I think I noticed the painted-on eyebrows first.  What the hell are those?  Her tribute to Groucho Marx?

[Spoiler]

Spoiler for Hiden:

Agreed.  The trailer doesn't indicate that Ender knows he's killing the Formics.  In the book he saw a realistic simulation and for all he knows that shot of the explosion is just what he thought was part of the simulation.  I can't imagine them changing that aspect of the book.  That would be a MAJOR change and a MAJOR mistake IMO.

[Spoiler]

Spoiler for Hiden:

It looked like it to me, although if that's the case they changed it up a bit.  The book wasn't some Death Star laser blasting the planet but a ship that darted into the atmosphere and launched a rocket at the planet.

13.  Suck it, Moliere.

I think it was brutal enough.  The only thing HBO would have added was nudity every episode, whether it needed it or not. 

I'm guessing that this is a movie that should be properly experienced in a theater.  

Have you ever been to Louisiana?  Accents run all over the board there. 

[Spoiler]

Did some of you guys even read the original post before going off on your comments? I said, "...the story and plot were great..."

I listed the acting and some of the visual effects as what I saw as shortcomings and asked if the series saw improvement with these two things.

The story actually went downhill towards the end while the acting and the effects stayed the same, so I'd stay away.  In my opinion the religious elements and

Spoiler for Hiden:

sleepers

were the equivalents of introducing a baby into a sitcom. 

I wasn't a fan of Starbuck's acting, but other than that I thought the acting talent was amazing.   This show is just not for you.  The series is not going to be a major change from the miniseries, so I wouldn't expect to enjoy it more. 

I watched this last night and wasn’t terribly impressed.  I wasn’t only able to give it half my attention during the first few minutes, so I wasn’t sure what that battle was about where the two brothers seemed to be the only survivors.  What was going on there? 

Gabriel Byrne’s character’s introduction as the bad guy could have been done with a bit more subtlety.  As a matter of fact, everything about this episode didn’t have to be so obvious.  It’s as though they didn’t want to risk turning off viewers with things like development.  They just threw it all out there at once.

The attempted rape scene had me scratching my head.  These two guys try to rape the badass main character’s wife as soon as he leaves.  She scars them both and sends them on their way and then all is forgotten.  She doesn’t tell anybody, including her husband.  Is she going to encounter these guys again?  Are they going to have to explain their hideous scars, including a nasty burn to the face, to the rest of the village? 

I’ll keep watching, but I’d give the first episode a C. 

But let's be real - there isn't a better trigger than the 1911.

Word.  A good 1911 trigger (they can vary depending on manufacturer and other factors) is pure heaven. 

I have a couple of friends who carry.  One is a cop and one has trained religiously with a couple of cops.  Both have adopted the carry dress - loose, untucked buttoned shirts and jeans, khakis.  They are almost always carrying too.  It becomes like carrying a wallet, so that you don't even think of leaving the house without it.  That's the kind of lifestyle I thought I'd have to adopt too or else I'd always be thinking about the gun behind my hip, which would make me uncomfortable.  I opted to not go that route. 

Now if I were to go that route, I'd do as they do and train like crazy with that particular weapon. 

My first gun as an adult was a Ruger GP100 .357 magnum.  It was a good gun, but had an incredibly hard hammer to pull back and the trigger pull was ridiculous too.  My first wife could not shoot the thing.  I ended up selling it for a CZ-75, which was my first auto.  Very nice 9mm.

Around 2002 I bought a Dan Wesson Patriot, which is a 1911 .45.  That is the nicest gun I have ever shot and is a gun with which I will never part.  It has a trigger pull of around 2 3/4 lbs, so it's perfect for the range, but waaay to light for carry (not that I'm ever going to carry).  Just a fantastic gun that fits my hand like a glove. 

I bought a no-frills Springfield Armory Mil-Spec 1911 .45 (I love 1911s) that I thought I'd play around with and upgrade over time.  Ten years later I still hadn't done anything with it.  It is not a great gun.  It will shoot ball ammo, but will jam every time with hollow points.  The sights are not good for my eyes and the thin thumb safety doesn't work for my thumb.  I took it to a gunsmith and told him all the modifications I'd like to do to it.  He told me that there is no way in the world I should put that kind of money into that gun.  It's not worth it.  Sell that gun and buy another gun that already has those features.  Oh well.  Lesson learned.

