The Strange Blog of Dr. Normal

Live from Crazytown, it's the Charlie Sheen Show

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:17:00 +0000

Hi, my name is Charlie Sheen and I might be having a mental breakdown. Winning!

Like Tom Cruise, I'm unfortunately to be a manchild who never grew up and can't face the thought of turning 50 in just 4 years. So after the drug binges and the porn stars, I'm going on an attention binge. Because I'm immortal or at least high enough on whatever I'm taking to run away from my life to think so.

You know how we're all born and then we die. Well that doesn't apply to me. Because I'm special. I'm a ninja pirate warlock with tiger's blood and an inability to confront my mortality. Or even the thought of getting old. How do I deal with that? Winning!

As long as people are paying attention to me, I'm obviously alive. So as long as I can get people to keep focusing on me, then for all intents and purposes, I'm immortal. Winning!

Look at you normal people who try to have functional lives, going through the stages of life like chumps. You know who's not a chump, Charlie Sheen. Charlie realized life ends at 23 and he's still 23. In his own mind. Where he's also a Vatican warlock and the coolest guy on earth. And damn it, he will sue everyone who tells him otherwise. Because he can't fail. Can't lose. Can't deal. He's Charlie Sheen.

the universal language of speed

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:06:00 +0000

The sight of the road flashing outward before you, turning and swooping around hills, into valleys and up into mountains. Your hand on the wheel, your foot on the pedal and your eyes on the horizon. And your heart racing before you to the finish line.

Speed is a universal language. Perhaps the universal language. The pulse of a roaring motor, the rush of the road rising up before you and the swoosh of an object slicing through air as it passes forward at great speed, these things need no translation. And that is why the cars of the world, whether they come from Milan or Detroit, speak to their drivers in the universal language of speed.

And at Garage Del Parco, you find men and women who speak that universal language expertly. And when you find yourself looking to compro auto usate or buy a used car, when you search for used cars in Milan or auto usate milano, whatever language you speak, the place to find great automobiles is at Garage Del Parco. Though your native language may be from another continent or another hemisphere, the native language of all great automobiles is spoken here.

The universal language of speed is about more than just knowing how to take apart an engine and put it back together so that it suddenly begins to work better than ever, more than being able to tell the journeys that a car has been on by a glance at its tires and more than the knowledge of tools and instruments, it is the sum total of these and ever so much more. And at Garage Del Parco, that language in all its sum totality is spoken fluently and expertly by those who love cars for what they do and how they make us feel. And whether you look for used cars for sale or vendita auto usate in the mother tongue of the Ferrari, the Fiat and the Maserati, you can find no better place to seek out the chariots of the universal language of speed than at Garage Del Parco, where the road of the heart meets engine and wheel.

Salon's Slimy Campaign Against the Hurt Locker

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:13:00 +0000

Oscar season usually brings out the snubs and the aggressive campaigns, and the media usually gets into the act. This year was no different, but still Salon Magazine (yes it's still around and more obscure than ever) took the cake with a really slimy campaign aimed at The Hurt Locker.

How bad was it? First an article by Martha P. Nochimson that called Kathryn Bigelow a transvestite because her movies weren't feminine enough. The use of transvestite as an insult is hypocritical enough from a supposedly LGBT friendly site. It's also ironic coming from a woman who wrote a book about Hong Kong gangster movies.

The first woman to win a Directors Guild of America award, and now favored to become the first to win an Oscar for directing. But no cheers for Miss Kathy for breaking the glass ceiling by fabricating my worst cinematic nightmare. Quentin Tarantino, who should know better, having just directed a piercingly original ironic study of war and blood lust, dubbed Bigelow the "Queen of Directors" when she took the DGA award. I prefer the "Transvestite of Directors."

Then once The Hurt Locker had already won, Salon topped itself again with an even viler piece by Erik Nelson which compared Kathryn Bigelow to Tracy Flick. Because you know how much Bigelow, an understated and unappreciated director for most of her career has in common with Tracy Flick. You know aside from them both being women. Who get in a man's way.

