Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood at the 2009 CMA's

Unemployment hits 10.2%

Just saw this on the news, and didn’t believe it.  I went to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website, and pulled up this:

Here’s a brilliant illustration of this (from June 2009):

I bought a new convertible notebook

I've been testing Windows 7 for a few months, but I installed it on an old machine, and that version is set to expire soon. I know I've got to get a lot more comfortable with Windows 7, and I don't want to mess with my primary work machine, which is Vista x64. I've also been eager to buy a convertible notebook. It's not that I really need another one - I already have several, but I guess call it a case of "gadget lust." So, to kill two birds with one stone, I went out and bought a new HP TouchSmart tx2-1375dx. It's got Windows 7 Professional x64, 4GB RAM, a 320GB Hard Disk, and a 2.2GHZ AMD Turion X2 with virtualization support. So far, I love it. Gadget porn to follow:

 

By the way, I posted this using Windows Live Writer.  Kinda cool.  It seems great for posting with greater control over the layout and content.

24: Day 8 Teaser Trailer

I love this show, but the new teaser for Season 8 is making me think they've kinda "jumped the shark"...

Obama money...

The video below has nothing to do with Rush Limbaugh, it’s just that he re-played the audio from a radio “man on the street” report on his show.  It needs no explanation.

Of course, this reminds me of this...

Where The Wild Things Are

When I heard it was in production over a year ago, I got excited about this movie, waiting for it to come out, watching all the trailers, etc. I even bought the book I remembered from childhood, since the copy from back then is not around.

I didn't remember how short the book is - it's actually only around 10 sentences total. When my new copy of the book arrived, I wondered how Spike Jonze would "stretch" this very short story to a feature-length film.

Obviously, liberties were taken with the story - like the fact that in the movie, Max's adventure doesn't occur within the physical confines of his room (and imagination). Additionally, the "wild things" Max conjures up are given names and personalities - sometimes confusingly. Most notable with regard to that confusion is the "Carol" character - a typically female name, but the character was voiced brilliantly by James Gandolfini, and after a few minutes I didn't care about the gender/name conflict. Jim Henson Productions (of Muppets parentage) created "monsters" that were emotive, lifelike and surprisingly relateable. Many of the emotions Carol expresses (sometimes destructively) are clearly those felt by Max himself. By putting them upon Carol, it gave him an outlet to consider and deal with them.

I've read some negative reviews online, and many of them freely admit that they hadn't even looked at the book upon which the film is based. Others brought their children, sometimes very young children. This is not a film for children - especially younger than 10 years old or so. Some sequences may be frightening for younger viewers, and the pace is likely to test their attention span. Also, the allegory will be lost on of most children.

This film centers around (and is based upon) the vivid imagination of a boy (perhaps 8 or so) with some emotional issues, an absentee father, and other feelings that he expresses by "acting out" - tormenting the family dog, yelling at (and biting - !) his mother, etc. From that perspective, the film was a beautiful and compelling fairytale that expands upon the universe Sendak created 26 years ago. The visuals are unique and refreshing, and the soundtrack almost sounds like it was created and performed by a child - with pitch-perfect results. This is a film that needs to be seen in a theater or Blu-Ray for its full effect to be properly appreciated.

Old Student Video

I did a video for a class (Video Production) in 1990. I've had the master tape sitting in a box for years, and finally decided to digitize it. Here it is...

(there's about 15seconds of black at the beginning...)

Buster Hymen from badtzmartin on Vimeo.

Saw this at the grocery store

Saw this magazine at the checkout line. It's hard to see, even if you click to see it larger. The pink burst at upper-right says "Bad Girl Issue - for sexy bitches only"



I don't think they should print "bitches" on the cover (not Kim, the pink burst at right), since many moms bring their kids with them shopping.

-- Post From My iPhone

Horn broken, watch for finger

My horn died. :(

Of course, the dealer doesn't have the replacement part in stock, so I'll have to come back later in the week.

Looking at that bumper makes me sad...


-- Post From My iPhone

SNL on Obama

Hollywood Supporting a Pedophile?

It looks like hundreds of "big names" in Hollywood have signed a petition in support of Roman Polanski, who pled guilty to drugging and sodomizing a 13-year old girl in 1977. He was 44-years old at that time.

Some of the people who've signed it:
- Martin Scorsese
- Woody Allen (no surprise there)
- Monica Bellucci
- Pedro Almodovar
- Tilda Swinton
- David Lynch
- Terry Gilliam
- Fanny Ardant
- John Landis
- Mike Nichols
- Salman Rushdie
- Steven Soderbergh
- Diane von Furstenberg
- and what appears to be the majority of the entertainment industry in France.

View the entire list here:
http://www.sacd.fr/Tous-les-signataires-de-la-petition-All-signing-parties.1341.0.html

In case 32 years have made the facts fade in their memory, maybe they should read these excerpted transcripts from the grand jury testimony:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gg5_is0FiV6_hzuCv8BEeqLek4YwD9B21HU00

TheSmokingGun.com has posted more of the transcript here:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html

It's amazing how they're acting as if he's just a poor misunderstood victim who deserves their support. He pled guilty. He expected to get probation, but when he learned the judge was likely to "throw the book at him", he fled from justice.

For over 30 years, he's avoided prison. Most people wouldn't be able to do that. His wealth and lack of morals protected him from the fate he earned. The people who've signed this petition should be ashamed.

Toshiba Notebooks

When clients ask me what brands they should consider, I often specifically say that I've had problems with the quality of Toshiba notebooks in recent years.

I'm currently restoring a client's Toshiba notebook, and got a great working example of such a problem. I put the factory-supplied Recovery Disc into the machine, and began the process, only to be greeted with a message that this was the "Wrong Machine!" O RLY?