I had thought about getting a CCL about ten years ago, but decided against it.  For me it's a lifestyle choice that I wasn't prepared to go through with.  I have nothing against it, but it required a level of commitment that I wasn't willing to make.  I also no longer keep ammo in my house now that I have kids.  My guns are not for protection and are only for my enjoyment at the gun range.  I'm just too worried about the boys getting into them.  When they are older they will definitely learn how to shoot them though.

I liked Quantum a good bit up until the ridiculous finale in the exploding hotel.  What was that???

I don't know if I could handle an entire film of Yoda speak. 

On everything.  Yes.

Tobasco infused dark chocolate is especially delicious. 

McNutt's homemade dark chocolate peanut butter cups are indescribably delicious.  Imagine a peanut butter cup about 3" in diameter and 1" tall made of dark chocolate with crunchy Jif peanut butter in the middle.  Yes, real peanut butter and not some stuff that looks like dirty sand. 

His daughter.  That was always pretty weird to me.  How do you shoot a scene with some dude in full plate humping your topless daughter?

These are two different beasts.  The Nexus 7 will allow you to read AND do tons of other stuff.  If all you want to do is read and you want that experience to be as close to reading a book as possible, the Paperwhite can't be beat.  Its e-ink display is lightyears beyond any tablet in that regard.  It even has a textured screen feel that sort of mimics paper.  It's the bees knees when it comes to reading. 

I haven't read the book in a long time, but these kids (is that supposed to be Ender) look way too old.

Well, I will admit that I did take the first part of the joke as having some basis on fact that the condom was invented by Arabs.  Making that up just to say that Arabs fuck animals is pretty stupid.  I did wonder though why the joke bothered to mention "Arab Muslims" and felt that bit of poking was a bit unnecessary.  

So does this mean that Arab or Muslim jokes, even ones that have nothing to do with jihad or martyrdom or such, will be off limits until there is peace?  I'm okay saying certain subjects are too sensitive, but I'm not ever going to say an entire race or religion is off-limits.  Again, I'm not going to say "Bravo" to the condom joke, but I'm also not going to claim that it was over the line.  It wasn't.  Christians are waist deep in this time of tension too, but I see no problem poking fun at Christianity too, so long as it's not totally mean-spirited. 

Jokes about race and sex can be funny and aren't all as nasty or mean spirited as "a pic of people in blackface being lynched."  Yes, there is a line that can be walked without shutting everything down and saying all jokes regarding race, gender, religion, etc are taboo.  The condom joke wasn't terribly funny, but it also didin't warrant that kind of wrath.  

It says the ban goes into effect mid-December.  There's still time if we hurry. 

Our toilet tank leaked and flooded the entire place within a month of us moving in.  We still had a bunch of stuff still in boxes when it happened.  State Farm had a crew over there to take care of all of the damage and wrote us a check within a few days.  I was very pleased.

still haven't seen the first one

Judging by the box office gross, you and I might be the only ones. 

I don't want that hack anywhere near a Star Wars screenplay.

I agree.  Is Lawrence Kasdan still available?

I'm not a huge weiss fan, but I have yet to try one that's better than Shiner's, so I think you have already tried one of the best. 

That would have sucked even if it had gone well. 

It is precisely the fact that everyone was, and probably still is, doping that makes them go hard after the cyclist. They *have* to set an example, and Armstrong is probably the best damn example out there.

I disagree.  Lance wasn't the problem, the sport was.  There were so many cyclists doping and not getting caught that the only way to succeed was to dope as well.  I'm not saying that's right, but it's the truth.  Armstrong didn't win simply because he cheated, but because he was better than everybody else even though they were cheating too. 

The sport and the testing failed, but instead of blaming the system they decided to destroy one man.  The sport was so bad that the only way to compete was to cheat.  USADA doesn't go after everybody and try to ban them, but instead focuses on one person as their golden prize.  What kind of influence did they use to get people to testify against him?  They're not trying to clean up a sport.  They're trying to hurt someone who beat them.  They failed and are going to exact vengeance.  F@ck USADA. 

