Darn Marketing!

I have generally held to a firm belief that you shouldn't buy something you don't need, just because it's on sale. You know, you're out buying a shirt, and there is a sign that says "Buy One Shirt, get another for Half Price!!!" Well, I came in to buy one shirt, and I don't need another shirt...gosh darnit to heck anyhow!!! So I usually ignore the eye-catching marketing.

Today though, I fell victim to some top-notch marketing. I stopped at Subway to pick up a sandwich for lunch. I fully intended to buy a 6 inch, Oven Roasted Chicken Breast on wheat. As I was walking in, I saw the signs for the $5 foot-long subs, and started singing the famous $5 foot-long song in my head. When I got in the store, I saw that the Oven Roasted Chicken Breast was on the $5 foot-long list...this is where I usually wouldn't give in. But, I was hungry and I said to myself..."Self, that's a good deal! Buy a foot-long today, after all, you're very hungry." I only talk to myself in the 2nd person when I'm hungry.

So, I bought the foot-long. When I got back to work, I sat down to eat my sandwich, and thought..."That's a really big sandwich! I can't eat all that." Then I realized that I fell victim to Subway's clever marketing.

Well, I ended up eating the entire sandwich, even though I shouldn't have. I regretted it an hour later when I really felt like I needed a nap. The moral is...don't give in to catchy marketing unless you have time to take a nap!!! Hmmm....really seemed like I was going to have a better moral than that.

Movie Review: Ghost Town

I got "Ghost Town" from Netlix at the request of my wife for our date night. I wasn't sure what I was going to think of it. I generally enjoy the funnier chick flicks, so I had hope.

What I found was "Ghost Town" is very funny, and a pretty good story. The plot centers around Dr. Bertram Pincus (played by Ricky Gervais), a dentist who nearly dies during a routine colonoscopy. This near death gives him the ability to see dead people...think 6th sense, but funny. Pincus is a person who keeps to himself, and generally dislikes other people, so this is not a welcome gift. Things get worse for Dr. Pincus when the ghost of Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear) asks Pincus to break up the pending marriage of his wife Gwen (played by Tia Leoni). Well, Pincus ends up falling in love with Gwen. Along the way, Pincus discovers there is more to care about in life than just himself.

This movie was pretty unique, though somewhat predictable at the end. During the first hour I laughed a lot, probably more than any recent movies. Ricky Gervais is good as a leading man...sort of a British Steve Carell. Which is sort of funny because Gervais played the orignal manager in the British TV Series "The Office", which spawned Carell's U.S. TV Series. Greg Kinnear is good, as always. I don't think I've ever not like Kinnear in a movie. And, Tea Leoni proved that she is a really good comedic actress. Just a really nice mix in the casting.

Both my wife and I liked this movie. Netflix predicted I'd give it 3.6 stars, and that's about right. "Ghost Town" is a very good date night movie.

Firefly - How Could Fox Screw it Up So Badly?

I've dropped back to the 1 disk plan on Netflix, so I have a movie deficit now on the weekends. To overcome this, I've dipped into my personal stash of movies...

watching "Live Free or Die Hard" last weekend, and last night I watched "Serenity".

For those of you that don't know, "Serenity" was the follow on to the Fox TV Series "Firefly", which ran for 14 episodes in 2002. The series starred Nathan Fillion as Captain Malcolm Reynolds. "Firefly" was set 500 years or so in the future. By this time, mankind has colonized much of space, and is ruled by the Alliance. Reynolds and his crew operate a small cargo ship, taking all varieties of jobs, both legal and illegal, to survive. Along the way, they do all kinds of good to help all kinds of people. This unique story produces sort of a Sci Fi, Western style.

The series "Firefly" was so loved by those that actually watched it, that Universal picked up the rights and produced the movie "Serenity" in 2005, starring all of the original cast. "Serenity" is written and executed such that it can stand on its own, and I think it does. However, having seen the series and then the movie, I had developed a much stronger tie to the characters, making "Serenity" an even better as a movie.

Fox really missed the boat with "Firefly". They could have had a hit. I've never seen a series that is so universally loved by everyone who has actually watched it. But Fox gave up on it after only 11 episodes. How did they fail? They put the show on the wrong night, then moved it, then played some episodes out of order. In general, they completely screwed up promotion and execution. Kinda makes you wonder how many other great shows we miss out on because the network screw them up.

I suggest everybody give the movie "Serenity" a shot. If you can, borrow "Firefly" from someone who owns it, watch it first, then "Serenity". I can't guarantee you'll love it, but I'm pretty sure you'll love it.

It's Only Fair

Today, the news and the right wing talk shows were all abuzz about Chicago losing the Olympics to Rio De Janeiro. The drive-by media was spinning like crazy trying to do damage control for President Obama, who failed in his attempt to convince the IOC to bring the games to Chicago. The right wing talk shows were rejoicing at Obama's failure and using this as a foreshadowing of things to come.

While it is difficult for me to avoid piling on in Obama's moment of embarassment, I'm going to pass on that. He's getting enough of that. Instead, I'm going to admonish the liberals who run Chicago and those who support the President for even trying to bring these games to Chicago.

