James Doohan (March 3, 1920 – July 20, 2005)

Thank you for all of the fond memories.

Rick and I went to see War of the Worlds recently.  Having thoroughly enjoyed the book and the 1953 movie version (entitled The War of the Worlds), and obviously having been drawn in by the previews which showed some impressive special effects, we scampered to the local theater early one afternoon to catch a matinée.

Yes, we actually went despite Tom Cruise’s recent insanity and attempts to push on the masses his own limited and extremely dangerous views on mental health.  Actors should learn that their fame in no way makes them an expert, especially considering their career is based on deception (acting is, by definition, lying and pretending to be someone you aren’t — you know, like a mental health expert).  Anyway…

This movie was weak at best.  The special effects are cool but not impressive (what you see in the previews is the extent of their ability to impress; the rest is simply common).  There are flaws galore with this interpretation of the original book The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.  There are many flaws with the movie itself and the story it tries to tell (why, if we see Boston has already been laid waste by the aliens, do we see the family completely and perfectly coifed and unsoiled at the end of the movie — in a neighborhood and house completely untouched by the devastation around them?).  And what the hell was Tim Robbins’ character about other than a messy conglomeration of three separate characters from the book who, sloppily put together in this interpretation, present as a completely incoherent muddle?

There are no significant battles to be seen despite inferences in the film that America’s military has been destroyed easily (don’t tell me about it in a movie like this; show me something… please!).  There are no significant turns in the story to warrant this retelling (no surprises and a sloppy interpretation of Wells’ original don’t mean you should make a movie).  Spielberg does a terrible job of movie making (surprising, I know).  Certain aspects of the story, as retold here, make absolutely no sense (if an alien species was capable of putting these enormous machines into the planet at least a million years ago, one could — and should — safely assume they would have considered the microbiological impact of their presence; if an alien species put the attack machines in the ground a million or so years ago, wouldn’t their technology have advanced in the interim and wouldn’t their attack be carried out from a safe distance — from orbit, for instance?).  It’s one thing to assume, as Wells did, that aliens wouldn’t know about viruses and bacteria if they’d never been to our planet and didn’t have the same kind of threats on their home world, but Spielberg makes it clear they were here a long time ago — and that means they did know about our microbiological threats and would — should— have prepared for it.

As with all movies, there’s a degree of assumed suspension of disbelief.  In this case, that gets thrown out the window because of the many flaws in the story.

Despite his personal mayhem of late, I am impressed with Tom Cruise’s performance.  His character is understated and realistic.  There’s no overstated, altruistic heroism.  There’s no “saving the day” at the last minute with some completely ludicrous maneuver.  I shudder to think, given his recent real-world idiocy, that he’s the high point of this movie — but them’s the facts, I’m afraid.

This movie is definitely worth seeing on the big screen so long as you don’t mind leaving with the clear knowledge that you’ve just wasted the money you spent.

After maligning Cingular for the absolutely horrid service I was getting following their acquisition of AT&T Wireless, I decided the only way to get around the growing problems with my service was to switch to a real Cingular plan — and that meant buying a new phone.  Ah, but what to get?  I was flummoxed by all the choices.

Not!  I knew precisely what I wanted — the new Motorola RAZR V3.

You know me well enough by now to realize I'm a sucker for the latest and greatest toys, and that's clearer in no greater way than in the technology I use (that's my line of work; would you expect anything less of me?).

I'd seen the commercials and had even visited my neighborhood Cingular store on one occasion to manhandle (I love that word) the phone so that I could evaluate it's appropriateness for moi.  As you can no doubt already guess, it seemed perfectly appropriate for me.

A few weeks ago I finally concluded that additional lack of action on my rapidly declining cellular service would indeed paint me as the lazy bum I am, eager only to continue complaining about Cingular without taking action to solve the problem they themselves deny exists and which they themselves created.  I therefore carried my tired little ass up to the local Cingular five-and-dime and switched to a purely Cingular plan, native to their network and not AT&T's now defunct and much ignored infrastructure, and purchased the silver RAZR.

Allow me to say that this is a great phone, at least for me.  It's small, it's absolutely beautiful and very edgy (my Anglophile self wishes to say it's quite smart), it has all the features I need, and it works on Cingular's native network rather than the bastardized remains of AT&T's network (that thing Cingular promised not to degrade, a memo apparently not shared with those who actually maintain the network — if there is any maintenance taking place, that is).

Amazingly — can you see the sarcasm dripping? — it works in my home.  That in and of itself is a feat of technological wizardry which I believed impossible given Cingular's claims that there was in fact no AT&T network relegation or degradation.

I have excellent network coverage in all the places I frequent (like where I live), I have a sleek little phone that everyone talks about and wants to fondle when they see it (often prompting me to slip it in my front pocket after waving it around madly in front of the hotties), and my cell phone woes are — as of this writing, anyway — a thing of the past.  I even noticed that, when I paid my last bill in the same manner I've been paying them for many years (electronically through my bank), it didn't take Cingular 28 days to process the payment, a problem I'd been having with them since they acquired AT&T and which, oddly enough, they constantly blamed on me as it meant my payments were often late.

So long as I am trouble-free with this phone and plan, I believe I may actually stay with Cingular — for now.

No, I didn't go buy a new car — yet.  I'm quite happy with my 2001 Lexus IS 300.  It is, after all, completely paid for and in perfect running condition (it's a Lexus! what do you expect?).  Hell, it doesn't even have 50,000 miles on it yet and I've had it since September 2000 (I lived 5 minutes from work for several years).

I won't be getting rid of that car in the near future, but I will be getting rid of it eventually.  Since I purchased it when the IS was in its first year model, I've since learned that's not always a good idea.  It's not that the car had problems in its first year; it's just that they added all the cool extras to it in the second year.  Well, I won't make that mistake again.

When I do buy a new one, what will I get?

Why, another Lexus IS, except this time it'll be the new Lexus IS 350.  Just take a look at those photos and read the review.  You can also take a look at the Lexus site where they've now posted their 2006 IS preview page.

With a 3.5-liter V6 engine providing 306 horsepower, it'll be a lot of fun.  That's zero-to-60 in less than six seconds.  Yea, baby!

Come to Daddy…

And here we are – xenogere / strange behavior /.  This is the new home of my blog.

In case you’re wondering, it’s pronounced like vinegar — only with a zen instead of a vin.

Yes, it’s a work in progress.  I’ve already broken a few things and am in the middle of various core site updates.  Oh, and I’ve also started hunting for a contract developer to work on a new theme.  I also implemented XHTML with this move, but that’s going to take more work since the implementation is transitional at the moment.

I hope to get back to normal posting in the next few days after I fix a few of the problems I seem to have created.

Thanks for your patience during this transition.