It's funny how USADA is spinning this to make the cyclists the bad guys instead of condemning the sport itself.  Almost everybody was doping, so why go after Armstrong with such vitriol?  I say that as someone who is no fan of Armstrong.  I have yet to hear a single good thing about the guy from anybody who has met or dealt with him, but the amount of effort used to discredit him is insane.  Is USADA going to go after all the other cyclists who never tested negative with such force?  What a screwjob. 

I'm not sure I understand the point of this.  Is it designed to be a laptop replacement?  If so I can understand the price.  If it's designed to be a tablet and do things people expect to do with a tablet, then that price is going to sink it.  If I get a tablet (don't have one yet) it's going to be for web, email and music/videos.  I can do that extremely well for a hell of a lot cheaper than the Surface. 

True, it does not have expandable memory or a removable batter.  However, it comes with 16GB of memory for $99 vs. $199 for the iPhone.  I don't add a lot of memory-filling stuff to my phone, so that's not a problem.  All of my photos are automatically uploaded to Google.  The battery has also been very good and I has easily lasted me all day so far. 

I bought the HTC One X a couple of weeks ago and it is amazing.  The camera is awesome and the ability to take burst shots makes catching a good shot of the kids much easier.  It also has a screen that I can clearly see in bright sunlight.  My Samsung Galaxy S (first generation) would wash out in the sun.

I would not buy a new phone that does not have 4G LTE.  The difference is night and day.

[Spoiler]

Cid spoiler:

Spoiler for Hiden:

I was expecting the movie to be about the decision to kill one's future self.  That alone is an interesting idea.  But the Cid story really improved that.  In the future Cid becomes this unstoppable force.  I couldn't really tell how much evil he had unleashed, but it seemed like the Rainmaker was going to be the next Hitler.  That's what made the story come alive for me.  Now Joe has to wrestle with saving himself by killing future Joe, or letting future Joe rid the future world of this abomination.  Plus future Joe now has to do the very unpleasant task of killing little kids in order to save the future world.  Future Joe is also saving his future wife (whom he'll never see again) by killing the Rainmaker.  What was his real motivation?  Saving the world from Cid?  Saving his wife?  Just getting revenge?

To me the Cid element really elevated this story from good to great.

I've always hated that time out to freeze the kicker.  I don't think guys at that level feel that much effect from the freeze out attempt.  Usually they just get a practice kick out of it. 

She doesn't look like a real prize herself. 

Yeah, there was a rainbow effect on mine too during really white scenes.  Like TiLT, I haven't seen it in awhile.  I guess it was only during the early days.

I always thought plasmas were bad for bright rooms, but my den is nothing but windows and I never had a problem with the brightness. 

I have a friend like this and it doesn't bother me as much as it does you because:

1. I never expect him to participate, but am happy when he does
2. I never make plans that hinge upon his participation
3. I Never, repeat NEVER, put myself in a position where his backing out will affect me

I basically tell him about an event and leave it at that.  If he can make it, great.  If he doesn't, I'm not worried about it.  Unfortunately that means I can never make plans that are just for the two of us, but I've learned my lesson and won't be burned by that again.  It doesn't make him a bad friend, because I like doing things with the guy, but it makes him the kind of friend I won't count on for plans.  It's up to you if you can handle having that in your life.  Sounds like you can't.

So my advice to you would be to tell him about an event once and let him follow up on it.  But under no circumstance should you go out of your way to accommodate him.

I was in London last year and couldn't believe the line to get into Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum.  Can someone please explain the appeal of going into a place to look at wax figures that resemble celebrities?  I know, different strokes for different folks, but I can't imagine choosing a wax museum over a real museum. 

"Do you want to go to see the Tower of London?"
"No.  I want to go to the wax museum.  They just unveiled the new Steve Jobs wax figure."

To me this is the equivalent of going to Italy and eating at KFC.

Panasonic makes some of, if not the best, plasma sets out there.  I bought a 50" Panasonic plasma last year and have been very happy with it.  Very bright and amazing picture.  It's a thin body too, so it's not five inches thick.  It's not as thin as some of the LEDs, but it looks awesome on my wall.  Go check one out at a store and see if you like it.  It's definitely a viable TV option.