In reality, Spartans wore formidable body armor that protected their torsos. According to USAToday, the naked muscular chests helped the movie test “100% positive for women of all ages”.
  
  
• The movie was filmed in a studio and sound stage and not on site in Greece. The scenery is all CGI, and is not a realistic reproduction Thermopylae.
  
  
• Many of the Persians were rendered more like video game monster bosses than human beings

These things did not bother me, as I already knew the story of Thermopylae and was looking to be entertained rather than educated. If you are interested, this article covers historical discrepancies in more detail.

Cautionary note:

While I recommend this movie to any adults who like a mix of fantasy, glory and historic battles, I do not think it is appropriate for children. Leave your kids with a sitter unless you really want them to see graphic depictions of people being riddled with arrows, stabbed with spears and having various limbs removed. While the stylized violence is less traumatizing than an ultra-realistic rendering, it still delivers a small taste of the horror of massive-scale melee combat.

Global Warming or Global Cooling?

Ever since Al Gore's documentary won an Academy Award, I've heard a number of people authoritatively claiming that the concept of "global warming" is an undisputed and undeniable fact. This is wrong, and can only be said by someone who is either ignorant or who cares more about a political agenda than they do about the scientific method.

Here are some quotes from a recent TIME article on the subject. Before you read these quotes, keep in mind that TIME is a product of AOL Time Warner, and is considered by many to have somewhat of a leftist political bias, so this should not be dismissed as anti-Gore/pro-corporate political dogma:

... a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.

Telltale signs are everywhere —from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest.Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7° F.

Please click on the title link and read this entire article. There is an abundance of scientific data to support the idea of global cooling, and the scientific community is very divided about whether we are facing global warming or global cooling. If people truly care about human impact on the environment, they need to stop fixating on the trendy and politically popular myth that global warming is an established fact. If we as a species are having an adverse impact on the planet, we need to consider all available data and use the scientific method to find a comprehensive explanation of the nature and cause of that impact.

If we let ourselves be suckered by Gore and other political activists into thinking that their assertions are unchallenged scientific facts, we may exclude other ideas that might better be able explain or minimize our impact on the environment. Gore definitely has a political agenda, and his annual $30,000 energy bill makes me suspect that his environmental activism is more about self promotion than saving the planet. Environmental activism can be hugely profitable for those people at the top of powerful environmental organizations or who manage to seize the limelight. Whenever someone screams "The sky is falling!" people line up to make donations to that cause, and some of that money is used to pay hefty salaries and fund lavish lecture junkets. I bring this up not to claim that Gore and other global warming activists are all thieving liars, but rather to point out that we should not treat their words as gospel. Climatology is a a matter of science and should be decided by the scientific community at large after considering all available data. It is not in our best interest to place blind faith in self-promoting politicians who selectively publicize their favorite bits of "evidence" while blithely ignoring vast amounts of conflicting data.

Further Reading:
If you have an open mind and would like to learn about a less frequently publicized aspect of environmental theory, you might enjoy Michael Crichton's novel, State of Fear. While the plot isn't terribly realistic or gripping, it does a good job of explaining how the environmental movement isn't necessarily as selfless as many like to think. It also does a nice job of weaving an opposing view to global warming within the context of an easy to read story. The book is riddled with foot notes citing specific scientific studies and bits of evidence that refute simplistic global warming theories, so in addition to proving some light entertainment it also can serve as a starting point to help people delve into less publicized climatological data.

More Bad Reviews for Anaheim White House

It looks like I should have done my research more thoroughly. Although I had heard good things and read some positive reviews before we chose the Anaheim White House, I just did another search and found many negative reviews of this restaurant. Here are some links to other reviews and excerpts:

by socaldi on DineSite.com:

the service was terrible… it was impossible for us to enjoy our overcooked, long awaited, mediocre meal. I don't know how this restaurant recieved [sic] a good rating

by cym8 on DineSite.com:

Not worth the $$'s. Service was good food very average.

by siniquezette on DineSite.com:

Orange County has much more to offer than this place. Entrees have no flavor to them at all. Very bland and much lack of creativity in all dishes.

by ekschuller at CitySearch.com:

…they fed me what appeared to be little quiches from a box bought at Costco together with wilted endive for ONLY 16 bucks a person!!! ...I will thus not ever return here and I recommend to anyone that asks never, ever to go there…

by ymy72579 on CitySearch.com:

