I love the fact that they included 1980-Something Space Guy as a Master Builder. I had copious amounts of LEGO® as a kid, to which my mother will gladly testify to considering the damage stepping on them has wrought her in the golden years. The Space Set during that time featured big intricate ships and that was by far my favorite LEGO® set growing up.

So I’m looking forward to this movie, and not because of the possibility of LEGO® DC and Marvel teaming up or a cameo by LEGO® Darth Vader. It’s because of the nostalgia it brings and the imagination it helps to inspire.

What about you? Could you care less about it or are you looking forward to it?

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• So I saw the movie Dark Skies that starred Kerri Russell. It was, as many of these movies dealing with alien abduction are, billed and cinematically shot as a horror movie. I have to be honest, I thought it was actually really good. Unlike my favorite abduction movie, Fire In The Sky, this one doesn’t necessarily conclude on happy terms… and I’m good with that. Helps to add some reality to the experience
• Facebook providing #Hashtag support was something I thought would have happened back in 2011. They finally started rolling the feature out last week, and I was enabled over the weekend. It seems like it was a no brainer for them back then, now it just looks like their playing catch up to Twitter. Not the position I’d want to be in, even with my billion members
• After the Red Wedding episode from Game of Thrones, I have to admit I was severely disappointed by the actual season finale. I expressed this to a few people and was reminded that is historically how every season ends, with the big moments on the episode before the finale. I’ll have to remember this pattern for next season, this way I know which episode to have the ice cream for and which one isn’t even worthy of a spoon of pudding
• The Supreme Court recently decided that Arizona’s requirement for proof of citizenship for registering to vote is unlawful by a 7-2 vote. I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely versed in the Arizona requirements, but I can’t help but feel that this is cheapening the right to vote. As a citizen that is your right, as an illegal immigrant it is not. The Federales don’t seem too worried about preserving that as a right to citizenship… but I bet if it had something to do with protecting the collection of taxes from the citizenship they’d be all over it

And finally…

• So there’s this woman who went berzerk at her Dunkin’ Donuts over not receiving a receipt. This is just one example of why people working in the service industry don’t get paid enough to put up with the crap they get from those who feel entitled to belittle them. People who wonder why they don’t get good customer service should ask themselves if they’ve been a good customer that would deserve such service to begin with. Just because you’re the customer doesn’t entitle you to good service. You know that saying, “The customer is always right”? It’s a lie, just like the cake. Here’s the (NSFW) video to illustrate how NOT to treat your neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts workers:

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Here’s what mine looks like:

Honestly, this is just the kind of stuff that I love about data sets. More importantly, these are the kind of results I love to see in formats that are engaging, informative, and designed well.

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“I have no plans for a digital version,” Mr. King said. “Maybe at some point, but in the meantime, let people stir their sticks and go to an actual bookstore rather than a digital one.”

I find King‘s decision on not releasing a digital version pretty interesting for a few reasons. First, he was (is?) one of the ebook pioneers and advocates. His novella Riding The Bullet was one of the first exclusively digital ebooks out there. With over 400,000 downloads the first day. It is possible there might have been more, but problems with the DRM encryption caused user’s computers to crash from early on giving it a double black eye when coupled with the actual servers selling the ebook being down.

The second thing I find interesting is that he has chosen this novel to do this experiment with, as opposed to his upcoming sequel to The Shining called Doctor Sleep: A Novel.

The final thing that I find interesting about it is that he talks about people going to an actual bookstore rather than a digital one… but the book is still being sold on Amazon: Joyland (Hard Case Crime).

So how does this promote local bookstores again?

Yeah, it doesn’t. I think that’s a line to throw out, and a garbage one at that, in order to keep the rights and possibly capitalize on the profits from digital editions later on through self-publishing. Considering that 50 Shades of Grey author E.L. James was reported to earn 25% per $9.99 ebook copy, if she sold 1,000,000 ebooks that would have come to $250,000. Had she kept those digital rights and had sold the book for the same price at the 70% author rate, she would have learned $700,000. That’s a $450,000 difference!

So this does nothing for bookstores, and it does nothing for fans. It just means people who want to read it now have to lug it around, possibly forget it at home and have no way of reading it, have it collect dust on a bookshelf somewhere once they are done, and have the satisfaction of contributing to the demise of the rainforest in THE Amazon.

I won’t be one of those people.

Of this I can assure you.

