Movie Review: Brave

Another Pixar winner.

The animation was on par w/ their previous ones. The characters were definitely animated but the scenery was almost indistinguishable from real life.  The 3D effects gave me a few instances of vertigo.

Story:  Started out fairly cookie cutter. Princess who doesn't fit the mold and takes steps.  Finds a witch to cast a spell.  You know the drill.

Then it takes a turn for the surreal w/ the usual Pixar bizarre humor thrown in to the mix. Some definite darker characters than in previous films.

I took all three of the powers and they sat enraptured during the entire film, including 5thpower who is 4 1/2.

Definitely worth a theater visit and will be rented to catch whatever I missed the first time through. 

Evening Snack

I've been trying to eat healthier.  Trying. So instead of my evening TV snack of a stack of cookies or a bowl of chips, this is what I'm doing:

 Some sliced, garden fresh carrots and cucumbers, bread & butter stacker pickle slices, a slice or two of pepperjack cheese and a little bacon ranch dressing w/ a glass of ice tea.

Attention to details

Some of you know where I work and we are going through yet another “workforce reduction” followed by the infamous woofer program. I know you don’t know what woofer is, but we all do. It sucks. We’re losing a lot of good people who are being lured by a right nice early retirement bonus. Those that will be left will have to pick up the pieces and fill all the gaps created.

So just as we gun fetishist loon cakes like to prepare for the worst in the ultimate sense, we also tend to look for “Plan B’s” in life in general.

What if I lose my job?

So I’m cruising the Brady Bunch site and ogling their “job opportunities,” making a short list based on the qualifications criteria. Here are direct quotes followed by my commentary.

Qualifications

 1. Well organized with good attention to details
2. Excellent interpersonal and communication (both verbal and written) skills
3. A strong team orientation
4. High level of initiative

Hmmm…I notice that there should be a full colon after the word “Qualifications,”  each numbered item is an incomplete sentence with no punctuation and that #1 is indented past #’s 2, 3 & 4. Attention to details ya know.

Qualifications:
A law degree from an accredited law school. (Law students who have not yet graduated will be considered for internship positions.) The ideal candidate will have a creative and able legal mind, persuasive and clear writing skills, and an interest in preventing deaths and injuries caused by guns. Fellows should work well with others, be self-motivated, focused, and bring a pleasant attitude to the office.

Here we see the full colon where it’s not needed as the text which follows is not a simple list.

Qualifications 


1) Ability to write clearly, concisely and creatively. 
2) Excellent interpersonal and communication (both verbal and written) skills. 
3) A strong team orientation. 
4) High level of initiative.

Now we see “Qualifications” not in bold, the full colon absent and the periods which were previously following the numbers moved to the end of an incomplete sentence while being replaced by a bracket.

Last but not least…

Interns should have the ability to:


1) Conceptualize, shoot, and edit digital videos quickly, sometimes on a daily basis 
2) Translate concepts, statistics, and written materials into visual presentations 
3) Excellent interpersonal and communication (both verbal and written) skills
4) A strong team orientation
5) High level of initiative.

The word “Qualifications” has been replaced entirely, the third comma used should actually be a semi colon, and the brackets all survive yet only #5 ends in a period.

Am I nitpicking? Yes. But I believe it’s indicative of the Brady Bunch as a whole.

Do they have multiple unpaid interns crafting the Help Wanted section for other unpaid jobs or is just one doofus crafting the Help Wanted section who doesn’t even meet the qualifications criteria?

My next post will be my resume submission to the Brady Campaign.

The CSGV Protest That Wasn't: Redux

Sitting on my throne, I was browsing through the June '12 copy of NRA's 1st Freedom magazine and saw this in the Letter from the Editor column:

"While taking a break in the pressroom during the recent NRA AM in St louis, I overheard some members of the press lamenting the fact that they couldn't find a good protest to cover.

One mentioned he had walked several blocks attempting to find a planned protest but never found it. Another mentioned that she too had walked all the way around outside the convention center in hopes of running across protesters, but she too, had come up empty handed"

Well that sounded awfully familiar.  Why? Because that was me and Bitter talking about the failed CSGV protest that afternoon.
(flashback)
After having listened to politicians and reading venomous tweets all Friday afternoon, it was w/ great joy that I saw the tweet from the CSGV touting their 'protest' the next afternoon at 1pm in front of the convention hall. After a morning on the floor, I was giddy w/ anticipation at finally meeting my buddy Ladd Everitt.

So myself, Sebastian, Bitter, Lawdog, several other bloggers and a few MSM types were dutifully waiting outside at the appointed hour.

And we waited.  And waited.

Nothing. Zip. Nada.

We circled the building (that would be the 'she' noted above) just to see if we missed something then went back inside. Sebastian called me w/ a report that the protesters were going to meet near the arch and march to the convention.  Time for a walk. This was about 1:30pm. So I hiked down Washington and up 4th street all the way to the arch, passing the infamous Dred Scott courthouse.  (where the protest had apparently fizzled in the rain before I got there)

Nothing. Zip. Nada.

