I'm a dad, a husband, a brother, a son,
a work-at-home web ninja
and serial entrepreneur,
a lazy artist, a sci-fi geek (science not fantasy, so space ships not elves), a Pacers / Lions fan, a writer, a former journalist, an art collector, an investor, and all-around former bad ass who's grown soft and content.
Random Fave Quote
'Between two evils, I always choose the one I never tried before.' -- Mae West
“I was thumbing through New Mexico with
nothing, headed nowhere, when I fell in
with a shaman named Shaman who pricked a
hole in my mind. A little prick it was,
but everything gushed in through it, and
everything spilled out. Suddenly, I could
not tell the difference between myself and
others or between my body and the rest of
the world.”
– Eliot Fintushel: Izzy and the Father of Terror (1998)
Filed under: Books | Comments Off on A Hole in My Mind
I am not typing these words. I am actually saying them out loud. I am trying out a new program called Dragon Naturally Speaking, it lets me dictate my speech into text. Pretty cool, I must say. Unfortunately I have nothing to say right now.
I work hard. I get up in the morning and go to my office and work all day. Then after dinner and time with the family I go back to work until the wee hours of the morning before I crash and do it all over again the next day. I have a full-time job, run my own side business as well as a long list of entrepreneurial projects. But do I make millions? No, not even close. Yet this joker that was on unemployment less than a year ago and is now known only by the nickname he gave his abs, is going to make $5 million dollars this year! Yes, 5 million dollars. That is over $400k a month! For what???? A ridiculously stupid tv show about nothing (Jersey Shore), a book about nothing, an ab workout (yeah, seriously!) and some chewable supplements. Give me a freaking break. I am devastated by this news. It is one thing to wonder if I should have had a hit like a Mark Zuckerburg (Facebook) or Matt Mullenweg (WordPress), but to have a guy like this make it big, ugh. I guess instead of working so hard the last 10 years, I should have been working on my abs and fake tan instead.
When I hear that David Lynch and Werner Herzog have teamed up on a film I get excited. In fact it doesn’t matter what the film is about, it could be a documentary about worms and I would want to see it. However, of course its more compelling than that – the plot apparently goes like this: “Inspired by a true crime, a man begins to experience mystifying events that lead him to slay his mother with a sword.”
The cast is great, including stalwart actors Willem Defoe, Micheal Shannon, Brad Dourif, Grace Zabriske and Chloë Sevigny. Why do Herzog’s films keep being released with zero buzz – luckily someone (Jason) told me about his film from last year The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans starring Nick Cage.
Anyway, here is the opening minutes of this film that comes out on DVD this month, please forgive the short ad in the video it is not my doing:
Filed under: Movies | Comments Off on My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
Angie Cromar’s doctors were shocked when her first ultrasound revealed two babies at slightly different stages of development.
“[He said] I’m five weeks and four days in one, and six weeks and one day in the other,” Cromar said.
Cromar, 34, knew she was born with a rare condition called didelphys, meaning she had two uteruses, but the chances of conceiving in both at the same time are 1 in 5 million.
Cromar and husband Joel already have 3 children under the age of 8 years and all have been singleton babies. Her rare condition had not impacted her earlier pregnancies.
As always, expectations are the biggest factor in how much you enjoy movie. I went in to Expendables with low expectations and found myself enjoying the movie right away. It is a a very violent and bloody film, but while the action was well-delivered, it was the non-action dialogue scenes that were surprisingly entertaining. Never underestimate Sylvester Stallone – he is much smarter then he is given credit for, I especially applaud him for not kissing the girl at the end, which would have been too Hollywood cliche. Not sure Sly should have been the lead, since Jason Statham was clearly the better actor. Sly was not awful, but his plastic-surgery altered face was distracting. Among the many action stars on the screen, Mickey Rourke is by far the best actor of the bunch, and steals the film with his few scenes. Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren are great in their minor roles as well. Two big cameos were Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, although from the trailers I expected Bruce Willis to have a bigger role than he did.
The Other Guys
Like any Will Ferrell movie, I found myself laughing out loud in the theater. This film was very quirky and felt very different than the humor I expected for some reason. It’s hard to describe, just odd. But I really enjoyed it from start to finish. Mark Wahlberg is great as the angry sidekick/straightman. One of the best gags in the film is that their police chief played by Michael Keaton, keeps unknowingly quoting TLC for some reason, such as “don’t go chasing waterfalls”. See what I mean by odd but funny?
Each year, approximately 25 million trees are used to make books sold in the United States—over 1,000 times the number of trees in New York City’s Central Park. Many of these trees are sourced from endangered forests with environmental impacts on the people and wildlife that rely on them.
Fortunately the book industry is rapidly implementing practices that minimize negative social and environmental impacts. Over 250 publishers, representing about 50% of the book industry’s market share, have either developed strong environmental policies or are in the process.
Filed under: Books | Comments Off on Did you know: Books and sustainability
Cai Guo-Qiang’s 2006 Guggenheim Museum installation of 99 lifelike replicas of wolves running Head On into a glass wall is a visual allegory for the human condition. Cai’s pack of wolves, relentlessly charging forward towards a sudden end, represents the will to heroically press on. It is at the same time both tragic and beautiful.
a lazy artist, a sci-fi geek (science not fantasy, so space ships not elves), a Pacers / Lions fan, a writer, a former journalist, an art collector, an investor, and all-around former bad ass who's grown soft and content.
Angie Cromar’s doctors were shocked when her first ultrasound revealed two babies at slightly different stages of development.