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• So You Think You Can Dance is on again. Right now their in the audition stages, but once they make their final selections I’ll probably drop it. I’m not a fan of the format change they made a few seasons ago where the contestants dance with professionals. To me it becomes more like Dancing With The Starless than So You Think You Can Dance. The truth is they need to give some of their past winners a paycheck, simply because there is not a high demand for dancers these days as far as I can tell
• The new season of Arrested Development became available on Netflix on May 26th. My girlfriend was up at 3:00am to watch the first few episodes. She blames me for putting it into her head that it would be available after 3:00am because that’s midnight Pacific time. I’ll be honest, I saw a few episodes and they were pretty funny… but nothing worth getting up at no 3:00am for. Hell, even Star Wars Episode VII won’t receive that honor
• Speaking of Star Wars, I did see the new Star Trek: Into Darkness movie. I was quite surprised that with the exception of about twenty minutes, they didn’t rip off Star Wars as badly as in the first movie. I was going to write a whole review about how impressed I was with that fact, along with how the ending was a refreshing twist to the timeline although absolutely predictable, but I decided to just blurb it here instead. If you haven’t seen it yet then be sure to add it to your list of movies to see, although I wasn’t impressed at all by the 3D so save yourself some change there
• For the last month and a half I’ve been a bit overwhelmed with some technical issues on one of the sites. There’s no easy fix for any of it and so it has become a grind of going line by line through someone else’s code to see where I need to make adjustments to restore functionality. It’s been such a time suck that the bother to worth ratio is starting to lean more on the bother side than it’s worth. Of course, this is a short term issue and the worth has to be valued in the long tail, so it’s unfair to measure it simply based on 45 days of issues. Sometimes that long tail becomes hard to see… which is where the Chocolate Fudge Brownie comes in. Once I eat that, I can see everything much more clearly

And finally…

• Actress Jean Stapleton, who most people know as Edith Bunker on All In The Family has passed away. Having grown up watching the show while growing up a mere 7 blocks away from where they filmed the opening sequence, it makes me a little sad to learn of another cast member’s passing. Eating unbuttered popcorn while sitting Native American style on the floor watching Archie come to grips with his changing word while Edith made him his dinner… well now THOSE were the days….

Have a great weekend!

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Now I’ll be honest, I thought the first one was really good, absolutely hated the second one, but LOVED the third one. Yes, I am that ONE guy who absolutely LOVES Tokyo Drift. Needless to say when the franchise was revived in the fourth film and Han (actor Sung Kang) came with it, I was good with the whole timeline setup. I’m a continuity freak, and this sort of fit in. Then with Fast Five, well they still maintained that continuity… because Han still hasn’t gone to Tokyo.

Enter Fast & Furious 6… and Han still hasn’t gone to Tokyo. But that’s okay… because the team needs him.

This time, instead of looking to pull off a big score, their looking for pardons courtesy of their previous pursuer, Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), who is now after a different crime spree crew. As he says in the opening sequence, “To hunt wolves you need wolves.”

Actually, I thought you just needed a broken bottle and some duct tape a la Liam Neeson, but whatever.

Now I’m not going to spoil it, but I will say that there are four epic chase/race scenes. Out of the four, only one of them is a street race. Were the scenes epic? Sure they were, otherwise I wouldn’t have called them that in the first place. It shouldn’t be a big secret that one of them involves a frigging tank… a military tank. Epic, of this I can assure you.

What I missed in this one that has been decreasing more and more as the series progresses is the street racing life. I wish they had more street races than chases. The movie itself set a pace and maintained it. Overall it was an exciting movie that kept true to the last two movies in the franchise, and in the spirit of the first.

Oh, and someone’s been taking some tips from Marvel. Be sure to stay after the first round of credits… because Han finally goes to Tokyo… and the final scene of Tokyo Drift where Vin Diesel faces the new Dorikin in Han’s protege Lucas Black is set up.

And so is Fast & Furious 7…

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• If you haven’t had a chance to try Swirtle, time’s running out! Wondering if it’s worth it or a pint of crap for a good cause, check out my review of it… and then run out and get yourself some!
• What is the deal with Candy Crush Saga? Everyone seems to be playing it and sending me these invites to play it. Is this the app heroin of today? What makes this Bejeweled imitator makes it a Saga.
• The game I’ve been pretty hooked on lately is a game called Dots. It’s really a simple concept, connect the dots of the same color either horizontally or vertically (no diagonal moves). If you are able to make a complete square of dots, you clear the board of that color. It’s a timed 60 second game, so it’s a quick hit diversion that doesn’t suck you in… yet
• One of the things I love about owning a Kindle is that I can pre-order a book and when I wake up, there it is ready to go. I don’t buy many Kindle books that are priced over $6.99, but Dan Brown‘s new book Inferno: A Novel (Robert Langdon) happens to be one. I’m 3 chapters in with 80 some odd chapters to go… and it’s good

And finally…

• Next week is National Emergency Medical Services Week! To help celebrate it, I’ll be offering You Called 9-1-1 For What? for FREE from Sunday through Tuesday and then on Wednesday will be the ONLY day you can get 25 Things They Should Have Taught You In Medic School… But Didn’t for FREE! That’s a whole lot of FREE stuff if you don’t already have it, so HAPPY EMS WEEK!

Have a great weekend!

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The youngest is named Twitter. We generally call her Tweetie. She is a very sweet cat, except when she’s not. She likes to play. She REALLY likes to wag her tail… to the point where she whips herself in the face with it.

