Destroyed Bass Bridge

Yep, I was putting on new strings on my headless "KTone" 4-String bass and the tightening mechanism's metal holding "claw" that cradles the bass string ball snapped. Headless bass parts are odd to find. Seems I can't find anywhere to replace the single holding claw-piece. Yep. I need an entire new bridge. After shipping, $64. Blah.  Especially for a bass that cost me $90.  Made in China.  Well, at least the new replacement bridge is quality.  Still, I put a bid in for a Queensryche-shaped bass who's parts are swapable with my boat-oar.

SuckerPunch

Really not a bad movie.  There's a lot of things going on, and it's easy to get swept away with the visuals, but here's the deal:
It's 'bout a girl who copes.  The cabaret she exists in is how she copes within her mind of her surroundings.  The giga-gantic dragons, steampunk-undead Nazis, Saturn's Titan train sequence, etc. is the empowerment she imagines and derives from her dance skill (which we don't really get to see).   So what happens is it's a dream within a dream.  She copes into the cabaret, and imagines her men-control visually through the dance.  Nice.  Good remixes, albeit Queen got stiffed a bit (why rappers want to interject into Queen is beyond me).  White Rabbit was particularly interesting.  I give you the 6 minute beginning of the film.




The intro of the movie is a silent film overlapped with Sweet Dreams which was brilliantly done and tense, but we see these ridiculous scenes of chaingun ronin throwing her about in her dance imaginations, and it's just video-game-y, as she'd easily be broken in twain.  Once you realize it's her way of taking control of others' psyches by way of dance per her perspective, one can settle down with it and accept it.  Maybe too cerebral for most, but then again, so is Wizard of Oz which is the exact same movie.  Dorothy never went to Oz, friends.  Coping.

SuckerPunch:
Zombies: B
Comic Book Fans: C
Everyone Else: D
Me: A-
I recommend this movie for brainiacs.

Satellite crash

Oh, that satellite everyone's been talking about?  Crashed in the semi-north Pacific just NW of Hawaii.  Just so that you know.  In pieces.  New fish habitat, as predicted.

GM antics

Got to Daniel's Chevrolet to have our 2008 Saturn Aura XR's passenger door lock motor analyzed and/or replaced.  It's nicely under warranty so it's really no big deal.  Upon arrival this morning at 6:45 am the patron that had me drive into the bay took the Aura's vitals and had me leave the keys in the dash-mounted ignition.  I mentioned it was my first time here and if there was a waiting room of sorts.  He said, "Well, we don't have a lounge so we usually have people wait out in the middle of the street." completely dead-pan.  Luckily, I have an infinite sense of humor (except for satire, such as Tropic Thunder.  I just don't get that movie, or Married with Children or any of the Vacation movies.)  I found it quite amusing and he directed me to the lobby.  I wonder what one would have done who wasn't so light hearted as myself?  (preening self in self-admiration).  Preen-preen...  .. preen.
 

Contagion Review

Saw Contagion today.  Good analog John Carpenter keyboards halfway through.  Nice touch.  Kind of peters out at the end though, still, surprisingly good in this wasteland of bad films.  Worth a watch, particularly the first 15 minutes is excellent.  Casey Anthony was in the audience from Stetson Hills.  Interestingly, there were a few folks coughing during the showing.  Made me and Becky cover our faces, laughing.

Contagion
Zombies: C
Comic book fans: C
Everyone else: B

White Christmas

So the movie White Christmas staring Bing Crosby with Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen with Rosemary Clooney is a classic.  Great talent, all, truly.  I just don't understand the love for this General fellow.  He's never sold to me.  Reluctant and incidental at best, yet the whole premise of the movie is to help the rather rich fellow out.  He's doing fairly well in Vermont as a hotel owner, but a lack of snow early in the season doesn't make me feel bad for the guy, nor his previous stint as a war-monger.  Now generally (pun, I guess) I have a distrust for authoritative figures.  Most authoritative folks aren't better than me and less talented at leadership than the people they lead.  I find them blundering overpaid and confused.  This is not always the case.  Sometimes you get lucky with a good boss who's good at personnel maintenance and that's a good thing.  Malcom Reynolds was pretty good at it in Firefly, and arguably Picard from Star Trek Next Generation was decent at it enough.  In my careers, there were some good leaders too, even currently.  The General in White Christmas isn't sold to me though, despite the soldier's endearment of him by song, which I find unlikely.  This makes the whole movie seem like a waste of time.. but it is good fun and good talent, and if it's just for that then, well, I like it.  Definitely worth a watch.