…my wife ordered; well, it was sooo awful that i don't even remember. Chicken tasted like over nuked microwave mcnugget w/o meat juice. The portion was soo small, It only took me a sec to lick it off the plate. Enviorment [sic] feels like haunted house in southern part of mississippi from horror movie

by jamizban on CitySearch.com:

From the time we sat (and they messed up our reservation, btw) until the time we finally got our souffle, which took almost an hour to produce after we ordered it, it was 3 1/2 hours! ... the kitchen needs to desperately get their stuff together. Won't go here again.

by thenewbombs on CitySearch.com:

It took 30 minutes to get a menu, another 45 minutes to get cold appetizers and more than an hour to get our main courses. The souffle that we ordered at the beginning of the odyssey was still not ready THREE HOURS LATER! Do NOT come here...

by epop on evite.com:

...service was terrible, the place smelled, and the food was only so-so. It was very overpriced...

on restaurants.com:

My experience at the The White House was terrible. I would not suggest anyone going Anaheim White House. Terrible FOOD...

Judging from all of these negative reviews, it sounds like this place either used to be good and fell apart or is just utterly unreliable. Oh well, live and learn. Eventually this post will show up on search engines when people look for "Anaheim White House" and will hopefully save others from a similarly bad experience.

Anaheim White House of Flies

Last weekend my wife and I went out to celebrate a special occasion. We were looking for a place with gourmet food and good ambience and decided to give the Anaheim White House (www.anaheimwhitehouse.com) a try. Big mistake.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a valet who charged $3 +tip for the service of parking my car in their empty lot 30 feet away from the front door, a feat I could have easily managed myself.

Once inside, we discovered that the restaurant had lost the reservations under my name. After a brief discussion they seated us anyway.

The waiter came out to take our drink order and I asked to see the wine list, which he didn't have. After my wife and I each made additional requests, we finally obtained their extensive wine list. The Maitre d' or manager then came over and gave us a colorful and enthusiastic explanation of the specials and even recommended an excellent wine to go with my meal.

As we waited for our appetizer, we were plagued by a black house fly that buzzed around us incessantly. While the ravioli appetizer was fantastic, it also attracted more flies. Our uninvited table guests began to irritate us and after a while we killed a few.

When the main course came out, we were treated to excellent presentations of perfectly cooked mixed vegetables and angel hair pasta as the accompaniments to our entrees. My wife had the 'Gauthier Maine Lobster', which was supposedly poached in champagne sauce. In reality, I think the chef drank the champagne and cooked the lobster in a ceramics kiln because it came out dry and flavorless with an anodized shell that could not be breached by our table implements. Unfortunately, the restaurant didn't have crackers or picks and we were left at the mercy of the chef's failed attempt to split the shell prior to serving.

My meal was supposedly a critically acclaimed award winning special that included Filet Mignon and Maine Lobster. My lobster was also overcooked and lacked the customary Maine Lobster sweetness. The steak was unremarkable for a filet mignon (I've often prepared better and have had its equal at casual places like Marie Callenders and The Outback).

As my wife and I gnawed on our leathery lobster, more flies began to arrive. Eventually the five black corpses we left smashed on our window convinced the swarm to leave us in favor of attacking other diners. While we celebrated our victory the couple at the table next to us asked the waiter for better lobster cracking hardware and complained of the lobster being overcooked. Since the restaurant had no cracking tools for the diners, the waiter took the offending crustacean back to the kitchen where they presumably used the jaws of life to crack open the shell.

We also complained about the quality of the lobster to the waiter who merely gave us an "Oh, that's too bad" dismissal and scurried away. My wife then complained to the Maitre d', who gave us a sincere sounding apology. Although by this time we were both thoroughly annoyed, we decided to wait for dessert (a Grand Marnier soufflé that we had ordered at the beginning of the meal since it takes a long time to prepare).

The waiter brought out a top notch soufflé along with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and two glasses of champagne, all of which were free of charge in the hopes of making up for the lobster and to help us celebrate our special occasion.

Feeling somewhat mollified, we proceeded to enjoy our dessert until the bill arrived. Boy, were we in for a shock.

