So my buddy asks me to drop some javascript into my template for "link tracking". I say sure why not, I have that cool Mapstats why not track links? Well I guess I was a testing bed since the service wasn't announced yet. But today they actually have output! YEAH. Take a look Link Log. So I don't get heavy traffic, but it's still a pretty sweet feature for free. I know you can look at some of this stuff via your server stats, but this is nice because it's all at the same place, visual stats and link.
So go sign up... what are you waiting for? Again this is a service for blogs.
My wife went out and got the DVD the other day. I'm not sure about you, but I had really low expectations. Maybe that is why it wasn't that bad. I rather enjoyed it, maybe it was because Nicole Kidman was in it, but maybe it was because it was "Cute".
The story of a witch playing a TV witch, pertending to want to be normal, who's character want the same thing.... *shrug* not really sure how good of a plot there was, if there was one. Also I thought it was an interesting twist, when I first heard of this movie, I thought it was going to be a movie based on the TV show, not a movie based on the re-making of the TV show. So at least it was something different.
But by the time I got to the end of the movie, I realized, it WAS a re-make of the TV show, just disguising itself as a "Show". Eitherway, it's now on video or dvd. It is definately worth a watch, for a fun show. If I were to have seen this in the theater I might have given it a 2, but since it's a video, I'll give it a 2.75 outta 5. It doesn't suck, but it sure won't win any oscars.
So yesterday we celebrated my daughters 4th birthday. With it being close to holloween my wife decided to decorate it with spiderwebs, eyeball punch, jack-o-lanterns and skeletons. My job was to distract the kid while they decorated. So we went to GG's (Great Grandmother). First the kids were HORRIBLE, we get there and my 3.99 year old and my 1.3 year old are screaming and crying. So this makes GG feel horrible, but finally they calm down, and it ended up on a good note.
Then the call comes... "Were ready". Well I'm abou 30 minutes away, so get the oldest to go to the bathroom (what a chore, who would have thought it would be so hard to get ANYTHING to go to the bathroom. I mean it's a battle of wills). Then we head home, get two "where are you" calls on my way. I'M in Mexico, I just thought I'd take a detour... I'll get there when I get there YEEESH :P
My daughter see's the spiderwebs out side on the porch and ghosts in the trees, and a big yellow 'X' on the door. "Daddy Look at the X". "Hunny it says 'Danger Haunted Area'". Talk about something STUPID to say to a 3.99 year old (she actually turns 4 on the 28th). Great now she stops, "Why is it haunted?"... great, now I do the whole, it's just decorations. So we get ready to come in... no I need to tell you my daughter INFORMED us everyone was supposed to yell "SURPRISE" for her... guess she doesn't get that concept yet. *shrug*
Well needless to say the house was decked out, a huge spider above the table, spiderwebs everywhere, balloons the whole 9 yards. My wife and her family did a great job, and it was a very memorable night. I think my daughter loved everything, her art kits from her aunt (and family) in Chicago, her clothes, her stickers, her bike, and honestly just having her family near her. I can't wait till she turns 5.
So in our house we have a porch and around it is a hand rail. The builder was going to paint it, but we have the nice natural wood columns, and painting them would have just destroyed the look. So we left them. The other day I bought my waterproofer (cedar toner), and it was too orange. So I bought Clear. Wouldn't you think if it said Clear you'd open it up and it would be clear. Well to my surprise it's still brown with a slight tinge of Orange. But after you put it on and it drys it looks great.
I wanted to take this time to simply say that it looks awesome. It's not done yet, but the rail up the stairs looks great. The best part about it, is Monday night my in-laws pop over. Why? To help with the staining. My father-in-law is a wonderful man, he went right too it even though, I had just finished cooking dinner, and still needed to eat. He didn't care, he just did it. What a great example of service he is to me.
We bought an entertainment center for them the other week, but how can I truly every re-pay them for letting us stay with them for almost 2 years, and then they come to do things like this. So if they read this, thanks for everything.