Back to the convention hall where I met up w/ the bloggers and told them the non-story w/ a nice cold soda after hiking several miles in the sun and humidity that came out after the rain.
(back on the throne)
Then I started reading the rest of the article :

They looked demoralized. Their quest for the Holy Grail of the NRA meeting - rabid anti-gunners vehemently protesting the gun lobby- had ended in failure. 
Their conversation conveyed what the bulk of the mainstream media sees as "news' at any NRA function.  They look for controversy. They look for someone to say how out of touch the NRA is.  They seek those who will put the worst spin possible on our organization, all in the name of so-called "News".
During the two hours they had spent lugging cameras around looking for protesters, I had found out the true story of the NRA AM......"

Well now. Isn't that special.  I'm an Endowment Member of the NRA, Life member of the SAF, Annual member and Web team member of the ISRA and annual member of GSL.  Sebastian and Bitter are Patron/Life members respectively and both NRA EVC's.  We weren't 'demoralized' but instead disappointed that we didn't get to do a little 'active activism' by outnumbering the Anti's at their own protest and getting a few choice quotes for blog fodder. Running around in the rain then heat and humidity didn't help either.

There were more pro-gun bloggers in attendance than there were MSM's which are generally regarded as a joke anymore. While I may have been sitting in the pressroom talking about 'reasonable gun laws', it was w/ a heavy dose of sarcasm and I spent days lugging around my camera and laptop showing the 'True Story' of the AM, just as I've done previously , at numerous IGOLD's and a GRPC..

"I" am the modern Main Stream Media and a gun owner/activist.

Bitter's take is here. 

No Jackson/Sharpton in Sight

Seven year old girl and her mother, running a sno-cone stand, are shot by a couple of gang bangers in Chicago. I'm guessing the intended target was this:

 A 19-year-old man was also shot in the ankle during the incident and police say he was gang-affiliated, according to the Tribune.

 And where are the 'Reverend's" Jackson and Sharpton demanding answers?  Nowhere to be found. 

Da Mayor? Spending millions paying off lawsuits keeping lawful people disarmed and buying off criminals (yeah right, that'll work).

All of this, according to anti-gun pundits, is due to rednecks from S. Illinois driving through the neighborhoods in pickup truck flying the Southern Cross and honking Dixie while handing out guns to schoolchildren. 

Do we see any logic problems here?

Don't Worry; Be Happy

Obamacare taxation?

Collapsing Economy?

Sky high unemployment w/ no relief in sight?

Not worried.  I'm just going to take advantage of all the 'benefits' they force me to have while preparing for the worst and playing the system. Outside of that, I avoid the system as much as possible.  I have my own water supply, food supply, heat sources and plenty of ammo.  The 'Grey Market' is my friend and I know how to haggle/swap for supplies.

Turn on, tune in and take over. 

kaveman 2.0

Hmmm, how to begin, again. First of all thanks to Thirdpower for extending the invitation to come back as a co-blogger on DOOT. The circumstances of my departure were not ideal. I don’t want to dwell on it, but it’s something that needs to be said.

I made several extremely crude and offensive comments(even by my standards) towards Ladd Everitt on another forum, I honestly can’t remember which one and I received a very well deserved thrashing by some people I have never met but respect a great deal nonetheless. I was given the opportunity to apologize on DOOT and several other blogs and I thought about it for a while but just could not bring myself to do it.

I was done.

I quit reading the gun blogs, I quit reading the anti blogs and I quit thinking about the issue almost entirely…almost.

I’m not going to offer excuses, I’m not going to try to justify my words because after all is said and done, I sank to a level I normally and routinely criticize.

For what it’s worth, I apologize to Ladd Everitt and his ancestry.

I need to go back to my old style of telling stories; using satire and humor rather than ad hom attacks…and that’s what I intend to do.

Test

Looks like I might be back in the business of posting as a co-blogger here at DOOT. Trying to play with the new format and see how it works.

P.S. I love guns.

-kaveman

Illinois Politics in Action

MURPHYSBORO, Ill. (WLS) - A Democrat-controlled election board in a southern Illinois county has kicked four Republican candidates off the November ballot for using paper clips instead of staples on their filings.

Does anything else really need to be said on the state of our Republic? 

Sheriff Arpaio Threatens Sarah Palin and Child w/ Gun

It's pointing directly at them. Obviously an insurrectionist threat.

 For the joke, see here.

Courts to Chicago/Oak Park: Pay Up

From the NRA-ILA:

 Fairfax, Va. –  The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division has conclusively held that the National Rifle Association has the right to recover attorneys’ fees in the case of National Rifle Association v. City of Chicago and National Rifle Association v. Village of Oak Park, in which the NRA was a prevailing party. This District Court's decision, which held that the NRA is entitled to over $1.3 million in fees, follows a similar ruling by the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

 And this is where Chicago and Oak Park's tax dollars are going after defending their civil rights violations.  They will continue to waste money by keeping the laws as strict as they 'think' they can get away with. 

And they'll continue to be wrong.

Role Model Meme's and TSA 'Humor'

Which fictional characters would you prefer your kids emulate? Yes, they are ALL fictional. The top ones are characters created to sell crappy movies and music.

And w/ the high levels of competence shown by the TSA, this will soon be mandatory reading in grade-schools.