Two films went head to head last night. One was the ultimate "indie"; it redefined how people look at movies, brought the world back into theaters, pushed the technological boundaries of the art form in a way not seen since D.W Griffith perfected the "close-up" and was a passionate labor of love by its creator, who bent the studio system to his will in order to make it. The other was a queasily immoral war movie that had the audacity to turn a human tragedy into a "Call of Duty"-style video game

But should we expect anything more? The Oscars are, as ever, a shabby high school popularity contest and a new, soon-to-be-forgotten head of student council has just been elected: Long live the King of the World. He wuz robbed by Tracy Flick.

Nelson slimly argues that Avatar, a 500 million dollar CG filled FOX movie is the "real indie" (in other news, rich white men are the "real" minority) that was robbed by "Tracy Flick". Because Bigelow took something that Nelson felt a man was entitled to.

Nachimson and Nelson both attack Bigelow, in order to defend industry hacks like Nora Ephron and James Cameron. If Erik Nelson was capable of being honest, he would admit that his anger at Bigelow was motivated precisely because the odd girl out beat the golden boy on merit. Which is not how student elections are supposed to go. And if Nochimson were being honest, she would admit that her real problem with Bigelow, is that she dares go where Nochimson herself does not. That The Hurt Locker is outside her Nora Ephron comfort zone.

Calling Bigelow a transvestite or Tracy Flick is their way of dealing with it.

I don't know what Salon's issue with The Hurt Locker is. But the next time Salon cadges donations, readers might do the smart thing and say no, and explain why. And the same goes patronizing anything that Martha P. Nochimson and Erik Nelson do. Because there should be no room for racist and sexist dog whistles.

a new way

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:12:00 +0000

If you're like most of us these days, you're probably looking over your household budget and trying to find ways to cut back on your expenses. In the process you're trying to decide which purchases are optional and which are mandatory. And which mandatory purchases can be made affordable by shopping around. Most people view eyeglasses as being in the mandatory category, but don't think they can save any significant amount of money by shopping around. Which is where they are wrong, because Zenni Optical makes and ships eyeglasses to individual purchases at surprisingly low prices. While the glasses you find at the shopping mall have been part of an extended process in which manufacturers license brand names and ship them to distributors who then sell them to individual chains, which resell them to you, Zenni Optical manufacturers its own eyeglasses, under its own brand and sells them directly to you. This shortened process results in eyeglasses that start at 8 dollars. And while you might not think that incredible prices like these for eyeglasses can be real, as more and more people are discovering, they indeed are real. And what's more, Zenni Optical's eyeglasses have the same features and feature options on both the lens and frames as the high end glasses you would usually buy at the mall. For a fraction of the price. Just see the following Examiner article for a more in depth look at Zenni Optical and discover a new way to balance your budget.

The Hurt Locker Scores

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:08:00 +0000

The Oscars have wound down to their predictable conclusion. Avatar, like Lord of the Rings and Dark Knight, was stuck with the technical awards. James Cameron had to sit there uncomfortably with no chance of repeating his "I'm King of the World" speech (I'm guessing the speech he wrote this time ran more along the lines of "I'm King of the Galaxy") and The Hurt Locker took the golden trophies home.

The Hurt Locker is probably the most deserving film to win best picture in some time. Coming off Slumdog Millionaire, a movie hardly anyone remembers a year later, or the inexcusably wretched No Country for Old Men, or Scorcese's weakest effort in years with The Departed, or Paul Haggis' wretched two year reign with Million Dollar Baby and Crash, The Hurt Locker's win is a breath of fresh air cleaning out a lot of the tainted awards.

The Hurt Locker is not a fantastic movie. But it's solid enough to deserve the award. It stands on its own without being a gimmick picture and is has the courage of its convictions. Which is more than could be said for the competition.

Did Sherlock Holmes Redeem Joel Silver?

