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Friday, May 29, 2009

Ranking Pixar




Recently IGN ranked the work of Pixar, the industry-dominating animated film company. (Link to article:http://movies.ign.com/articles/986/986660p1.html) I found it as I was reviewing my RSS feeds from my favorite Disney sites, something I should blog about some time. Any way, my thanks to http://www.mickeynews.com for picking this story up and bringing it to my attention.

Their rankings went like this (1 being the best):

9. Cars
8. Monsters, Inc.
7. A Bug's Life
6. Ratatouille
5. Finding Nemo
4. The Incredibles
3. Toy Story 2
2. WALL-E
1. Toy Story

Of course, they caveat the whole list at least once per page with the fact that the worst Pixar film beats the competition hands down, and I would echo that. This is also a list of the 9 best films to come out over the last 9 years, and I would go on to say that in many cases this isn't just in the animated category. I'm talking about the best out of all genres. Except for WALL-E.

OK, I've said too much. So what do I think? Of course, being a critical mind, I disagree with their rankings, thus the post. To get straight to the point, here is MY assessment:

9. WALL-E
8. Ratatouille
7. Finding Nemo
6. Monsters, Inc.
5. Cars
4. A Bug's Life
3. Toy Story 2
2. The Incredibles
1. Toy Story

The only thing we agreed on is that Toy Story deserves the top spot. I guess it also shows that I prefer action oriented movies more than the IGN folks, and that I despise wordless environmentalist films about robots. So what do you think?

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

I'm Lucky



OK, so first click play above. I'm not a fan of music always playing on blogs,so I am making you click on it. Now, I have to dedicate this song to my wife of almost 11 years (wow I am old:) I am missing her terribly right now, and when I heard this song I wanted nothing more than for her to hear it too, even though it isn't a new song.

I just wanted to tell everyone that I am a very lucky man. I have a beautiful wife who takes care of our kids and best of all, takes care of me. She is creative and talented and people like to be around her. She makes friends easily and misses her old friends terribly when we are scattered by time and trials. When I get stressed out or otherwise harried by this existence we call life, she is always there to rub my back, say nice things to me and make me some cookies (yum). She endures the hard times with me and we celebrate the good times together when they come. Our kids love their mom more than anybody, and she loves them right back, in a way that I don't think anyone else on earth could. She is irreplaceable.

Yes, I love her dearly, and I have loved her ever since I met her. When we were dating I used to write her all kinds of notes and cards, and there have probably been too few of those since we started our family, but I am saying it here, right out in front of the whole entire everybody (OK, I think there are only like 3 people who read my blog, but it is the idea that counts)

Thanks for being my best friend and most of all, I love you.

I'm lucky that you chose me.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Okinawa Quick Update

Yesterday was Saturday, and I found a Japanese shopping center and went in and wandered around. It was fun. They have 100 Yen stores, which is the equivalent of a Dollar Store. Same crap for sale, too. Their grocery store was mostly fish (fresh fish, frozen fish, live fish, canned fish), dried noodles, and seasoning, as well as a produce section full of stuff I didn't recognize. I stopped by McDonalds and KFC that day instead of buying much at the store, although I did snag a few snacks. Their bakery is just a little corner of the store, but the baked goods are tasty. They are very fresh, with little preservatives. You buy stuff out of baskets while it is still warm and if you don't eat it in 24 hrs it is hard as a rock.

We had to pick someone up from the airport which is 30-40 minutes away, and we got to see a new road that we haven't been on before. It is funny because similar businesses seem to cluster together in the same areas. On one section of the street there much have been a dozen barbarshops in the same half mile. Weird.

Well, that is my little story for the day. I will post some more tomorrow.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Okinawa- Trip 1 pics

So a few months ago I made it to Okinawa. I think I mentioned it. Well, I made it back for a 2nd visit and decided to post some pictures, but since I never posted the pics from the last visit I will do those first. I will lower your expectations right off the bat by saying that I am often interested by odd little every day items. So did I take awesome panoramic vistas of mountains and beaches? No. McDonalds bags and Dr Pepper bottles? Yes.


I like to do Sudoku during plane rides. It is compact (one sheet of paper and a pen), free in newspapers and plane magazines, and takes me a long time to finish. Also featured here is roughly one cup of Haagen Daas Ice Cream, which set me back 300 Yen, or approximately $3. I would never pay $3 for a cup of ice cream, but for some reason I didn't mind parting with 300 Yen. I was leaving Japan that day, and for some reason those coins didn't seem so valuable when heading back to the states, even though I knew I would be going back.