White Christmas 1954:
Zombies: C
Comic book fans: C
Everyone else: A

Casey Anthony case comes to a controversial close

From Amazon news:

The Casey Anthony trial that took the nation by storm has left us in the wake of one of the most surprising acquittals in memory.
   Casey Anthony went on trial to face conviction of the murder of her daughter Caylee, who mysteriously went missing for a month before calling authorities. Even at that point, she didn’t report her dead; she reported her missing. She also went on trial for giving false information to authorities and child abuse. She eventually was acquitted of the abuse and murder charges, but was found guilty for the false information.
   The mysterious events surrounding the case drew America in, especially citizens with children themselves.
    “It was incredibly personal, especially to parents,” said psychology teacher Charles Roeder. “You just imagine that happening to your own child.”
   Eventually Anthony was acquitted and released less then two weeks later. Since then she has been living in an undisclosed location in Colorado Springs, away from the public eye. Many fear an act of revenge will be brought upon her to get back at her for what many people believe she did, but sociology teacher Jason Erb disagreed.
   “It wouldn’t surprise me [if someone tried to hurt her], but I don’t think it’s a major concern… Most people won’t try to right a wrong with another wrong.”
   Regardless of what happens, some people believe she received a different type of punishment.
   “She will have to live with what she did for the rest of her life,” said senior Kyle Ellerman.
   Roeder seconds that thought, saying, “She may be able to live a normal personal life, but in the community, she’s infamous. Maybe that’s her justice, maybe that’s her punishment.”
   Regardless of people’s opinions, the case has been closed, and Casey Anthony, in the eyes of the law, was declared innocent. While many people disagree and believe she is responsible for Caylee’s death, the jury’s decision is final, proving she really did indeed love to party, bringing the case to a close, however controversial it may have been.  

Blogs not popular?

With FB and Twitter's "Diet Soul" version of comments and statements, the soliliqy of writing has vanished, albiet temporarily from the internetsees.  I refsue to let it go, like the 80s or rock music, it will endure and survive.

I can only assume that "reading" is far too complicated for the iPhone retard-eration, (ie. Lookie!  I can be an astronomer because I hold my phone up to sky!  Lookie!  I have low-qual music, all 30,000 songs, devaluing all music all together because I have so much of it I don't value or care about musicmanship anymore!  Yay!  Vocoder!)

Therefore, the only people reading this are high intellectuals and the morbidly curious (usually synonymous).  Therefore, I will re-adjust my blogs to include more obscure and interesting topics (to me anyway) instead of my previous FB winings and shock-donations.

Enjoy this video by Jethro Tull then...

Donations succeeding!

Thanks to huge contributions from everyone, Casey Anthony is finally back on her feet and partying like she never partied before.  She sent some wonderful photos of herself at a recent party in Stetson Hills area of Colorado Springs where she was relocated.  Thanks to your contributions, she was able to get herself a brand new Cadillac Escalade 2012 model!  Thanks everyone but it still not too late to donate even more money.  Please donate!

Here's a special message from Casey,
"Thanks everybody!  Woo hoo!  I'm just lovin' Colorado Springs!  It's a partay citay!  Yeeeehaw!  Gettin' down with my homies biatches!"

Website updates and Queensryche cookies

A few minor updates on my website to include a donation link for those who want to give a penny or two via PayPal (since the entire planet uses this simple and safe web-pay option anyway, except Dave Drasheff who mistrusts it and lives in 1997, aka NOW, though he gladly gives all of his goings-on on FB which is owned by Russians.. wait.. Drasheff is a Russian name.. hmmmm...)