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:34:00 +0000

After Speed Racer became one of the WB's bigger bombs, it seemed as if after a string of failures like Rock N Rolla, The Invasion, V for Vendetta; the end was here. And really a look at Joel Silver's recent string of movies, whether it's Whiteout or Ninja Assassin, is really a look at another string of failures.

But the question is, can Sherlock Holmes redeem Joel Silver?

Sherlock Holmes is by no means an uncomplicated success. Opening the weekend after Avatar denied it a first place spot and probably limited its box office. Still even in the number 8 spot, Sherlock Holmes is set to clear 200 million dollars. And with a projected budget of under a 100 million, itself a major achievement for a modern day action movie, Sherlock Holmes is profitable. There's no real doubt about that.

It's also a franchise. And there's little doubt about that. And even more so it might be a redemption for two men, Joel Silver and its director, Guy Ritchie, whose career downturn and Madonna association seemed to doom him for a while. And if not for Iron Man, it might even be the redemption for Robert Downey Jr, another fallen star, whose actual redemption in the Hollywood box office triumph of Iron Man, but whose charismatic turn certainly contributed to their redemption.

And now as Joel Silver moves into safe territory with Lethal Weapon 5, a movie no one wants, but that will make plenty of money anyway, he can thank the pulp fictions of one Arthur Conan Doyle.

nothing in the middle

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:34:00 +0000

Anyone who wears glasses knows that they usually come with a serious price tag. And most people who do wear glasses get used to seeing signs at the mall offering specials on eyeglasses in the hundred and hundred and fifty dollar price range. And that's often considered a bargain. But what if you didn't have to pay that kind of money to get a new or backup pair of glasses? What if you could meet your entire family's eyeglasses needs for what you might have expected to pay for a single pair. As this review at the Examiner reveals, there is one company that sells eyeglasses at a fraction of the cost you would expect to pay at the eyeglasses store at the mall. By cutting out the middleman Zenni Optical has made it possible to get a new pair of glasses at incredibly low prices. While the eyeglasses store at the mall is in the business of upselling brands to you, Zenni Optical produces the same quality glasses, without the pricey brand names and the huge markups. And since they manufacture the eyeglasses, you don't have all the markups that inflate eyeglasses prices along the way. In a tough economy everyone is trying to get more for their money. And Zenni Optical makes it possible to dramatically save money without cutting back on quality. So don't spend another year wearing an outdated prescription just to save some money. Zenni Optical lets you get eyeglasses for less.

Amazon Feeling the Kindle Desperation

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:06:00 +0000

The iPad is not a serious contender yet, after all it isn't an actual eBook reader, just a really blown up iTouch, but Amazon and the publishers it depend on are treating it like one. The Macmillan battle showed Amazon how seriously it has to take the iPad. But Amazon is really ramping up the desperation with plans like giving away the Kindle to Amazon Prime customers. This is what we call real Escalation of Commitment issues on Amazon's part, mainly because Amazon is trying to protect the bad business decision it made by getting into the Kindle business in the first place.

The Kindle was very obviously inspired by Apple's iTunes business model, but where Apple was trying to sell hardware with a business model that made music content more accessible, Amazon is already in the selling content business, which made the Kindle a bad idea. It's possible that Jeff Bezos had already foreseen Apple launching something like the iPad and taking away the book business from Amazon, but even so the Kindle was a poor response to it.

From the bottom up, the Kindle was poorly designed and not all that appealing a device. Where the iPod filled a niche that people needed in the digital era, the Kindle was a device most people never needed at all. And if Amazon should really be worried, it's not about the iPod, which has the appeal of a 500 dollar dead fish, but about Barnes and Nobles' Nook, which is cheaper and more stylish than the Kindle.

Avatar Falls From the Top

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 00:20:00 +0000

Avatar's success was almost as much due to the lack of any real competition over a slow three months. Its only real competitor was Sherlock Holmes, a movie with almost as much star and action wattage. The arrival of Valentine's Day helped topple Avatar, last weekend with Dear John, and this weekend with Valentine's Day. Wolfman also beating Avatar was almost a secondary factor.

