Top 9 Stand-Up-And-Applaud Movie Scenes
Posted by Rey
There are times in a movie theater, or on a dvd, that I’ll actually applaud; be it with the characters on screen, with the people next to me, or just for my own one man audience. Scenes that are so good that not only are they eternally etched in my mind—I will (well, except for one) still stick around just to see that scene whenever it’s on. Here are my Top 10 bloody awesome and crazy memorable actiony movie scenes in no particular order.
Article Tags>> jurassic park | matrix | movies | saving private ryan | serenity | star wars | yodaFall 2009 TV Season
Posted by Rey
In this post I refer to the television season as an actual season of the year. So the Fall Season is one season and the spring season is a second season, even if television (20-26 episodes = 1 season) doesn’t work like that. I use this vernacular because sometimes shows don’t come back after January and it works in my head.
Article Tags>> cougar town | flash forward | stargate universeRacism, Bloggers and Being Black
Posted by Rey
On Facebook, I’ve seen some Pennsylvania friends calling for the (I think wrongful) boycott of a local businessman on account of his perceived racism with a link to a blog post on Obama’s inauguration as proof. I followed the link and didn’t think it was racist (though one phrase could have been de-contextualized as such) but I’ll get to that after my disclaimer (in case I get a bunch of people calling me racist). I’m a dark-skinned US Born Dominican. If I’m allowed to comment on race now, I’ll proceed.
My Take On the Health Reform Bill
Posted by Rey
I spent a week reading through the massive (1017 pages-pdf warning) Health Reform Bill, HR3200, and I’ve noted areas of personal interest. This post will not be exhaustive (sorry; that would be impossible), but it will list (1) things that I thought the Bill did a good job with, (2) areas of personal concern and (3) areas that I don’t know what to make of. Before closing the post, I’d also like to (4) address areas where people have been flipping out followed by (5) some personal general concerns and hopes looking forward.
Article Tags>> bill | euthanasia | health reform10 Reasons Why We Home School
Posted by Rey
Upon revealing that my wife and I home school our children, we find ourselves in heavy crossfire with an emphasis on us doing wrong by our kids. It’s interesting that the harshest attacks come from (1) single people, (2) childless people, (3) old people who grew up during an age where schools were still good, or (4) people who sent their kids to private school (be it Christian or a Yeshiva). I’ve also entertained some minor attacks from public school teachers, mostly in regard to my pride: how dare I think I can do their professionally trained job (that’s another topic though).
So I decided to do a list of ten reasons why we home school. You’ll notice certain things about this list compared to my other two lists. The five stupid reasons to opt out of home schooling dealt with the storm of stupid attacks I’ve had to weather; the five wrongheaded reasons to home school dealt with what I’ve heard some people say to justify their homeschooling: but these ten reasons are totally personal. They’re Our reasons for home schooling Our children in light of Our situation. Here’s the list:
Article Tags>> kids | school | teachingApple WWDC 2009
Posted by Rey
No, I’m not there but I’m following the live feed on The Apple Blog and Gizmodo:
- 15″ Macbook Pro, 7 hour battery life with an SD card slot ($1699).
- 13″ MacBook now MacBookPro, with unibody, SD Card, 8GB of memory, up to 500GB or 256GB SSD drive with backlet keyboard and FW800. $1199
- Uber model 17″ with 500GB HD, at $2499. Yup, still can’t buy a Macbook Pro.
- New Safari does purdee things that are meh. Plugin crash that stops the plugin, not the browser.
- Quicktime X rebuilt from the ground up. Big woop.
- Snow Leopard (Leopard users: $29 single/$49 Family) running all major OSX apps in 64 bit coming out December (Windows 7 should be out October, in case you’re wondering).
- Ms Exchange Support built into Mail, iCal and Address book. This was a Duh, no brainer. Should’ve had that long ago.
- iPhone OS 3.0: 100 new features. cut/copy/paste across aps. Shake phone for undo. Landscape keyboard. MMS available but AT&T MMS later this summer (HA!) HTTP Streaming AV. Javascript performance boost. HTML 5. Form auto-fill.
- iTunes rentals available for iPhone.
- iPhone Tethering now available over USB or Bluetooth. AT&T doesn’t support it at launch (HA!)
- Find My iPhone (new feature): your iPhone floats from the ether, or at least tells MobileMe ($99 per year) where it is. Your family and friends can also track you down with it. (SkyNet coming soon)
- A bunch of boring iPhone Ap stuff. Some random announcment of 16gb 3GS iPhone ($199) and 32GB iphone 3GS ($299) and the base 3G model remaining at $99.
- No Camera on the front of the iPhone. bah.
All in all, no big woop. Maybe some ups for OS3.0 but, with a jailbroken iTouch I’m not overly hyped.
Article Tags>> apple | keynoteSusan Boyle and Perceptions
Posted by Rey
By now, just about everyone in the E-World has seen the video of Susan Boyle performing on Britain Has Talent but I thought it was necessary to put in an observation that someone close to me, who wishes to remain anonymous, noted.
Article Tags>> battle | singing | susan boyleKeepin’ It Real
Posted by Rey
Reality Filming has a long, sordid history and in recent years it has both blessed and threatened the television and movie industry. Reality TV, for example—and with no judgment on my part—has given us American Idol, Survivor, Jerry Springer, Cops and PBS’s Manor House. Some of these shows have managed to dethrone traditional television dramas like Firefly (and possibly even the recent Dollhouse, or so the Rumors whisper). Film wise, reality has given us quite a number of stories but in recent years they have started following the fame of Reality Television with the likes of Borat which might be funny in the short term but there’s no real substance to them; they’re really just a recording of how people react in certain situations.
Article Tags>> cloverfield | movies | quarantine | reality tvOats, How I Hate Thee: Facts and Failures
Posted by Rey
I’ve still been doing this thing; I’m trying to persevere. As I have done so there have been some days that I fell into a rut with something that I found bearable and other days that I summoned something Awful onto my breakfast table. Here’s a basic overview.
Article Tags>> oats | recipeHappy Birthday To Me
Posted by Rey
I abhor self-aggrandizing posts that applaud oneself for having survived another year, but I really haven’t gotten a chance to do one yet. So to make my hatred complete, I figure I should post this on my birthday.
That’s right; I’m thirty-five years old today.
Article Tags>> birthday