I don't use FB anymore because of Russian ownership which gleans human data directly. It's bad business for what I'm doing for work now, and discouraged usage. Google+ has lots of room though. Once FB bots take over it'll be the end of it, like MySpace which is now RobotSpace where bots give each other viruses and sex links.  It's almost self-sentient that way.  William Gibson is probably amused.  Can't wait till he stops his painful (yet popular) "Bridge Trilogy".  Just unreadable trash. 

Some artists do that.  They are REALLY cool for a while and then just inedible.  One could say this about Queensryche.  Sort of like cookies.  Early on it was just eggs and flower, with Queensryche EP then it started getting into good cookie-dough with The Warning with the whole sci-fi fantasy crossover like the movie Krull.  Then it was perfect cookies with Rage for Order and finally fully cooked with Operation Mindcrime which is a brilliant piece of work and great with milk.  By Empire the cookies were getting a little teeeeensy bit caramelized until Promised Land you're like, "Hey, these cookies are done, man.."  You still eat 'em because not all of them are caramelized but they're pretty bad.  One or two are okay though.  Then comes Hear in the Now Frontier which was so bad that tour dates were cancelled and Chris DeGarmo, one of the best guitarists of all time leaves the band.  Q2K comes out and no one notices.  It gets no tourdates except in local clubs and doesn't chart at all.  Blackened cookies now.  Queensryche gets desperate and releases a live album Live Evolution that peaks the charts at number 143.  Really dismal.  They then release Tribe and beg Chris DeGarmo to write a few tracks for it.  It only sells under 75,000 albums to-date, not even making gold.  They then try to make with some old material conclusion with Operation Mindcrime II in which the main character gets sad and kills himself.  yay.  Does moderately well and so Queensryche does a money-grabbing live album again based on it, and a DVD, and lots of other junk.  They then do a cover album called Take Cover that charts at a dismal 173 before vanishing a week later.  It was crap.  The cookies are burning black now and smoke is coming out the oven and filling the room.  It's gross.  Queensryche suddenly thinks they understand the American soldier's point of view on Desert Storm II so they do a biographical album American Soldier that is ambivalent.  They interview GIs in between the tracks but there's not a lot there.  They hope there'll be some really good material in that but there isn't.  We soldiers just missed our families a bit, and maybe a good sandwich.  Just want to get the job done and go home pretty much.  Sorry, Queensryche, we don't hate George Bush.  99% of the military loved the Republican.  Awww...  sorry Queeny.  We ain't Seattle druggies like you.  It's a volunteer force.  It ain't World War II you know.  Finally, recently they released, Dedicated to Chaos which peaked at number 75, then died a few days later.  AllMusic.com says that Queensryche is totally unrecognizable right now, which is worse than ripping themselves off.. most fans will wish it was never written."

The smoke has filled the house.  We wish we never made cookies.

America's Sweetheart needs our help! Please DONATE.

Casey Anthony, the woman accused of killing her child is bouncing checks and needs our help!  That's why I've created the Casey Anthony Fund to increase awareness of her needs!  Some of you might ask, "Well, if she's not the killer of her child, why has the police stopped investigating the murder?"  One might think that everyone knows that she did it.  She's a lot like John 3:16 where she loved to party (party meaning "sleeping with strange men at random on the floor of a bathroom) so much, that she was willing to beget her only child.

Anyway, Miss Casey Anthony is now having a hard time paying bills for duct tape and such, and it's rumored she's pregnant again and moving to Colorado Springs "Stetson Hills" area and needs money for things, so I've created a DONATE button where you can donate ANY amount of money towards the fund.

Please donate freely and generously so she can start her home business of babysitting and spread the word.
Tell your wife or girlfriend and have her donate too.  We take MasterCard and Visa and PayPal.
By clicking the Donate button you can pay any denomination towards
Casey Anthony Party Fund Awareness.

No one can deny, she loves to party.  Help her now.  She needs our help!  .. to party.