Female audiences played a big success in the rise of Avatar, which is why Cameron made sure to pander to them from the start. Female audiences were the only reason that Titanic wasn't the disaster it deserved to be. Female audiences weren't the sole reason that Avatar didn't fail miserably, but they provided the edge that prevented it from being a novelty reserved for geeks. And with Dear John and Valentine's Day, those audiences proved to be a lot less interested in blue thundercats and more interested in romance.

It wasn't all good news though. Avatar hasn't gone away yet, but it's finally on the way out. The movie that defeated it may be forgettable, just as few people remember the Lost in Space movie, just that it unseated Titanic from the number 1 spot. And that's what Dear John accomplished and Valentine's Day completed.

The Content Problem

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:29:00 +0000

The emergence of the internet at the primary platform for digital media distribution has changed the balance of power between content providers and content consumers. The old P2P wars in which the RIAA waged war on the file sharing programs such as Napster seem almost antiquated in a new reality in which illicit digital media redistribution no longer depends on a centralized hub. When people can Watch Entire Movies on YouTube, Hear Music on Pandora, watch TV Shows on Rapidshare and tune in to what used to be exclusively Cable Shows on Hulu-- it's obvious that the balance of power between the distributors and consumers of digital media has been dramatically altered.

The challenge for content providers has been to use the internet without being used by the internet, but that may no longer be possible. Because the internet has too many distribution channels and any digital media can be redistributed along it in far too many ways. RIAA execs may actually miss the old days when their only problem was a peer to peer program created by a wise ass kid in his dorm. In today's world where affiliate revenues are used to monetize file sharing, piracy online has a profit motive, and that makes it far more insidious.

And content creators may have to accept a reality in which piracy acts as a promotional tool for their content. But content distributors have no such easy solution.

The Mortality of Brittany Murphy

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:24:00 +0000

It is interesting how the death of a celebrity becomes a referendum on our own culture. The death of Brittany Murphy, a reasonably obscure actress, has suddenly become a referendum on ourselves, with people jumping to the conclusion that she died because Hollywood and our culture that values thinness made her be anorexic. Of course we don't actually know how Brittany Murphy died or why. But in a way it really doesn't matter.

Celebrities represent cultural avatars that we can trot out and assign meaning to. Alive, Brittany Murphy was not terribly interesting. Dead however we can use her as a symbol of whatever it is we're fighting for or against. Whatever demons we have inside us, or whatever demons we see outside us, and often the two are exactly the same thing.

Death and aging are the worst scandals in Hollywood, because Hollywood sells the illusion of immortality, an eternal golden youth. And when the young die in Hollywood, we wake up from the illusion to realize that we are all too mortal after all.

a time for hopes and dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:24:00 +0000

With a tough economy and businesses running for cover, it might look like a bad time to jump into the game. One look at the unemployment figures, the amount of bankruptcies, the established and ubiquitous brands such as Circuit City and Virgin that have vanished in a single year, and the idea of doing anything business related is terrifying as hell. But on the other side of that flipped coin is the fact that opportunities come exactly when no one else is taking them. And as a business entrepreneur there may be no better time to pursue your dreams, than right now.

Being a business entrepreneur means striking when the iron is hot and the iron is never hotter than when the scales have swung the other away and everyone else is hiding in their caves. Between the dramatic technological transformations that are changing the way we do business and the economic downturn, a lot of businesses have either panicked or become very conservative, which means now is the time to begin thinking about how you can turn the situation to your advantage, think outside the box, step outside the four walls and find your golden moment. Because it is out there. They all are.

Risks create opportunities and the greater the risk, the greater the opportunity. It's a time for hopes and dreams, and Up in the Air's title character may be much mocked, but his parting words though sincere may not be wrong. Because your chance at the future really does begin now, and in every single now that there is.