• Ravioli Appetizer: $25 ($12.50/person rather than for the table)
• Dinner Salad: $8
• 2 glasses of wine: $21
• Gauthier Maine Lobster: $59 (listed as “Market Price”)
• Weekly Special Steak and Lobster: $75 (no price was volunteered by the waiter at the time it was described and while we thought it would be expensive, we didn’t expect it to cost more than double the most expensive entree on the menu)

Our bad lobster, lost reservations, black house flies and valet parking would have cost us a whopping $201 +tax +tip had they not taken off the $10 desert.

Looking back on it, we should have raised hell and demanded a bigger discount. At the time we just wanted to celebrate our special occasion and have a pleasant evening so we didn’t make much of a fuss other than complain a couple of times and leave a negative comment card topped with several dead flies as testament to our bad experience.

Let this be a warning to those of you who are considering dining at the Anaheim White House. Unless you have money to burn and like bad seafood and house flies, I suggest you dine elsewhere.

Pirates 2 Worse Than Walking the Plank

For some reason, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest broke a 3-day earning record. According to this WashingtonPost.com article and video clip, this sequel earned $55 million on Friday and $132 million over the Friday-Sunday opening weekend. Regrettably, I was roped into being one of the people who shelled out $10 and two hours of my life to see this film and contribute to its undeserved financial success.

This sequel lacks most of the light-hearted and humorous banter that made the first movie passably fun. The production team made the mistake of taking this film somewhat seriously and trying to subject us to a boring drawn-out story line that is more about setting up for a third money making movie than actually showing the audience a good time. The only positive in this experience for me was that I was able to watch it at a place that offered true digital projection, which made for crisp visual effects, especially during the opening stormy ocean scenes.

The novelty of the digital screening quickly wore off as the movie’s unrelenting stream of CGI effects did nothing to compensate for the poor writing and utter lack of character development. As a viewer, I found myself wishing both heroes and villains alike would die in the hopes of ending the franchise. None of the characters inspired any emotional response; the villains weren't fun to hate and the heroes weren't worth rooting for. The movie would have been better if a tsunami came right after the opening credits and wiped out everyone before the plot could get started.

How can a bunch of people continuously fighting with swords never manage to cut anybody who wasn't made from CGI?!?! This movie’s continuous action scenes did to swords what the A-Team did to automatic rifles: it made them boring, commonplace, and pointless.

Overall the film serves as an example of why I try to avoid modern era Disney movies. It fits the typical Disney model of using excessive marketing, pointless action and self-gratifying special effects to sell a film devoid of believable characters, realism and creativity. Dead Man’s Chest actually has a lot of qualitative similarities to the recent Star Wars movies, so if you are still wincing at Vader’s final “Noooooo!” in Revenge of the Sith then you probably should avoid this over hyped sequel.

Excerpt from the Declaration of Independence

The V for Vendetta movie reminded me of some of the phrases in our Declaration of Independence. Below is an excerpt from that document, and phrases in bold are ones that I felt particularly fitting to both the movie and our current political climate in which politicians are pursuing security before freedom.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

V for Vendetta

People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.

I just returned from seeing the movie V for Vendetta. As you might expect from the general tone of this blog, I tend to like movies where people oppose oppressive governments in favor of freedom. Thus, any movie that is promoted using the above quote is one I'm likely to go see.

While I have never read the comic books that the movie is said to be based on, I really enjoyed this movie. For those who know nothing about it, here's a rough synopsis of the plot, hopefully without any major spoilers:

In the near future, the UKseems to have survived an apocalyptic global war. A fascist regime has risen to power, and people live under something dangerously close to marshal law. Media is under government control, and news stories feature government propaganda more often than truth. Violating nightly curfews can lead to immediate and inhumane punishments. Possessing banned books or publicly expressing dissent can cause you to disappear in the middle of the night.

From this atmosphere emerges a highly educated and articulate mask-wearing dissident proficient in martial arts, demolitions and subversive propaganda. He has been wronged even more than most, and goes on a violent vendetta against the government that has harmed him. As part of that vendetta, he attempts to rally public support and encourage people to stand up to their totalitarian government.

The story is told with dramatic flair, sometimes reminding the viewer of a stylistic cross between the "Phantom of the Opera" and "The Matrix". Because of this dramatization, realism is often sacrificed for the sake of visual impact, theatrical effects and advancing the plot. Fortunately, I rather enjoyed these indulgences and did not find them detrimental to the cinematic experience.

What was most important about this movie, in my mind, is the story. Movies like this help remind everyone that government can go wrong, and that it is indeed up to the people to keep it in check. If government runs amok, it is because people looked the other way and allowed it to keep encroaching upon freedom until freedom was utterly consumed. This is a message that I think needs to repeated as often as possible, so that we do not forget our heritage.