Batman Triumphant film (unreleased 1999)

Most sci-fi nerds know about this (but I didn't) that would star Martin Short as "Mad Hatter", Jeff Goldblum as "Scarecrow" and Madonna as "Harleyquin" would have been interesting, with Jack Nicholson reprising his role as "Joker" as a "Scarecrow" toxin hallucination.  Apparently a script was produced but never filmed as the mega-bomb film Batman and Robin failed so miserably (with Ah-nuld as Mister Freeze) that no one wanted to touch it.  I believe Christopher O'Donnel and Alica Silverstone's careers were eliminated because of it.  Anyway...

From BatmanWiki:

During the filming of Batman & Robin, Warner Bros. was impressed with the dailies. This prompted them to immediately hire Joel Schumacher to return as director for a sequel, but writer Akiva Goldsman, who worked on Batman Forever and Batman & Robin with Schumacher, turned down the chance to write the script. In late 1996, Warner Bros. and Schumacher hired Mark Protosevich to write the script for a fifth Batman film. A projected mid-1999 release date was announced. Titled Batman Triumphant, Protosevich's script had the Scarecrow as the main villain. The Joker would return as a hallucination in Batman's mind caused by the Scarecrow's fear toxin. Harley Quinn appeared as a supporting character, written as the Joker's daughter trying to get revenge on Batman for the Joker's death. George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell were set to reprise the roles of Batman and Robin, respectively. However, when Batman & Robin received negative reviews and failed to outgross any of its predecessors, Warner Bros. was unsure of their plans for Batman Triumphant and George Clooney vowed never to wear the cape and cowl again. The studio decided it was best to consider a live-action Batman Beyond film and an adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. Warner Bros. would then greenlight whichever idea suited them the most. Schumacher felt he "owe[d] the Batman culture a real Batman movie. I would go back to the basics and make a dark portrayal of the Dark Knight." He approached Warner Bros. of doing Batman: Year One in mid-1998.

Half a citizen

Sometimes I think it's sad that I can't enjoy freedoms that non-clearance people enjoy, like MaryJane or Burning Man event or the occasional DUI or getting in a fist-fight in public without being stripped of my career for all eternity.  Not that I really want to do those things.  It just I don't have the option.  Being able to enjoy a weekend off where I'm not recovering from 72 hours of 12-hour mid-shifts with no lunch break (or any break of any kind).  Being able to have a cell phone at work or browse the internet on occasion there.. or have windows to gaze out at.  Being able to be in an environment where there's not unyielding air-handling units creating white noise at 60db constantly, demanding an ambient air temperature of 59 degrees F. 24x7.  Being able to actually get food somewhere during my night shifts of 12 hours (don't bring food, you get chips (etc.) or starve.) or being able to actually GO HOME for lunch or cut work early or enjoy a holiday. 

Such is the price for 24-hour operations in a homeland security kind of environment.  Sure, some people are thankful for it in passing I guess as they get to go skiing for the weekend.  (Well, I could take a day off here or there I suppose and do that..  my job allows me paid vacation time).  It's just inconvenient that I can't get normal people days off, like Thanksgiving AND Christmas AND NewYears.  TABOO!  FOR BIDDEN!

Sure, I could change jobs.  Maybe something more simple.  Better hours, but would I be satisfied with it?  If I can't fight the enemies then what's the point?  Honestly, I'd never be happier doing anything else DESPITE the inconveniences.  Been doin' this since 1993, the impact so direct.  Heck, I was working at Cheyenne Mountain NORAD when 9/11 hit, and when the MIR splashed-down.  Worked both those very same shifts.  Wished NORAD had SOMETHING to do with the defence of 9/11, but those bad guys weren't coming out of outer-space after all.. if they were though, I'd be ON it I tell YOU what!

Sigh.. I just love my job too much.  The scope of it.  Wouldn't trade it for anything, except maybe a record contract.  YOU LISTENING TO ME ATLANTIC RECORDS?!  :)

Rush
===
Mission (from Hold Your Fire)
...If their lives were exotic and strange
they would likely have gladly exchanged them for
something a little more plain, maybe something a little more sane.
We each pay a fabulous price of our biddings of paradise. (04:00)

How about a little Engrish?