A Comics Overview for December

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:46:00 +0000

It's a bit weird to read the Dark Reign Frakencastle side by side with the hard core MAX version version of the Punisher. Whether he's supposed to be serving angels or romping through one of Garth Ennis' ridiculously overblown wonderworlds of sleaze and crime, there's something surreal about taking a character who's basically a one note cliche, itself an imitation of every vigilante revenge story out there, and treating him like he's Wolverine. But on the other hand Frank Castle is about the only Marvel character who isn't completely ridiculous, probably because unlike them he's actually human.

Then there's DC which is big on the hit and miss. Batgirl so far is playing like Buffy in a batsuit, which isn't a bad thing. It's nice to see a teenage girl in a comic book, who actually is a teenage girl instead of cleavage and a scowl. So far DC seems to have really brought back Batgirl, which after all the Birds of Prey nonsense and mute asian Batgirl, is a real step up. Secret Six also rocks in a dark and ruthless way that makes me wonder what would ever happen if Frank Castle met the gang.

On the miss side there are the continuing adventures of Firebird and Nightbrat, or whatever their names are supposed to be. The cover does feature Lois Lane being arrested, mainly in order to trick readers who normally wouldn't pay hard cash to read about Flamesparrow and Nightwuss into buying it.

Going beyond DC and Marvel, BRPD War of Frogs is one of the best yet with a disturbing and surreal look at a monster afterlife. The whole concept that takes us from killing the monsters to having their ghosts wander around afterward looking for an afterlife is fantastic. As is the revelation that monsters do have a heaven too.

And of course a shoutout to Brian Lynch who continues doing fantastic work on Angel that puts Buffy Season 8 to shame. This issue has the Halloween spell being used at a Comic Con, creating a whole lot of superheroes and a Spangel, or Spike Angel. I skipped the Angel puppet three issue, but here Lynch proves he can do the lighter side of Angel, just as well as the dark side.

a great abiding darkness

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:09:00 +0000

While movies often make alcohol and drug addiction seem like just another dramatic tool, behind the fiction depictions is a darkness. Darkness. A great abiding darkness. That is what addiction is for so many people who find themselves trapped in a world that narrows down to the width of their neurological and psychological chemical dependency and seems hopelessly inescapable. But there are forms of drug treatment that are successful and can extract people who seem hopelessly addicted out of the darkness and into the light. Of course addiction recovery is neither easy nor simple and drug and alcohol rehabilitation requires a support network and a facility that understands the challenges and pitfalls of walking away from that great abiding darkness.

On the Death of Dan O'Bannon

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:05:00 +0000

They say the screenwriters never get the credit that they're due, and Dan O'Bannon, who wrote the scripts for Alien and Total Recall, movies that were big hits and helped launch the careers of directors, never got much of the credit he deserved. Instead Dan O'Bannon remained in the horror ghetto writing movies like Lifeforce and working on Heavy Metal, for work that was famous in genre, but not out of it. In this O'Bannon's career paralleled that of his classmate John Carpenter, both embraced the dark side, without aspiring to any great cinematic legitimacy. Dan O'Bannon's passing now leaves him to be remembered mainly for Alien, but you can't help but wonder whether if the original widely hailed Alejandro Jodorowsky version of Dune had ever taken place, O'Bannon might have finally broken out of the narrow ghetto.

dispensing with the formalities

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:58:00 +0000

Every business large or small these days is looking for ways large and small to squeeze that nickel a little tighter and find new ways to monetize their space and make a little extra money. Vending machines are a good example that allows just about any physical business to monetize their space by placing a vending machine in a highly trafficked area. Vending machines provide income with very little effort and take up a minimum amount of space, compared to a sales counter. 1800Vending is one company that provides up to date vending machine technology that helps businesses monetize their free space with minimum effort. Whether placed outside of a place of business or inside. vending machines from 1 800 Vending can give customers something to buy while they wait or even draw customers toward your place of business. You can learn more via the 1800 vending twitter feed, or their website. But vending machines remain an asset because they allow you to bring in money, while dispensing with the usual formalities of expanding your business.