This message is particularly apropos in a time where our leaders are trying to force us to choose between freedom and security. The Patriot Act, National ID cards, RFIDs in passports, and the governmental scrutiny of communication, financial transactions and internet search engines are all issues at the front of modern politics.

My main regret is that I would have liked to see the protagonist portrayed a little more as a legitimate revolutionary and a little less as a nihilist or terrorist. Perhaps this could have been done by expanding his motives beyond personal vengeance and better explaining how the UK was reduced to this pseudo-fascist state. A 1-3 minute intro showing newspaper headlines and or news video clips rattling off various oppressive laws that were passed in response to current problems would have helped to set the tone of him opposing an unjust regime. It took quite a while to get a feel for what life was like in that society for the average apathetic Joe and why common people could be inspired to resist this system. While the movie does mostly explain this before the end, I think a brief explanation at the beginning would have made it all seem a bit more real. (There was also an interrogation sequence that I found troubling, but I can't go into that here without giving away too much for people who haven't seen it.)

I think that for the most part, regular readers of this blog will enjoy the movie. Many blog writers worry that conservatives may not like this movie, but this might be to much of a generalization. Although the movie does admittedly contain elements that could be construed as criticism of the Bush administration (i.e. the pursuit of terrorists leading to increased governmental oppression), I felt that it was more a general criticism of invasive government in all of its forms. Extreme leftism/liberalism is no less oppressive than extreme conservatism, and the plot of this film could have just as easily been furthered by a hypothetical oppressive socialist or communist regime as it was by the fascist government that was depicted. Keep in mind that the story is based on a British comic written in the early 1980's and thus couldn't have been specficially about current U.S. Politics. If some conservatives feel that this movie hits too close to home, they should look at what their party is doing wrong rather than accuse this movie of unfairly targeting them.

I liked this movie well enough that I'm considering buying the graphic novel that it was based on, especially as I have heard that it does a better job of dealing with some of my concerns about the movie:

Laser Eye Surgery: I Can See!

Regular readers of this blog may be surprised by this deviation from my usual topics, but I am going to take this opportunity to share a personal experience with you in the hope that you might have a similarly positive experience.

For over a decade I needed glasses to see (contacts wouldn't work for me). I'd start my day by waking up in the morning, putting on my glasses, and then getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom. The glasses would come off for a shower, and then go back on before I left the bathroom and stay on for the rest of the day. Driving, watching TV and doing pretty much anything wasn't possible without my glasses. Snorkeling on vacation without glasses meant that the fishes and scenery were indistinct blobs. Nature watching with binoculars and spotting scopes was a juggling act that involved constantly putting my glasses on and off (for some reason I could never see well through other optics while wearing glasses).

All of this hassle is over, now. I had all laser LASIK surgery in both eyes about a month ago. My vision is now 20/15 without corrective lenses. I can see perfectly all of the time. My useable field of view is much larger, as I can turn my eyes to the side to see rather than my entire head (if you wear glasses, looking to the side with your eyes means trying to see an area outside of the focal point of your corrective lenses). When I got hot and sweaty, I don't need to constantly clean oil and moisture off of my glasses to see. When I open the dishwasher or step into a steamy room, my glasses aren't there to fog up. I can wear any kind of sunglasses instead of expensive yet unfashionable prescription lenses. My nose is no longer sore from the constant chaffing of nose pieces. I literally have people telling me things like "Wow, you look younger!", "Did you lose weight?", "You look good, what did you change?" and "I never noticed how nice your eyes are".

Now that the healing is mostly done, I look forward to seeing how this will affect my shooting. I could see well the day after the procedure, but it can take up to 3 months before I am 100% healed, so I didn’t want to risk gunshot residue and copper or lead dust getting into my eyes and thus haven’t shot since the surgery. While doing simple holster drills and dry firing (with snapcaps), I’ve noticed that target acquisition through open sights is much faster than it was with glasses.

The actual laser procedure was quick, painless and surprisingly bearable. The worst part about it was the "creepy" feeling I had about the thought of someone messing with my eyes, but there was neither pain nor even much discomfort. The only downside I have is some post procedural dryness that is easily managed with drops, but even that is rapidly subsiding.