Did these Chicago liberals know that the Olympic Games have never been held in South America? Don't these liberals who run Chicago understand that Chicago is a wealthy city, while Rio is in a developing nation...these games will benefit Rio far more than they will Chicago. So, to be consistent with what they preach, the liberals in Chicago should be happy that the games went to a less fortunate city. After all, they tell us that it's unfair that there are rich and poor people in this country, and they want to take from the rich and use it to benefit the poor. Should this be any different for a rich American city?

It's only fair that the games be taken from the rich American city and be given to the poor Brazilian city. As we all know, the liberal cause is to make the world more fair. I'm just appalled that they didn't realize this earlier and pull Chicago out of the running. Shame on you liberals! Thankfully, fairness won out.

Let's Try Quality Over Quantity

I wonder if President Obama can go one entire day without announcing a new, unnecessary initiative? His track record thus far indicates he can't...kind of hard to believe he's only been President for 9 months!

Today, President Obama decided that our kids need longer school days, and shorter summer vacations. The President says that we need to do this because "...the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom." First off, I didn't think there would be any challenges once Obama was elected. But that's not important now.

This is the type of solution we've come to expect from this President. There doesn't seem to be any real in-depth thinking behind any of Obama's ideas. Everything is either more government spending, more taxes on people making over $250,000, more regulation, and now, longer school days. He's not taking on the institutional problems. I think of it as, America is bleeding profusely, and Obama is attempting to stop the bleeding with a Kleenex.

Now, I'm not a teacher, and I don't even play one on TV, but about 10 minutes of critical thinking poked a ton of holes in this plan.

1. Education is not a federal government responsibility. It's a state responsibility. The federal government shouldn't be involved. The Dept. of Education is, technically speaking, unconstitutional. In fact, every time the Feds meddle in education, it seems to get worse...see No Child Left Behind.
2. A constant complaint I hear from the left is that our schools are failing our children...especially inner city schools. So, spending more time in an institution that is failing our children would help? Perhaps we should look at improving our schools before we make our kids spend more time there.
3. Our teachers are overworked and underpaid, even the liberal ones. A teacher works from 7-4, then maybe coaches or helps with an activity, then goes home and grades papers. Where are they going to find time to teach another hour or 2 each day? Did Obama even ask the Teachers Union about this?
4. Longer days doesn't fix the problem of parent involvement. I think the statistics bear out that kids with involved parents do far better in school than kids who's parents don't take an active role in their schooling. Unfortunately, our welfare society has made it way too easy for one parent to be absent, leading to way too many kids who don't get the help they need from their parents.
5. We need more teachers. Putting 30 kids with 1 teacher is not a recipe for success. We need more teachers with fewer students per teacher. Is putting that same teacher with 30 students for longer going to help? Maybe a little, but if the longer days burn out the teacher and the kids, that's not helping anyone.
6. Our schools are "one size fits all". We need to figure out a way to better tailor our educational programs to a students needs. Perhaps we need to have schools with a more diverse set of programs for our kids that can be tailored to their individual needs and interests.

I'll admit, I'm an outsider. I haven't been in the public schools in a long time, and we homeschool, so we're not there now. But, it seems to me there are many institutional problems with our public school system that need to be solved before we can even begin to think about whether a longer day or less vacation will help.

Jalapeno Cheese Popcorn

Both my boys are selling cub scout popcorn this year, so we have to sell twice as much as past years. To get going on this, we went out to sell Saturday morning, and were out for close to 3 hours. To reward the boys we bought a tin of Mud Puddles (chocolate covered popcorn...very good) and a tin of Jalapeno Cheese Popcorn. David really wanted to try the Jalapeno Cheese...the rest of us were skeptical.

But, we let him try it...and he liked it. Then, my wife and I both decided to try it...and it is unbelievably good. It is probably the most delicious popcorn I have ever eaten. The Jalapeno is not overwhelming, but there is a bite, and it is very cheesy. So cheesy in fact, that if you eat enough of it, your fingers start to turn a little yellow. You can guess how I found this out.

So, if a cub scout stops by your house to sell popcorn, I recommend the Jalapeno Cheese.

TV Series Review: Warehouse 13, Season 1

The SyFy channel has hit on a winner with "Warehouse 13", at least through 1 season. I thought NBC's "Heroes" was a winner after one season too, so future seasons will tell.

"Warehouse 13" follows Secret Service Agents Pete Lattimer (played by Eddie McClintock) and Myka Bering (played by Joane Kelly) as they begin their new job working for a government storage facility called Warehouse 13. But, Warehouse 13 isn't just any old warehouse...it's where the government stores objects with inherent magical powers, such as Edgar Allen Poe's pen, which grants the user the ability to make anything they write come to life. The job of Agents Lattimer and Bering is to collect these artifacts, and store them safely away from the general public. The job allows them to use some of the more interesting artifacts, such as the Tesla, which is a gun that renders its victim immobile and wipes their memory...for about 3 minutes. They are lead in this effort by Artie (played by Saul Rubinek), the agent in charge of Warehouse 13. As the season moves on, the agents encounter more dangerous artifacts, and more dangerous villains.

I think people who typically like SyFy originals will like this show. McClintock and Kelly play off each other very well, and end up making a good team. The supporting characters are all unique and add to the show rather than detract from it. The effects are low budget, but that's what we expect from a SyFy original. Also, it's not a huge time committment, as the season is very short...maybe 13 episodes. I know I really enjoyed the season and look forward to season 2. I'm trying to be more stingy with my 5 star ratings, but this show was close. In the end I gave it 4 stars, though it may be 4.49ish.