The Psystar Drama Continues

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:50:00 +0000

Other companies, most notably RealMedia, or Helix as it's called these days, have challenged Apple's restrictive EULA's. One of the first things Steve Jobs did when he took control of Apple was to destroy Apple clonemakers in order to lock in Apple fanatics and followers into an exclusive high priced hardware and software monopoly. And that policy has paid major dividends for Apple, while shortchanging its customers. Psystar, whatever you may think of the company, launched one of the most high profile challenges to the software side of Apple's monopoly by becoming an unofficial clone maker. Now Apple has won its legal challenges against Psystar, which is a shame because Apple's monopoly deserves to be challenged, and because contrary to what Steve Jobs and his Apple fanboys think, breaking down barriers makes for a better computing environment for all of us. Despite reports though Psystar is down, but not out, and isn't closing its doors. Which means Psystar may go on challenging Apple, which would be good for all of us.

require and need

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:44:00 +0000

For a lot of retired people, the combination of the economy and an unstable health care environment, along with complex regulations and a lot of confusion over their medicare part D coverage can leave them wondering where to go and what to do. Understanding medicare part D plans requires a whole medicare D glossary just in order to understand what's going on, and maintaining medicare part D prescription coverage can be a challenge in and of itself. Comparing and contrasting medicare part D plans is key for seniors who want to understand and take control of their medicare options. As health care regulations become complex and the health care regulatory environment becomes harder to figure out without a guide, being able to understand and compare is the key to maintaining the level of coverage that seniors require and need.

Is Mozilla foolishly giving Bing the cold shoulder?

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:18:00 +0000

Yes Google's help has obviously been invaluable to Mozilla in spreading and promoting Firefox. Or at least it was back in the day before Google rolled out its own browser, Google Chome, and has been using its search engine to aggressively promote it instead. Which makes Asa Dotzler's put down of Bing seem a little stupid. Yes Firefox benefited a lot from being the anti-Microsoft and the original Mozilla based browser, Netscape, was destroyed by Microsoft's Internet Explorer which bundled it with Windows, but on the other hand there's no doubt that while Google has the dominant search engine market share, Bing is the next largest search engine, and pretending otherwise is just stupid. On top of that it's now in Firefox's interest to create some competition between Google and Microsoft, which might mean giving Bing a small leg up.

under a cloak of white

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:12:00 +0000

Snow, hail and whiteness spread across the land like a great cloak of frozen water and ice. With the snow coming down like there's a hole in the sky, a lot of people are worried about their roofs now, which means that if you need anything from roof cleaning to Roof Repair 20175, you need to have a reliable roofer on speed dial ready to bail you out in the aftermath of the worst storms around. In the aftermath of this kind of weather, a lot of roofers will be tied up, so it's important to make your Roof Repair 22214 job a priority by researching a good roofer, such as this, ahead of time, so you're not spending days with a damaged roof while still comparison shopping roofers. A good roofer will always be there for you and get the job done professionally and quickly. So when winter comes and a cloak of white is cast across your house, keep the number of a good roofer handy, because you never know when you'll need it.

Avatar Underperforms at the Box Office

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:06:00 +0000

James Cameron will of course blame the snowstorms that swept across the east coast with the direct intention of preventing people from going to see Avatar and suffering from a 3D field of motion induced headache, but maybe the snowstorm was our natural environment's way of sending him a message about using it as a prop in bad movies. Either way Avatar seems to have scored below I Am Legend's 75 million, with only 73 million. So box office records will go unbroken and Avatar, which might have cost as much as half a billion dollars, is now officially in trouble. Sure 75 million would be a good 4 day weekend for most movie openings, but most movies don't cost half a billion dollars. Avatar did. And while James Cameron may be taking the long view, the short view is that Avatar will not have the kind of top of the box office reign that Titanic did. And when Holmes comes along, Avatar will finally face serious competition.

the endurance of material things

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:01:00 +0000

The right wedding band is more than a fashion statement, it's a statement of enduring love, which is why when picking wedding rings and men's wedding bands, it's best to pick wedding bands and rings made from a metal that is meant to endure for as long as your love will, in other words, forever. Of course this rules out rings you pick up from a Cracker Jack box, but it also suggests that you should look at enduring metals, particularly titanium. Titanium is one of the strongest and most enduring metals around, and when buying Tungsten rings warranty information is important so that the ring's band really does last forever. Because time has no meaning where love is concerned, but time has a lot of meaning when it comes to the endurance of material things.

