“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” Movie Review

August 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 (tense, frightening, realistic)

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James Franco (as Will Rodman) is a brilliant scientist testing the effects of a drug he has developed to, hopefully, cure Alzheimer’s.   The mission is personal since his father (the brilliant John Lithgow as Charles Rodman) has that disease.

Franco’s latest breakthru is a chimp named “Bright Eyes”.  But something goes horribly wrong and Bright Eyes is lost.  In her cage, the researchers find an infant that Franco takes home to raise and care for.  His Dad names him Caesar (a digital chimp played, at least in part, by Andy Serkis (“my preeeecious…”).

Caesar is VERY smart as a result of the drug Franco injected into his mother.

Unfortunate circumstances force Caesar to be moved into a primate center where he is bullied by Draco Malfoy….err, Tom Felton (as Dodge Landon) while Franco develops a stronger drug to counteract certain limitations of the original drug.

The problem with this new drug, while resulting in extreme intelligence gains in the chimps (and other primates), is that it is deadly to humans. Oops.

Gripping, tense, realistic digital effects, great story, and acting make “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” a truly wonderful movie.  Go see it!   Don’t get up and leave when the credits start..it ain’t over for a few more minutes.

It is a bit intense, in my opinion, for younger kids (the youngest of which will probably be just bored).  But tweens and above should love it (it is PG-13, so be a bit careful). No f-words (unless I missed one), but, intense situations and some violence.

Time to watch the old “Planet of the Apes” movies that Lori loved (Roddy McDowall rocks!)

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Drive Safe!  Never Forget.

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Filed Under: Movie Reviews, Movie Trailers, Movies Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

iCloud

August 5, 2011 By 2 Comments

I was surfing the other day when I ran across an announcement of an upcoming feature from Apple called “iCloud”.

iWas interested in what that might be, so iTook a look at their web pages, and what iFound was that this is a pretty cool service, and that iWould probably like it.

OK, enuf of the iStuff (even though uHave to admit, iAm pretty clever for an old guy).

The Problem

Lori owns an iPod and an iPhone.  She buys iTunes music, or a video, or a movie, on the iPod.  Well, that stuff only shows up on her iPhone if she syncs BOTH the iPod and the iPhone to her Windows 7 Toshiba laptop.  A real hassle.  If she bought an iPad….the hassles just increased.

The same goes for pictures, email, contacts, and a host of other applications and utilities.

The Solution–iCloud

In Fall 2011, Lori may have a very cool solution to her syncing issues, via the cloud using iCloud.

I have written about the ongoing paradigm shift (I use those words when I write to impress!) to “the cloud”.  Basically, the cloud is the Internet.  More and more stuff is residing on the Internet, and all you have to do is grab it.  You can grab it from anywhere at anytime with any (well, almost any) device.  Pretty cool.  Hmmm, scratch that…VERY COOL.

OK, so now Lori buys a new George Strait song on her iPod.  But now,  iCloud automatically uploads that new song to “the cloud”.  And when Lori turns on her iPhone, iCloud automatically downloads
the new song to the iPhone (I assume they ask if she wants it, but, that remains to be seen).  Ditto with her computer.  So now, Lori has no more hassles!  All her devices (except of course the Android devices) are automatically kept up to date with each other via “the cloud”.  VERY COOL! (Did I say that already?)

Now backing up important stuff (emails, contacts, documents, music, pictures, etc) is a breeze, so if you lose your phone, you don’t lose your “life”.

It works via 3G (or 4G?) or WiFi.  Just connect and iCloud takes care of you.

Issues / Limitations

One issue is that Lori is going to have to upgrade her mobile devices (iPod and iPhone and iPad if she got one) to iOS5 when it becomes available.  I do not know how hard that might be, but, we did an update recently and it was ok, but, she lost some stuff in the process.

Another is that you only get 5GB of free storage in “the cloud”.  More than that and you gotta pay.  How much?  Dunno yet…

Conclusion

Using “the cloud” is just beginning.  New applications will start rolling out so fast your head will be spinning.  I wish I was 20 again so I could participate for a longer time….arrrghhh.

This is an awesome time for technology, a terrible time for the economy, and a worse time for political idiots who all need to get booted (or be the recipient of swift boot in the ass….where is Toby when you need him).

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Drive Safe!  Never Forget.