While I'm nursing my cold (a little "cheap" 10-year Canadian Club to help it along with some homemade chicken noodle soup.. the noodles dissintegrated however, failed their saving throw.  Now it's more like chicken noodle stew.. traditional Hungarian Golyash, anyone?)  I reward my readers with some Engrish:

If you were warring ice cream factions, hot would be the way to go.

I never knew the Japs hated the Jews?!  WWII leftovers?

Don't we all feel happiness when we eat a him, Mr. French Fries?

Dude, I'm not 100% sure, but.. I think she's into me!



Illegal Gibson guitars

Seems the Obama-geddon Administration has outlawed Gibson guitars with Indian rosewood or Madagascar ebony on the fretboards, which is all of them (or about 95% of them at least) due to some new Lacey Act that was created.  Interestingly, Michelle Obama purchased and gave one to a French diplomat which makes her eligible for prison-time.  Worse still, search and seizure of all Gibson guitars with analysis of the rosewood or ebony will occur in airports.  If the analysis results in foreign exotic wood (aka 95% of all guitars) in any portion, the guitar is seized and destroyed and prison time and/or a hefty fine is forced.

This, however only accounts for American guitars, probably making Fender quake in its boots.  Luckily, I have a rather rare Japanese-made Ibanez and a Japanese-made Steinberger (before Gibson bought them out).  So based on the serial number, I'm safe.

Still, I'd hate to see huge bands have their guitars seized and destroyed.  Way to go AGAIN Obama.  Who VOTED for this guy anyway?  I know I didn't.  He's just destroying American companies.  Is this part of his new job-act?  Gibson has closed-down and may be liquidated!

My new guitar amplifier

Just watched...

Just watched Defendor.  It's nice to have that whole theater effect with the 7.1 surround and the 106" screen, though the film was only in 5.1 surround.

Canadian film with another surprisingly great soundtrack and chord progression in most scenes, though not as super-analog-triumphant as that other Canadian film, Hobo with a Shotgun orchestrated by the band PowerGlove.

Honestly, I took the film very seriously.  I found almost no humor in it.  I think it was supposed to be a comedy, but it struck so dear to my heart the Judge Dredd style of innocent paladin-ism and honesty I just was enamored by the whole thing.  Equally was good and similar was Cedar Rapids.  Again, innocent paladin-like honor and simplicity and naivete like a tasty turkey-wrap with cheddar.  Both I recommend very much.  Both with good acting, surprisingly from Woody Harrelson, whom I've never liked in anything he's done yet, and Kat Dennings (also in Thor and 40 Year Old Virgin and House Bunny) played her typical out-of-sync troubled-late-teen character well.  All of it was a bit more organic than the usual Hollywood ass-crap (see Michael Bay).  Both are played like an Ultima 4-esque paladin quest for XP.  Enjoy both.

Defendor
Comic book fans: A-
Zombies: B
Everyone else: A-

Cedar Rapids:
Comic book fans: N/A
Zombies: C
Everyone else: A-

Wouldn't you know it?

After my double-mini-vacation, got back from Vegas and on the plane some insanely rude Vietnamese (pushy, claw-y, mine-mine-mine type with the wide grin of a life of selfish scavenging [think Tran.  I've worked with the like]) they were also coughing open-mouthed on people and I think I got a case of something.  First time I've been sick since 1997.  It's respiratory and rather mild.  Bit of a congestion BUT be it said on my travels I own a 4-leaf clover encased, a tunic and bracers (!)  Becky came ahead $680 at the Luxor impossibly on a $15 slot-machine bet, and my two guitars are now crammed full of Seymour Duncan Invader humbuckers.

Hey, Luxor?  $81 for a single of Glenlivet XXV is a bit much, don't you think, mob-bosses?

Hey, United Airlines, if I ask for Crown Royal it is definitively not the same as Canadian Club.  The only thing they have in common is the lack of a letter "E" in Whiskey.  (Canadian whiskey is spelled, "whisky".)  Sadly, United does not share the same enthusiasm of whiskies as I do.

A complete rundown of events to follow tomorrow in Captain's Log-style Kirk-osity.