If you are sick and tired of glasses, I suggest you look into having LASIK. Do your research and find a top notch doctor with the best equipment and the best procedural techniques. I paid about double what some of my friends did, and I had better results than people I know who went to discount doctors. I'll never know for sure if I just got lucky with the outcome and wasted the extra money, but I do believe that paying for one of best surgeons in North America contributed to these great results.

New to the Blogroll: Xavier Thoughts

The subtitle of Xavier Thoughts is what first caught my eye: "Nurse with a Gun"

There is a common misconception that medical professionals loathe, hate and despise firearms because of their experience treating gunshot victims. (In reality, most medical staff outside of an emergency room rarely, if ever, see gunshot wounds.) Thus, even though I realize that guns can prevent potential crime victims from needing urgent medical care, I still do a double take when I meet a pro-gun doctor or nurse.

I've been reading Xavier's posts for about a week now and have found them to be both interesting and informative. One of my favorites so far is Home Defense Shotguns. I think readers of this blog will also enjoy Xavier Thoughts.

Serenity

I just saw the movie Serenity this weekend. As an avid fan of the Firefly TV series, I really enjoyed it, perhaps more than any other Sci-Fi movie of the past two decades. Joss Whedon's writing makes the dialogue even more entertaining than the action and special effects, especially if you are familiar with the TV series and the history of the main characters. However, since nearly everyone who has reviewed this movie has showered it with well deserved compliments, this post will focus on the stylistic differences between the movie and the TV series rather than add redundant praise.

For those not familiar with the TV series, Firefly was a Sci-Fi/Western set in 2507AD about the crew of a "Firefly" class space ship named Serenity. It was edgy, not politically correct, and filled with witty dialogue, action and adventure. It was unusual in that it crossed multiple genres and had great writing. The TV series often explored the concepts of loyalty, the consequences of oppressive government, gray areas of morality and other weighty issues while somehow managing to keep things light and fun. The new movie Serenity is a continuation of the Firefly TV series, but with some significant changes in attitude. The following is a list of the three main thematic differences between Firefly and Serenity.

Subtle Changes in the "Oppressive Nature of Government" Theme
In Firefly, the Alliance is a sort of Star Wars-esque evil Empire that has conquered the known universe. The Alliance enforces the law ruthlessly and without mercy. They experiment on human beings against their will in order to turn them into weapons. They knowingly send settlers to planets where they will encounter extreme hardships, diseases, slave-like working conditions and high mortality rates. Blue gloved government agents use horrific devices to kill people on the off chance they might know something that could embarrass the Alliance.

Most Firefly episodes make the viewers resent the oppressive hand of government and rouses Libertarian thoughts of resistance. People who object to censorship, the Patriot Act and intrusive government can use the Alliance in the TV series as an example of what they don't want our government to become. Serenity, however, relegates the government to a more impersonal enemy and the conflict centers around the ruthless actions of an individual government operative. Thus, the movie directs more of the audience's wrath at a specific person, rather than the brutal government he works for.

Elimination of "Personal Ethics vs. Organized Religion" Theme
One of the main characters in Firefly is the vaguely Christian "Shepherd", who is a kind of itinerant priest. In one episode the captain of the ship says something like "Shepherd, while you are welcome on my ship, God ain’t." When the Shepherd asks at dinner, "Captain, do you mind if I say grace?" the captain replies "Only if you do it out loud". In another episode, the childlike genius River is found cutting up the pages of Shepherd's bible, rearranging them and adding notes in order to "fix" it by correcting contradictions and conflicting logic.

The crew of the of Serenity consists of secular and self reliant people who have been through hard times and witnessed horrible things. The captain in particular rejects religious faith as he clearly feels that he is the only force in the universe looking out for himself. The conflict between the captain and Shepherd allowed the TV series to work in brief discussions of secular versus religious thought and explore whether or not you can be a good person without a belief in god. This undercurrent helped elevate the TV series and give something of substance for the viewers to consider while they were being entertained. It is unfortunate that Serenity virtually eliminated this theme from the movie, presumably to avoid alienating religious conservatives who might have otherwise decided to protest or boycott the movie.

Elimination of Inara, the Respectable Geisha/Prostitute
One of the main characters in Firefly is Inara, a certified "Companion". A Companion is a sort of highly trained and very educated upper-class Geisha/Prostitute/Consort. Companions are highly respected, welcomed in the highest social circles and treated as minor nobility by the public. Inara is occasionally referred to as Serenity's ambassador, because her presence allows the ship to dock at exclusive locations that would otherwise be closed to the disreputable crew.