So I went in saw it with my brother-in-law. We both told my wife we thought the movie sucked. Then I later told my wife, it wasn't a bad movie, it simply sucked, BUT it lived up to all of my expectations. So the question is, if you go into a movie and expect it to suck what does it mean when you are right?
It was not a bad movie when you take into account what they had to work with. A first person shooter. How much can you really do? Go in kill things or be killed. The Rock was stellar, (i.e. he carried a gun around well). *Side note: If he's "The Rock" is his first name The?* Special effects were actually pretty good, so I have to give them that, the first person view was interesting, felt like I was watching a demo. My wife said, "But the never straffed, you can't play DOOM without straffing!" Granted you show me anyone that can run sideways at full speed.
Why did the movie suck? Story, script, plot, characters
Why didn't it suck? Special effects, action, interesting seeing the "game" on the big screen.
Should you go see it? That's tougher. You'll probably get just as much out of watching it on your TV, just make sure it's dark, and you have the sound turned up.
Watching golf on T.V. is like watching a race... you hope someone has horrible luck so you can laugh at them or cringe for them. But this movie was not as boring as watching golf on T.V., I actually enjoyed it.
The smug Brits vs. The everyday man (both British and American). I don't know if I was so much rooting for the American or rooting against the Snobby English "Gentlemen". I would have even enjoyed seeing the commoner from Jersey winning and shoving it in their faces.
The movie is about two peoples struggle against society, and their place in this world. Someone born into society would always be better than the others. While those born outside could only ever look in.
Also an under lying story was about a father that was beaten down with the system, and could never hope to see his son be anything but a common man. He never encourage his son, but tried to take his dreams away, not because he hated him, because he didn't want to see him fall. Ultimately his father realized (read: his wife told him off) that he needed to support his son because failure was not the end...
As they said in Batman Begins, "Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up!"
On my scale this got 3.75 outta 5. Great family film night when it comes on video. Decent date night if you can't find anything else you can both agree upon.
FINALLY a return to the Batman I love. Darker, seedier, not florescent. I loved the original movies with Michael Keaton, they were the best. This movie was top notch for me too.
If you've ever wondered about how Bruce Wayne became Batman (not why cause we all know why), but how he got his gadgets, his car etc. This was a great show.
The scarecrow was sorta weak, but he was not the major focus in this movie. In the original Batman movie the real focus was the joker, this movie the focus was Batman. One of my favorite movies of recent times. So head out buy the DVD, you won't be disappointed (unless you look at the extra features they only have the trailer on it).
So I go to Walmart.com yesterday and I see a couple of DVD's I'd like to get. One is season two of smallville for $19.95 a great price considering Best Buy has it for $44. I didn't really expect it to be in the store so I wasn't disappointed when it wasn't there. But while I was on their website, I looked up the move "Kingdom of Heaven" and it was $15.87. I thought great when I'm at the store I'll just pick that up instead. But NOOOO it's $19.95 at the store, and Walmart won't price match itself. So I could go home buy it from walmart.com and have it shipped to me cheaper than if I were to buy it in the store. Now that's retarded!
Also if you live in an area with multiple Wal-Mart's check the prices you'll see they actually vary their prices from location to location according to the area they are in. Example when I was in Dallas, I went to one in Arlington and they had the book cases for $39.99, then a little north (can't remember exact store, but a nicer [wealthier] town) they were $49.99, then in South Lake (very rich area) they were $59.99 so look for your low economic area and shop your favorite Wal-Mart there....
So I hooked up MapStats to my blog the other day, and I must say it is a very cool service. It lets you see where people are visiting your site etc. If you have a blog sign up and get the service. If you are running a site they will be offering evostats soon. I like it cause I don't have to worry about the stats etc. It tells me what I really care about, visitors, where they are coming from, and their geography. Now if I did ads it would be invaluable, but I don't so I guess I'll just enjoy the stats. Hats off to the crew that created it at Enthropia parent company of the software developers that created this blog software Evo-Dev. Oh and I also work for them