Google

I thought the Freddy Mercury tribute on Google was nice.  Few people remember back when people could sing without a vocoder.  Certainly I'm not cut-out for it.  I'd like to think I'm more of a guitarist, but that's up to debate I suppose.  Not too many thumbs-up on my YouTube videos under "mikecronis".  A smattering of views (under 200 each) and no thumbs either-way.  Just.. silence.  Odd.  I must be in a vacuum.  Well, at least I make them for myself.

Rush- Anthem:
==========
Live for yourself...there's no one else more worth living for.
Begging hands and bleeding hearts will only cry out for more.

Well, I know they've always told you selfishness was wrong.
Yet it was for me, not you, I came to write this song.

Obama's speech

Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize in the same way Hitler did for his "unification of Europe" plan.  Unions are run by the mafia which, apparently he supports, and have become far too powerful.  The Clean Air Act has been cancelled as well by Obama.  Way to go, team.  Anyone remember Jimmie Carter?  I do.

Did it!

Warshed (sp) and waxed both cars and detailed the interiors, but they still look the same.  Maybe I need to take less care of them so the results would be more dramatic for 6 hours of work.  Mowed the front lawn too.  Good upper-body workout for wax-on wax-off for 6 hours.  Helps me to determine the four distinct quadrants of the body:  Upper Lower Middle Section Side (note, "Middle" is it's own quadrant of five.)

Watched Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock tonite for the first time with Princess Grace Kelly and Jim Stewart.  Pretty decent!  Love that 106" screen!  Makes me feel like I'm at the movies in 1956 just like when it was released!

One of my favorite editorial comics

http://www.gocomics.com/lisabenson/2011/09/02

On a lighter note, I was going to wash and wax my cars-es today, but the wind is way over 30 mph making for a poor wash so I'm postponing it until tomorrow I guess, and committing carbiside with Mello Yello soda and playing NeverWinter Nights 2.  Ho HO!

Space Junk

There's been a bit of talk about too much space junk and that we need to create a "giant net" to catch it all.  This hurts my brain that folks are considering this.  Firstly, to create it, the mass of the earth would decrease about 2% just to create a mono-filament "net" to catch it all and then what?  Bring it back down with a giant spool like a fishing pole?  How does one "reel-in" the net?  Aside from magic and sorcery, this is physically impossible on every tangible level.  Space objects are travelling at wildly different speeds and directions.  How would you space-out the gaps in the net?

All this is the stuff of uneducated writers with liberal-arts degrees (such as JJ Abrhams with his black-hole time-warp sometimes theory.. ie. did baddy Romulan get destroyed at the end from the "red matter"?)  Black holes are much likely not magical space/time worm-holes in the same way a chocolate bar isn't (well.. rarely).  A neutron star (aka a collapsed star) is a very dense, medium-small (aka 5000 miles across) star with a very high gravity.  You go into that and you get smoosh-smoosh.  The end.

Anyway, most of the space "junk" debris (rocket-bodies, extra-dead satellites, etc.) are in a low-earth or highly-eccentric orbit.  During solar cycles (every 7 years or so) the sun swells causing a slight warming of the Earth, expanding its atmosphere a good amount.  This creates more drag on the orbiting junk causing it to burn-into the atmosphere and crash-land (99% just burns up in re-entry, depending on what it's made of).  Sometimes a small piece might make it back that didn't burn-in but it's hyper-rare and usually gets burned down to about an inch or two. 

We should be much more worried about more pressing matters, like the jobless rate, Cthulu, Star Wars being more ruined on Bluray, Burger King awesomeness, and the band Rush.  So, there's no fears about space junk.  We got a lot of folks work on collision avoidance every day.  I did.  I did a good job at it, too.  Others work on it and they too do a good job.  There's a finite number of objects and the US tracks them all, every day and night, 24x7.  I worked 8 of those hours (give or take) back in 2000-2002.  Don't worry.  We're safe.  Now get thee a Whopper!  You can get one with A1 Steak Sauce, you know.  They have that.  Get it.  NOW.  (1997).