Inara provides the main source of romantic tension in the series and each episode is filled with barbed and witty verbal duels between her and the captain. The captain clearly loves her, yet often refers to her as a "whore". His detest for her profession conflicts with his affection for her as a human being.

While all of this may sound far fetched to people who haven't seen Firefly, it actually was executed very well. It lets the show explore the morality of interaction between consenting adults and provides an opportunity to examine societal prohibitions of prostitution. This is yet another example of the TV series giving the audience food for thought along with entertainment. Unfortunately, Serenity virtually ignored this aspect of the TV series and gave relatively little screen time to Inara.

If you have not yet seen Serenity, please do not let my above criticisms deter you from doing so. It is a good movie even without these three themes, especially if you are a fan of the Firefly series. Most of the positive aspects of the TV series were preserved, including the great writing. While I don't want to spoil anything, here are a few things to look forward to:

• women who are tired of supporting actresses playing frail or illogical roles will like the strength, loyalty and sense of duty demonstrated by Zoe during a critical point in the movie

• Some of the mysteries behind both River and the Reavers will be cleared up

• Just because the characters are protagonists from the beloved TV series doesn’t mean that they will survive any given scene unscathed.

New to the Blogroll: The Freeholder

This has been long overdue. I've been enjoying the posts on The Freeholder's blog for quite some time and I trust you will too. A good mix of guns, liberty, news and entertainment.

Revisiting the Enemy Within

Well, it looks like I should have given Savage's book, The Enemy Within more of a chance before I started complaining in my previous post. After getting much farther into the book, I realized that I found myself agreeing with Savage's ideas more often than not. I still disagree with him on the Patriot Act and I still hate his silly name calling, but he does raise a number of good points. If you don't mind Democrats being called "Demoncats", politically ignorant people being called "sheeple", and other such invented words, you might actually like the book.

He does a good job of reminding the reader what America used to be about, and pointing out why preserving our language, culture and borders is beneficial to our nation. He writes in an accessible style, drawing upon personal anecdotes, historical events, court cases and inflammatory phrases to help drive his independently conservative ideas home. (I know, in the last post I mistook him for a traditional Republican who toed the party line, but his writing lives up to his self described "independent conservative" label.) Each passage reads like a spirited talk-radio monologue, and usually only spans a couple of pages, making it easy to read this book over a series of short lunch breaks.

While I strongly disagree with him on some things, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying the book in spite of my dislike for the preface. I think the preface was the result of the controversial radio personality trying to pack marketable signature phrases into the beginning in hopes of encouraging loyal fans to buy the book.

One part of the book that really rang true for me was when he said that Native Americans successfully maintained their culture for 12,000+ years because of their tradition of oral story telling.

The storytellers told tales of the glory of their warriors, their courage and their victorious battles. They celebrated the purity of their women and the sanctity of their elders. They told tales of the nobility of their people. The Native Americans survived because they glorified their own people and their nation.

He then notes how our own national identity is jeopardized by the deluge of movies portraying our leaders, politicians, soldiers and police officers in a negative light while glorifying our criminals. He has a point. The Michael Moore and Oliver Stone versions of U.S. history don't exactly foster a national identity and inspire pride in American achievements.

Another of my favorite chapters is entitled "COURTS: Stench from the Bench". It does a great job of pointing out how activist judges, the ACLU and other liberal groups have repeatedly managed to thwart the will of the people by overturning various voter initiatives and propositions. It covers some of the absurd yet successful defenses that were used by the ACLU to get murderers, child molesters and other criminals extremely light sentences for serious crimes. It also addresses how the U.S. Supreme court is gradually looking more to international laws and public opinion than the words of the United States Constitution.

I'm glad I gave the book another chance. I think talk radio fans will especially enjoy it.

Initial Reaction to The Enemy Within

I received a copy of Michael Savage’s latest best seller, The Enemy Within, as a Christmas present from a friend and just started reading it today. After hearing a few people talk about Savage, I expected to either agree with it or at least find it entertaining. I was disappointed that I didn’t even make it through the four page preface without getting angry.

According to the preface, this book is Savage’s attempt to:

“reaffirm the meaning of the most basic concepts of family, nation and morality. By pointing out how internal enemies [Liberals] are undermining our religion, schools, courts, military, media and police.”