Yes, this is as nasty as the name is. It has a kind of grapefruity taste at first that ends in a kind of salty, bitter aftertaste. I tried it. Then I recycled the bottle with most of the liquid still in it. There went another 150 Yen.


You might be thinking, "what's with the fireworks store?" Or perhaps "nice flower shop." Wrong on both accounts. This is a used car lot. And, yes, they all look like this. I think they are trying to shock you so bad that you wreck your car as you drive by, thereby creating business.


This picture isn't the greatest, but it is the sign at the main entrance to the base, by the flagpole where they raise/lower the colors and play the national anthems. I say anthemS because they play both the Japanese and US anthems every morning. This picture was just as they were about to lower the colors.


This was my hotel room on base. I was impressed by how much furniture they were able to squeeze into my little living room/kitchenette.

Coffee is a huge thing in Japan. It is everywhere, in everything. I thought I had seen it all until this showed up on the menu. Coffee Jelly for 180 Yen. What a deal.


Anyway, that is all for now. Maybe tomorrow I will post some pics from my more recent trip.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

A Windfall

Have you ever found a $10 bill in the back pocket of an old pair of jeans or in the jacket you haven't worn in over a year? Or have you ever rediscovered an old movie that used to be your favorite, and is just as good now as it was back then? These are similar to the way I felt when I popped the SD card from my camera into my computer.

I had shelved this camera a while back, since the picture quality wasn't what I had hoped it would be. Every once in a while we grab it on the way out the door somewhere, and in the meantime the kids love to take pictures and movies with it. Well, I plugged in the card to retrieve a picture I had just taken, and I was rewarded with all kinds of pictures that I hadn't seen before, strung out over the last year or so. It was so awesome that I decided to share some of them.

(If you think any of them need captions, let me know and I'll add them)













Quarantined? Are you serious?

Today's topic is over-reacting. Our example of over-reacting? The government of Japan.

Here is the scenario: I am on a Boeing 747 en route to Okinawa, via the Narita airport in Tokyo. I like to make "tight" connections, since I generally don't check any baggage, and I just flat move faster than most air travelers. Anyway, we touch down at Narita and taxi to our gate. This is where it starts to get crazy.

Along with our obligatory customs declarations, every passenger got a medical survey. It was a pointless piece of paper because half of it was filled with identifying information which was the exactly same information required on the other two forms I had to fill out. The rest of it was making sure that I didn't have a vacation home in Mexico.

So back to the story: Our plane was quarantined. Every plane is quarantined. We were "boarded" by Health Officials (10 humanoid-shaped beings) completely protected by blue hospital gowns, gloves, masks and goggles. I was given a mask by the flight attendant so that in the event I had to speak to one of the Health Officials (HOs) they would be protected from my bacteria-filled spittle which would undoubtedly fly at the first fumbled consonant.

The first HO approached me with an oversized polaroid camera that took my temperature from 3 feet away. And good thing too. I hadn't put on my mask yet and we all know how hard it is to control that spittle. Apparently my heat profile was within acceptable limits because the HO shuffled down the aisle, being careful not to get close to anyone that hadn't been measured yet.

Next came a pair of HOs. The first one had the important job of making sure that I had filled in all of the blank lines on my survey. You may be wondering how you can get an education that will let you fill such an important position in society, but don't forget about the second HO of the pair. His job was to hand me the yellow paper saying that I had been screened. If only I had gone to Health Official school.

Yep, that was the end of the screening. An hour later, after they had hand counted over 400 forms (Our plane was missing two forms so they had to come through and verify that we all had our yellow paper) we were allowed to deplane. Now, I am not a Health Official or anything, but from what I understand, most people who get the Swine Flu actually recover. And we lose thousands to the regular flu every year. I am thinking that they are slightly over-reacting.

And what was the cost? Not much compared to the massive health risk averted by such close and careful screening. I only missed the last flight of the day to Okinawa from Narita and had to buy a $30 bus ticket to get to the Haneda airport in time to catch the last plane to Okinawa. That has to be worth it, right? And the fact that this must happen to multiple travelers on every flight (they have special quarantine delay fliers for you when you miss your connection) wouldn't add up to a cost greater than the benefit. Or would it?

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Taryn and the Ice Cream Cone

I made ice cream cones the other night and Taryn wanted one too, so I let her have her own little one. I couldn't help but post this. She is so funny!