It turns out that many Toshiba notebooks suffer from this specific issue, so much that Toshiba's support site has a "fix" for the issue, but it apparently took them several years to put it up. And to make matters worse:
- There's different fixes depending on the model
- It involves making either a bootable floppy (?) or CD - not very user-friendly.
- It involves booting the machine from that bootable floppy/cd

I'm just wondering how they screwed this up across so many different models.

To wit: http://www.google.com/search?q=toshiba+%22wrong+machine%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

ACORN

Just listened to Glenn Beck in the car. He was going through yet another hidden camera exposé on ACORN. Why is NO ONE ELSE reporting on this?


-- Post From My iPhone

Kanye West is a Douchebag

I didn't watch this year's MTV Video Music Awards, but I became aware of a controversy stemming from Kanye West ripping the mic out of Taylor Swift's hand as she tried to give an acceptance speech. Viacom removed all of the videos of it from YouTube, but here's the clip on MTV's site:

http://www.mtv.com/global/music/videos/popout/?id=1620605&vid=435995


For someone as successful as he is, he sure seems to have a victim mentality. The truth is, if Taylor Swift was white, he wouldn't have done it. He's a racist douche who needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.

Lunchbox Laboratory

I had read about a place called "Lunchbox Laboratory" in Seattle, WA. I saw pictures of their "dork" (duck & pork) burger, and their "super beef" burgers, loaded with real cheese, thick smoked bacon and plenty of greasy goodness. I knew I had to try their work. I was already planning to visit Bellevue, WA, and decided my trip must inclide a visit to Lunchbox Laboratory.

Below is a record of what was consumed.

Above is the "Homage to Dick's". Apparently Dick's is a local burger joint that sells tasty but crappy burgers. This was clearly tasty but nowhere near crappy. On the side are some lovely tater tots.

Here's the "Dork" (duck & pork) burger, onion fries on the side:


The place is very tiny, barely enough room for 15-20 people to eat at any given time. Below is a short clip showing the entire extent of the "dining room", which includes the line to order food.



The prices weren't cheap - about $60 for three burgers, fries and sodas. Once I ate there, the price could've been double. I wouldn't have cared - it's that good. Overall, I knew this would be an exercise in excess. I was correct. I'm still recovering. I regret nothing.

WinAntivirus - Mac users falling for it?

I received two calls today from clients who "fell for" a "winantivirus" popup, AKA smitfraud. For those who don't know, that's a scam popup that often results in a "drive-by download" - a virus that installs itself on your machine without you clicking anything.

It varies all the time but may look something like this:



It alerts you to several viruses that it says are currently on your machine, then directs you to download their antivirus software that will fix everything. Of course, it doesn't fix anything, and in many cases it is the thing that is infecting your computer. It is sometimes very hard to remove.

I get calls about such scams almost every day, but what makes today interesting is that these aren't Windows users. It's two clients who switched to Mac over two years ago.

Thankfully, these types of scam software doesn't even work on Macs. But the website that the popup directs you to asks for credit card and other personal information as they process your "order" for this crap. That, of course means they're stealing your money and likely worse.

Windows 7

I just put Windows 7 Ultimate RTM on a pretty modest test machine (P4HT, 512MB RAM, Intel Graphics).

Despite the fact that it's a low-end machine, I'm very impressed.

Many of the things that were quirky about the UI (user interface) on Vista are much better. Overall, the interface seems smarter, and more user-friendly. A frequent complaint about Vista is the UAC (User Account Control) pop-ups. With Vista, even when a user is simply changing their desktop background, they're asked to authenticate/approve the change. Many UAC pop-ups require two separate approval clicks. Windows 7 gets a big plus in the user-friendliness department - UAC pop-ups are very infrequent. In fact, I haven't seen any since installing it.

One thing I hate about Vista is the Sidebar. Without exception, I turn it off immediately when setting up a client machine. When clients have it already enabled, I often simply ask them if they care about the "clock, calendar, and sample photos" that the default "sidebar" includes. 98 times out of 100 they don't, and I kill the whole thing. One less thing running can't hurt performance. I like the idea of Gadgets, but hate the fact that Vista sticks them in a window that interferes with other things. In Windows 7, the gadgets are independent - little "windows" on their own, without actual windows of course.

There are some things I'm "on the fence" about, however. A feature of Vista that I think is great is the Windows Photo Gallery. I think it gave Windows users a near equivalent to the Mac iPhoto application. Unfortunately, it's gone by default in Windows 7, but Microsoft offers "Windows Live Photo Gallery" as a replacement. It requires you to have a Windows Live (or MSN/Hotmail) account, and also requires that you login to the service to use it. I don't see the customer benefit of this change, since the program seems to work very similarly to the Vista program. If Microsoft wants to integrate Windows Live features into it, I wish they had made it an optional setting so that the user could simply use it on their local machine.

Despite my minor misgivings, seeing how well it's running on this old-ish POS, I'm likely going to put the retail Windows 7 upgrade package on at least one of my own machines.

Wonder if Pelosi will acknowledge this?

You know how the liberals in Congress have been dismissing the protests at recent Healthcare "Town Hall" meetings, calling them "astroturf"? She (and others) figured that by de-legitimizing them as "professionally organized" she'd be able to get people to ignore them.

The reality is that ACORN and other organizations that have the President in their pocket are doing this themselves. Watch this:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations Sells Off Most of its Healthcare Holdings

I wonder why? Would it be because of what ObamaCare will bring?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125029373754433433.html

Idiot Sighting

This dummy knew she pulled up with the gas door on the wrong side. She got out, opened the filler door, then entered her card, and only then figured out that the hose wouldn't reach.


-- Post From My iPhone