He then proceeds to throw out a number of illogical arguments for why Liberals are the enemy. For example, he brings up how “Liberals” hate the Patriot Act that gives government wider reaching powers, and has led to the arrest of drug dealers and child pornographers. He then quotes Anthony Romero of the ACLU as saying “Once the American public understands that many of the powers granted to the federal government apply to much more than just terror, I think the opposition will gain momentum”. Savage follows this up with the non sequitur:

“Which side is Mr. Romero on? The law, or that of the child pornographer and drug dealer”?

This is childish nonsense. I think child pornographers should be executed but I’m still against the Patriot Act. I object to the government being able to skip the traditional requirements of “due process” and “probable cause” and use the lesser standard of “suspicion” as grounds for recording, monitoring and even detaining citizens who used to be “presumed innocent until proven guilty”. This does not mean that I am on the side of drug dealers and other criminals.

Here’s another of Savage’s statements:

“It is clear to me if God could vote, He would be a member of the vast right-wing conspiracy. In fact, to the mad dog leftists in the ACLU, The National Lawyers Guild, and the Democratic party, God is the enemy.”

As a Libertarian, I’m generally against most of the “Leftist” ideas found in contemporary politics and I still find this childish and offensive. This is yet another example of a prominent pundit reducing politics to a war between “Left” and “Right”, “Conservative” and “Liberal”, Republican and Democrat. It is dogmatic ideologues like this that long ago helped me to realize I needed to leave the Republican Party and support a smaller party that actually supports my beliefs rather than vote for “the lesser” of two evils.

It’s very disturbing that so much of America polarizes around inflammatory pundits like Savage, Gloria Allred, etc. It’s long past time for people to start thinking for themselves and learn to value logic and reason over party loyalty.

To be fair, I’ve read less than 2% of The Enemy Within so far and will need to read a lot more before I can really pass judgment. It HAS to get better, doesn’t it?

BugMeNot.Com: A Web Surfer's Privacy Tool

Thanks to Zendo Deb at TFS Magnum for finding this one:

BugMeNot.com offers a collection of login names and passwords for the many free sites that require users to register in order to access their information and services. Thus, if you want to look at a news story on a members only site, you no longer have to provide personal information about yourself to gain access. Simply install the free extension for Firefox or Internet Explorer. When you visit a site that asks for a login and password, right click in the login form and select "BugMeNot". It will automatically fill in the first login and password it finds in the BugMeNot database so you can enter the site. (If you don't want to use the extension, the BugMeNot.com web site will let you manually search for a login and password for the site you want to access.)

If there is no login and password for your deisred site in the BugMeNot database, it asks you to create one and then share it with the database so that future users won't have to do so. This means that as more people use BugMeNot, the list of sites that it will work with will continue to grow. Currently there are over 55,000 web sites in the BugMeNot database.

Note:
This is a great way to avoid giving out personal information about yourself (or if you are like me, save you the hassle of inventing fake info) and will help prevent you from getting spam from all of those sites that require your email address. It is NOT, however, intended as a way to let people steal fee-base services and the tool is not supposed to work with web sites that charge money.

Alone in the Theater

I just made the shameful mistake of going to see "Alone in the Dark". It quite possibly is the worst written movie I have ever seen, though the special effects and sound track were also trying hard to win their own "Worst Ever" awards.

Whatever you do, don't go see this movie. My friend and I were in the mood for a silly B-rate action flick. What we got was a rancid attempt at an acid metal sound track dubbed over a terrible film. Unfortunately, it wasn't bad in the way that you can laugh through and enjoy. The good guys were a bunch of clowns in nerf body armor who spent most of their time pointing their guns at each other and their own feet while letting poorly done CGI monsters get within touching distance before deciding to shoot at them.

From the title, I expected a "Pitch Black" style of movie, with creepy darkness, dimly viewed creatures and suspense. What I got was a group of idiots who were never alone and were never in the dark. All significant characters were carrying bright Surefire lights (great products in spite of appearing in this film) and were followed around by overzealous lighting crews to make sure we could watch every poorly delivered line, see every fumbling attempt at gun-play and notice every silly scrap of foam armor.

If that weren't bad enough, the film stars Christian Slater, in spite of him not appearing in most of the previews shown on television. If Oedipus had sat through this movie, nobody would have thought him strange for gouging out his own eyes.