The name choice was mine. This was the sacrifice my girlfriend had to make in order to get a fourth cat.

Blame Adam for inspiring me to name her so with his “tell it to the cat” Twitter tirade that I’m unable to find and therefore link directly to.

The other day I had the chorus from Anita Ward‘s”Ring My Bell” stuck in my head. Tweetie was at the foot of the bed, wagging her tail. So I came up with some new lyrics to the melody:

This was the look I got from Tweetie.

Yeah.

Not gonna quit that day job just yet.

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I will freely admit that the poster looks great. The trailers, especially the trailers that are the same images but featuring the narration of Russell Crowe in one and Kevin Costner in the other was pure marketing brilliance.

I like the look that they gave to Henry Cavill, and I like the look he brings to the movie. I think it’s a respectful modernization in a grittier sense that definitely falls into line with Christian Bale‘s incredibly dark and dirty portrayal of Batman. Unfortunately, while Batman traditionally is a dark character, this is not necessarily where Superman originates from, so hopefully his core fan base won’t riot in the streets.

So when people ask me how psyched I am to see Man of Steel, I generally tell them I’m meh. I’ll be sure to see it, but it isn’t a movie I’ll brave the opening weekend crowds for. I consider myself with reservation to be excited for this movie.

Here’s my main problem.

This trailer also looks like the associated movie will be kick ass…

… and it sucked. There is no two ways about it, 2006′s Superman Returns absolutely disappointed on multiple levels. Storyline was meh at best. Costuming was okay, but just didn’t feel fresh enough. Superman’s illegitimate child throwing a grand piano while having an asthma attack, playa please.

So when people ask me about Man of Steel, I am hesitant. I am hesitant because I have been down this road before and do not want to get excited and then feel that severe disappointment walking out of the theater as all hopes of seeing a Justice League movie are smashed to smithereens.

Because that’s what this is really about, right? The future of DC cinema has been placed in Cavill and director Zack Snyder‘s hands.

Yeah.

And we’re doomed….

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So on Sunday night (or last night if you’re like me and DVRed it so Trump doesn’t get the satisfaction of ratings) sure enough Penn Jillette was named as a Finalist on Celebrity Apprentice. He is going up against country star Trace Adkins for the title and the money that will go to his charity, Opportunity Village.

I really like the fact that Penn chose both a local charity and a charity that helps people to carry on a normal life. I understand there’s a lot of support for the Trace‘s charity the American Red Cross, but that’s one of the issues in my eyes is that they already have a lot of support. I know they were there for Trace and thousands of others, but I’ve never seen them on a scene or at a disaster which is another issue I have. I could go on a tirade about my issues with them, but that’s not the point of this post.

Ice cream is the point of this post.

Specifically this post is about Magic Swirtle, the Team Penn designed flavor of ice cream produced under the deLISH brand banner of Walgreens and Duane Reade. It is described on the container as being “Rich Vanilla Ice Cream with a Sea Salt Chocolate Swirl and Fudge Caramel Candy Pieces” in a pint size container.

Now you may be wondering where the word Swirtle comes from. This compound of “Swirl” and “Turtle” came from none other than LaToya Jackson. The compund plays off the two unique features added to the vanilla ice cream, the fudge swirl and the fudge caramel candy that happens to look like a turtle. Here’s a close-up with all the contents jam packed into that pint cup:

So when you strip out the celebrity and get right to the cream and ice of the matter, how does Swirtle stack up?

The vanilla ice cream is amazingly creamy. On the show they referred to it as “Madagascar vanilla”, which I believe means the vanilla flavor is derived from the vanilla beans harvested in Madagascar. I don’t know if this is why its so creamy, but whatever does it makes it amazing.

Once you start digging in and mixing the swirl, that’s when the real fun begins. The sea salt is actually embedded in the swirl so mixing it with the ice cream gives you that sweet salty taste that makes this flavor unique. Toss in the little fudge caramel candies for that extra sweet kick, and it’s a sweet salty uber-sweet party in your mouth!

I would be remiss if I didn’t say that eating that salty swirl without some of the sweetness… well… that sea salt lives up to it’s name. Therefore it’s important to balance eating the ice cream with the swirl and vice versa, but don’t worry if you set some of those fudgie caramel candies aside for an post pint uber-sweetness dose.

There was one other point of contention that I had with this product. During the show Penn came up with the idea of printing “Poof! It’s Gone!” in the bottom of the container, to be read once the ice cream has been consumed. Here was the bottom of my container:

Really? Really?? Really???

Where is my “Poof! It’s Gone!“? I thought Celebrity Apprentice was about delivering a superior product! This small little detail, apparently overlooked, is the difference between being a great ice cream and a FANTASTIC ice cream.

So sorry… Magic Swirtle is stuck on great.

Unless… unless… *POOF*…

… I do it myself.

Magic Swirtle is FANTASTIC! Run out and go get yourself some from Walgreens or Duane Reade before they run out!

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