Filed Under: Drive Safe!, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Funny Pictures That Show Life’s Irony

August 3, 2011 By 1 Comment

i·ro·ny/ˈīrənē/

Noun: The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite.

Chau sent me these pictures via email a few days ago.

When I got up off the floor (LMAO) and cleared my eyes from the tears….I thanked her for sending them.  OMG  they are super funny (at least to me…I guess I have that weird sense of humor that really gets off on irony).

Note:  The original email’er grabbed the pictures from the “Friends of Irony” web site…go there to see many more!  I would like to give them a big thumbs up for being so observant!  :-)

Enjoy.

Drive Safe!  Never Forget.

Filed Under: Drive Safe!, Fun Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Cool Things To Do In Tracy, CA by Caitlin Dong

August 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I thought  it  would be cool to compile a little list of things to do around Tracy.

I asked a few friends and here is what they said:

  • Cynthia: “having coffee at Baristas & relaxing over good conversation (: ”
  • Monique: “ id have to say going to our fabulous mall… no just kidding, i think the cool thing to do is driving around town with the music blaring and singing to your favorite songs”
  • Stephanie: “driving around town with the music blaring and singing to your favorite songs…except with the windows all the way down”
  •  Kopal: “go get froyo/ chilaberries”
  • Kimberly: “I have no clue”
  • Caitlin: Hang out with friends; have a picnic, watch a movie, or swim
I also asked what their dream car is if money were no object:
  • Cynthia:  BMW m3 convertible in white
  • Monique: 2011 jaguar xj in black
  • Stephanie: one of those buggie cars. in beige or teal. with a convertable top
  • Kopal:  light blue mini cooper
  • Kimberly: Lamborghini Murciélago 40th Anniversary Edition in Jade Green
  • Effie: little blue Prius
  • Caitlin: I don’t really have a dream car, but I remember the Nissan 370 Z caught my eye once.  Or a Prius.
Match the car to the person (click to enlarge). Comment below.
 A
 B
C
 D
E
 F
G

 

What is YOUR favorite thing to do in Tracy?  Your fav car?  Comment below.

 

Drive Safe!  Never Forget.

Filed Under: Caitlin Dong, Drive Safe!, Education, Fun Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Wordle Word Cloud: An Introduction

August 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Alex Hillman from the coworking location Indy Hall sent an email showing us his Wordle Word Cloud of Indy Hall member communcations over the past several years.

It was awesome!

Soooo, I asked him for the website of Wordle and then I played around for an hour or so.

VERY COOL!  And you can play with the colors, fonts, and shape…so when you are done reading this blog…you can give it a try!

(Click to enlarge the pictures)

The top picture was generated when I gave Wordle the URL of this blog.  It looks really cool, but, on further inspection, I see that it only looks at the first three or four blog entries (ie the latest three or four).  The word “endomondo” was the giveaway that the whole blog was not evaluated.  I don’t think there is the ability to ask it to go further…

But that is ok, because….

I scrolled to the next 10 blog entries, or so, and copied the words.  Back on Wordle, I pasted the words in the appropriate place, hit go, and this is what came up.

Fish!

A word cloud that is a much better representation of this blog’s content and message.  I just wonder why several words are repeated?  Movie & Safe….being two.

No problem though…it is free and cool.  Did I already say that?

OK, being the curious type, and a serial blogger, I went ahead and Wordle’d the rest of my blogs:

AltamontCowork

Guess the topics of that blog?  :-)

TelBitConsulting

I then did another style, just for fun:

Video conferencing…apparently I have been giving Microsoft a lot of grief lately.  :-)

TracyReaderDad

Book Reviews!

I ran out of blogs, so I decided to look at Caitlin’s essay and see how that Wordle’d out.

Pretty cool.

Summary

If you need a cool looking word cloud (I mean who doesn’t?), you can’t go wrong with Wordle.  And you can’t beat the price.

Oh yeah….this is one instance where I NEEDED the Snipping Tool, because you have to take screen shots, and the Snipping Tool makes that a snap.

So what can I do with my word clouds?  Ah…I can make a T-shirt!  A mug!  I can put it on my notebook, have a laptop skin made up, put it on my blogs / web sites, share it on Facebook or Google+, frame it and hang it in my study or office, email it to my closest friends….

Drive Safe!  Never Forget.

Filed Under: Art, Drive Safe!, Fun, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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