Even if you can see it for free, don't bother, as you will only lose 96 minutes of your life. If you go see it, you'll be alone in the theater. I saw it on opening day and there were only eight of us in the large stadium style cinema as apparently everyone else knew just how bad it would be. Out of eight viewers, only five of us managed to endure it all the way to the asinine ending.

Another Ford Bites the Dust

I've always tried to buy American cars, both out of loyalty to American products and because I felt that I could get more features for the cost. After a series of breakdowns and expensive repairs, I decided to give something different a try this time.

Here's a list of the American Made cars I've owned and my experiences with them:

Used Chrysler LeBaron GTS Turbo
Great car when it worked, but required a $1000 turbo charger replacement not long after I bought it. Had a drunk driver not hit it at 50mph, I would have definitely kept it long enough to recover the cost of that expensive and unexpected repair.

Used 1985 Ford Tempo
Would have been a pretty decent car, had I not had to replace the transmission shortly after buying it for about the same price I paid for the car. This was followed by a new starter, two distributors and a new ignition switch. I finally got tired of pushing it off the road and calling for tow trucks and got rid of it. A few days after I traded it in, I found it on the road dead near the dealership I sold it to.

Slightly Used 1993 Ford Thunderbird
The gentle ride, comfortable seats and interior, and numerous features combined with a "Made in America" label led me to try this one. For the most part I was happy with it except for the two dead batteries in as many years, a handful of other minor repairs and the occasional ominous sounds from the transmission that led me to get rid of it.

Used 1997 Ford Explorer XLT
Ok, I should have learned my lesson by now, but the rugged styling, great features, comfortable ride and reasonable price made me give Ford another chance. I bought it used with 45,000 miles. Immediately afterwards, Ford announced a recall on their timing chain tensioners, and fixed mine for free. At 80,000 miles (3 days after my extended warranty expired), the transmission failed. After a few doses of wrath from me and calls to the Ford regional rep, the dealer took 2/3 off the cost of the new transmission. Thinking the worst was over, I continued to drive it. At 96,500 miles and on Christmas night, my family wanted to take a ride around the neighborhood and look at Christmas lights and decorations. While slowly coasting gently down a hill, my timing chain snapped, destroyed my engine and left us with a family ride in a tow truck and a quote for a $5,500 repair (new engine plus labor). When I had it towed to my home, a puddle of transmission fluid began to collect under it.

That was the last straw. I sold it for parts and bought a Honda Pilot. Let's hope it lives up to the Honda reputation for reliability and longevity.

I find it very disturbing that a company like Ford can make such great yet fatally flawed products. Most of the Ford owners I know have at best had a love hate relationship with their vehicles. My parents got tired of pushing their Ford Taurus and sold it. My friend bought a nearly new Mustang, got tired of pushing it and sold it. Another friend bought a brand new Focus and for months after buying it I was as likely to see her driving a loaner car as I was her own car.

Come on, Ford! Fix the bugs and make something that runs so people like me won't have to buy an import in order to get reliable transportation. If I hadn't found a bit of truth in the old adage "fix or repair daily", I probably would have been your customer for life.

Mozilla Firefox

I finally decided to give Mozilla Firefox a try in place of Microsoft Internet Explorer. I wish that I would have done so a long time ago. In addition to better security, a simpler interface and some really nice features, it also makes pages load faster! The link in the above title is to a Washington Post article that lists many reasons why you should consider switching to Mozilla. My top reasons are:

• Faster
• More Secure and Private
  
• Better features (including built in search menu in main browser display, and the ability to control-click on links and have them open in new tabs within the same browser window so you don't need so many windows listed in your task bar)
• Built in pop-up blocking
• It's a way to tweak the nose of Microsoft and their often bloated, poorly supported, bug infested hacker prone software

As you can tell from my support of the Libertarian Party and third parties in general, I'm the kind of person who likes to go with the little guy on the market if they provide a superior product and especially if they make the big players work harder to keep their consumers and constituents. I like AMD CPU's, open source software and now I especially like Mozilla Firefox. Give it a try! A quick free download followed by a painless installation process (it even imports your existing bookmarks, favorites and history) and you should be good to go.

TFS Magnum Blog

I just stumbled across a blog that I thoroughly enjoyed reading and thought I would share it with the world. It features a pro-libertarian, pro-gun, pro-self defense and pro-common sense take on current events and political affairs. Click on the title of this post and give TFS Magnum a try and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did.