What That Coming Star Wars Movie Really Is

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:27:00 +0000

The internet is abuzz after a casual reference about a new Star Wars movie coming along. Even after the disastrous three prequels, better known as Darth Vader the Menace and Darth Twilight, and the whole Clone Wars animated series, a Star Wars movie is a case for excitement. And a Star Wars movie is coming. Just not the way you might think.

The thing to remember is that the last Star Wars movie in theaters was not Revenge of the Sith, as you might think. But that's only because most people have blocked out the Clone Wars movie which did play in theaters. And that's exactly what the next Star Wars movie will be.

George Lucas is launching a new Star Wars TV series, live action this time, and just like Clone Wars, its two hour pilot will have a theatrical launch. George Lucas can get away with doing that, because he is George Lucas, and there isn't any thing you can do about it.

Star Wars still has the brand force to make it to the movie theaters, even if in this case the movie once again will actually be a TV pilot, most likely again released by Warner Brothers, which is a little on the desperate side these days.

Releasing the pilot for a live action Star Wars TV series will mean a ton of free publicity and of course money, because it will allow Lucas to cash in on a movie, without paying for it. Fans expecting another Hope, will of course be disappointed, but that's normal these days.

Face it guys, this isn't coming back

looking to the future

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:43:00 +0000

Retirement isn't what it used to be these days, and with many senior citizens using retirement to launch small businesses or explore other interests and hobbies, the conventional pension is paid out much too slowly for it to be properly monetized, without actually saving the pension itself. One company however provides a Lump Sum Pension payout or rather Pension Advances that buys out a portion of a pension for a lump sum right now. This can allow retired seniors to do anything from using that newly gained capital obtained through the Lump Sum Pension payout to start a new business or travel and see the whole world for the first time. The lump sum payout for pensions can be approved in only a matter of weeks or a little over a month thereby enabling seniors to quickly begin exploring the possibilities and plans that they have for the rest of their life. Because retirement should mean more than simply waiting to collect yet another pension check every month, and with a lump sum pension payout, looking to the future can begin today.

Louise Ogborn Case Finally Wraps Up

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Strange) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:19:00 +0000

The seemingly endless Louise Ogborn case is finally over and seems like a detailed example of what's wrong with the American justice system. The supposed perpetrator of the prank phone calls David R. Stewart was not convicted of anything, even though there was strong evidence pointing to his guilt. Donna Summers, the female manager on the videotape, not only did not go to jail, but actually won half a million dollars in damages from McDonalds. Her mentally retarded fiance who raped Louise was sentenced to jail. Which is about the only success in this 5 year ordeal.

But Louise Ogborn did go on to sue McDonalds and now finally received 6 million dollars from the restaurant chain. But McDonalds didn't strip Louise naked or let her fiance rape her. That was McDonalds manager Donna Summers who only received a year of probation over the prosecutor's request thanks to Louise Ogborn's plea for leniency on her behalf.

If you've got a headache right now, I don't blame you. Louise then sued McDonalds on the grounds that since there had been similar hoaxes in the past, McDonalds should have taken precautions and briefed its employees. And she had a case, but not much of one since McDonalds didn't tell its managers to strip search its employees. The manual actually says you can't strip search employees. So does common sense. But Louise Ogborn is cute, young and a victim. McDonalds is a big corporation. And Donna Summers picked up a cool half million, even though she was at best an accessory to sexual assault, and Louise Ogborn has her college education and a whole bunch of other stuff paid for.

Anyone who wants to look at reforming the US justice system can begin with this case.